THE MIRACLE MAN (1919)
Article #196 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-28-2001
Posting date: 2-11-2002

All right, I’ll fess up from the beginning that I have not actually seen this lost movie in its entirety. This is somewhat against the rules I set down for these Musings and Ramblings, as I have heretofore only included movies I’ve seen; however, since I have seen the only five minutes that are known to exist of this one, I’ve decided to let it count. The movie appears to be about some criminals who get in involved in a faith healing scam, with Lon Chaney portraying a fake cripple who “gets healed” by the faith healer. The clips that survive appear to have been part of a running series of sound shorts that gave capsule descriptions of classic silent movies while running clips from said movie. The extant clip largely involves the moment in which Lon Chaney is healed, and then a real crippled boy comes forward in the hope of being healed himself, and amazingly enough, is healed.

Though I’ve let this one count, I’ll try not to make a habit of it. With so many lost movies out there, sometimes we just have to be grateful for those clips that do exist.