MIRACLE IN THE RAIN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 930, 7 June 1957, Page 17

MIRACLE IN THE RAIN

(Warner Bros.) Y Cert. T would have been so easy to make a syrup of Miracle in the Rain that one must praise Rudolph Maté’s attempt to do something better. Scripted by Ben Hecht from his own novel, this story of Ruth Wood, a lonely, gentle New York office girl, who falls in love with a young soldier, loses him in the war, but in a miraculous moment meets him again, was a most terribly difficult one to tackle. Unpretentious black and white photography (by Russell Metty), thoroughly convincing New York séttings, good dialogue and some first-class Playing almost get away with it. Jane Wyman makes a touching Ruth, and Van>Johnson is likeable ag the soldier; and there are fine studies by Peggie Castle as Ruth's girl friend, Josephine Hutchinson as her mother, and William Gargan as her father, whose unexplained desertion years before has left the mother numb with shock. The sadness and loneliness of the girl’s life and the glow of her first love are very real, so that at least until she hears her soldier has been killed this is-a quite absorbing story.. There are many good moments later, too, but even with my good stomach for low-key stories, I felt that the agony was a bit prolonged; and I think that, as much as my natural scepticism, made the miracle — which was really quite well handled-a little / hard to take.