The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936)

The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936) is a British fantasy comedy film directed by Lothar Mendes and produced by Alexander Korda. It opens in the celestial realms, where three superhuman entities – potentially gods or angels – are observing the planet Earth. Disheartened by the actions of these ‘animals’, one of the entities is challenged by the other two to prove whether or not these beings are capable of handling the power over reality required to reach the stars. The only limit set for this experiment is that free will cannot be controlled, as per their master’s decree (possibly God).

Randomly selecting a human subject, the entity bestows this Power upon George Fotheringay, an English middle-class haberdasher’s assistant. While at a pub with his friends, Fotheringay debates the possibility of miracles and invokes his ‘will’ to create a change. To everyone’s surprise, he inadvertently causes an oil lamp to defy gravity with the flame burning downwards. Later at home, he repeats the feat by manipulating a candle and proceeds to perform other astonishing tricks like levitating furniture and conjuring fruits and animals out of thin air. Fotheringay even uses his powers at the clothing store where he works, such as removing someone’s freckles in an instant.