This film is probably best known as Frank Capra's last, not for reasons of health so much as interpersonal frustration on set and dissatisfaction with the end product. It also might mark the first use on screen of the criminal slang term "godfather."
In the early '30s, mobster Dave the Dude (Glenn Ford) practically has the run of New York City, and he credits his success to the lucky apples he buys regularly from an old peddler, "Apple" Annie (Bette Davis). Annie learns that her daughter, Louise (Ann-Margret in her Golden Globe-winning screen debut), who hasn't seen her since infancy but has corresponded with her regularly by mail, is about to visit, because Louise is engaged to the son (Peter Mann) of a Spanish count (Arthur O'Connell). This causes Annie a lot of stress, because she's been lying about her financial situation and even her name all along. Dave thinks it's not his problem, until his on-and-off fiancée, Queenie (Hope Lange), points out what it could mean for his luck. Since Dave has a big deal with Public Enemy #1 (Sheldon Leonard) in the making, he will reluctantly pour his ill-gotten resources into passing Annie off as an aristocrat for the duration of the visit.
The Netflix summary makes Dave sound like a minor character compared with Annie, but I'd say it's more his story. For the first maybe half-hour, the bulk of plot development concerns him more; her plot doesn't really take shape until after that. (I can see why some reviewers faulted the 137-minute runtime.) Besides, Dave is the one who grows for the long term, even if it's not obvious until near the end.
From my second paragraph, you might expect a My Fair Lady-type progression. In truth, we see none of the work that goes into Annie's makeover from a hag in rags to a respectable-looking lady, nor does she have a faux pas parade in front of the guests. It's possible she used to be rich before the Depression. There's a little more difficulty in procuring appropriate affiliates for the lady. Regardless, the situation is not played for laughs as much as one might expect.
PoM is a remake of Capra's more popular Lady for a Day (1933), sadly missing from Netflix offerings. The pre-Code nature of the original comes across in some moments I wasn't sure would pass muster in '61. For example, Dave and Queenie rip each other's clothes considerably when he tries to stop her by force from walking out on him. Just letting most of the criminals go unpunished wouldn't sit right with the Hays Committee in its prime. FWIW, Annie's street confederates include a bunch of sorts not typically shown in traditional cinema, among them a man with dwarfism, a legless man, and a woman speaking sign language.
The "miracles," of course, are all the work of skilled or rather desperate humans. If the point is to warm our hearts, I'm afraid it rarely works. Dave isn't much of a charmer to viewers at the best of times. I and others even have trouble sympathizing with Annie, who made her own bed of lies (and Davis wasn't exactly playing to her strengths).
That said, the movie didn't get positive awards and nods for nothing. I laughed out loud a couple times, and that doesn't come easy. Probably the best element (and Capra's own favorite) is Peter Falk as Dave's beleaguered assistant, who voices in his roguish way the snide opinions we're all thinking. It would be a certain torture to work closely with someone hung up on an idiosyncratic superstition, which could account for almost any unlikely decision. (In fairness, we have no proof that Dave's ever unlucky with an apple in hand.) I also rather like Edward Everett Horton as the butler.
PoM isn't the swan song for Capra or Thomas Mitchell (playing Annie's fake husband) we were hoping for. Still, it has enough moments that you might want to check it out.
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