''Small Miracle'' is a 1934 play by

Norman Krasna Norman Krasna (November 7, 1909 – November 1, 1984) was an American screenwriter, playwright, producer, and film director who penned screwball comedies centered on a case of mistaken identity. Krasna directed three films during a forty-year ca ...

, presented on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

with

Joseph Calleia Joseph Calleia ( ; born Joseph Alexander Caesar Herstall Vincent Calleja, August 4, 1897 – October 31, 1975) was a Maltese-born American actor and singer on the stage and in films, radio and television. After serving in the British Transport ...

in the featured role. Directed by

George Abbott George Francis Abbott (June 25, 1887 – January 31, 1995) was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned eight decades. Early years Abbott was born in Forestville, New Yo ...

with a single setting designed by Boris Aronson, the three-act melodrama opened September 26, 1934, at the

John Golden Theatre The John Golden Theatre, formerly the Theatre Masque and Masque Theater, is a Broadway theater at 252 West 45th Street ( George Abbott Way) in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1927, the Golden Theatre was ...

, New York. It continued at the

48th Street Theatre The 48th Street Theatre was a Broadway theatre at 157 West 48th Street in Manhattan. It was built by longtime Broadway producer William A. Brady and designed by architect William Albert Swasey. The venue was also called the Equity 48th Street ...

November 11, 1934 – January 5, 1935. On February 7, 1935, the play began a run at the

El Capitan Theatre El Capitan Theatre is a fully restored movie palace at 6838 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood. The theater and adjacent Hollywood Masonic Temple (now known as the El Capitan Entertainment Centre) is owned by The Walt Disney Company and serves as the ...

in Hollywood, with Calleia, Joseph King and

Robert Middlemass Robert Middlemass (September 3, 1883 – September 10, 1949) was an American playwright and stage actor, and later character actor with over 100 film appearances, usually playing detectives or policemen.(13 Feb 1937)Mrs. Susan C. Middlemass ...

reprising their Broadway roles. It was Krasna's second play, written in the evenings while he was working as a

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

contract writer during the day. He adapted the play for the Paramount Pictures film, ''

Four Hours to Kill! ''Four Hours to Kill!'' is a 1935 American drama film directed by Mitchell Leisen and starring Richard Barthelmess. Plot Taft, a policeman, has fugitive murderer Tony Mako in custody and in handcuffs, two thousand miles from the prison from whi ...

'' (1935).

Cast

* Edward Crandall as Carl Barrett, Jr. *

as Tony Mako * Joseph King as Joseph Taft *

Eva Condon Eva Condon (1880-1956) was an actress of the Broadway stage and vaudeville, from the early to mid 20th century. Stage career She resolved to pursue acting at the age of 16. Condon graduated from Hunter College before becoming an understudy in ...

as Ma * William Wadsworth as Herman * G. Albert Smith as William S. Johnson *

Myron McCormick Myron McCormick (February 8, 1908 – July 30, 1962) was an American actor of stage, radio and film. Early life and education Born in Albany, Indiana, in 1908, Walter Myron McCormick was the middle child of Walter P. and Bessie M. McCormick ...

as Eddie * Elspeth Eric as Mae Danish * Wyrley Birch as Mac Mason * Fraye Gilbert as Helen * James Lane as Repair man *

Ilka Chase Ilka Chase (April 8, 1905 – February 15, 1978) was an American actress, radio host, and novelist. Biography Born in New York City and educated at convent and boarding schools in the United States, England, and France, Chase was the only child ...

as Sylvia Temple * Lucille Strudwick as Anna * Jean Bellows as Kitty * Edna Hagan as Twelve-year-old girl * George Lambert as Stanley Madison * Violet Barney as Mrs. Madison * Hitour Gray as Donald Madison * Allan Hale as George Nelson *

as Captain Seaver * Herbert Duffy as Healy * Owen Martin as Anderson * Helen Gardner as First Girl * Nancy Vane as Second Girl

Reception

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' called ''Small Miracle'' "a very satisfactory melodrama with Joseph Spurin-Calleia as the pleasantest murderer you ever saw." "George Abbott's talent for accuracy of detail has given this tabloid tale of Times Square passions an uncanny, cumulative fascination," wrote drama critic

Brooks Atkinson Justin Brooks Atkinson (November 28, 1894 – January 14, 1984) was an American theatre critic. He worked for '' The New York Times'' from 1922 to 1960. In his obituary, the ''Times'' called him "the theater's most influential reviewer of hi ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. Praising Boris Aronson's set design and the performances of Ilka Chase, Myron McCormick, Elspeth Eric, Joseph King and Robert Middlemass, he reserved his highest praise for the featured actor: "Joseph Spurin-Calleia as the prisoner plays with such keen authenticity and such sensitive understatement of emotion that his scenes are enormously moving. Type casting becomes an art when an actor can draw so much pulsing truth out of a character." ''The Stage'' magazine wrote that "there have been few gangsters of the heartbreaking calibre of Joseph Spurin-Calleia's Tony Mako. To this excellent, rather quiet melodrama with its paucity of dead bodies, he gives a sure feeling of impending catastrophe."

Gallery

Photographs of the original

production of ''Small Miracle'' appeared in the November 1934 issue of ''The Stage'' magazine. File:Small-Miracle-Calleia-1934.jpg,

as Tony Mako in ''Small Miracle'' File:Small-Miracle-Stage-1.jpg, Set in the lounge of a Broadway theatre, the drama centers around a condemned prisoner (Joseph Calleia) and a cop ( Joseph King) who have missed their train and have four hours to kill. File:Small-Miracle-Stage-2.jpg, Nobody notices the handcuffs under the overcoat during the intermission at the 43rd Street Theatre. File:Small-Miracle-Stage-3.jpg, A hat-check boy (

) is questioned about some missing jewelry belonging to a theatre patron (

). File:Small-Miracle-Stage-4.jpg, A squealer is grilled by the police captain (

), who suspects him of aiding the prisoner's escape. File:Small-Miracle-Stage-5.jpg, In the big scene the small miracle happens: the killer gets his man and his death.

Publication history

''Small Miracle'' was published in 1935 by Samuel French, Inc., with a preface by George Abbott.

Adaptations

Krasna adapted ''Small Miracle'' for the Paramount Pictures film, ''

'', released in April 1935 and starring

Richard Barthelmess Richard Semler Barthelmess (May 9, 1895 – August 17, 1963) was an American film actor, principally of the Hollywood silent era. He starred opposite Lillian Gish in D. W. Griffith's ''Broken Blossoms'' (1919) and ''Way Down East'' (1920) and w ...

. In 1944 Paramount Pictures announced it would film a new adaptation of ''Small Miracle'', starring Alan Ladd; the project was not realized.

References

External links

* {{Norman Krasna 1934 plays Broadway plays American plays adapted into films Plays set in New York City Plays by Norman Krasna