After an severe auto accident, Ellen Burstyn's character has a glimpse of the afterlife while she is be operated on in the hospital. She experiences "seeing the light", which many people report when they are near death.
Unable to walk, she moves in with her father and grandmother (Eva Le Gallienne) and begins a new life in a new community. She meets other sick people in town and discovers that she is able to heal their illnesses, and is also able to feel the pain of their sickness as well. Her legs also miraculously heal.
The grandmother attributes the phenomena to the work of a higher power. Ellen is skeptical; I like the line where she says "I'm not the Holy Ghost...and I'm not exactly the virgin Mary either!" That's about as comedic as the film gets, as it's more drama than comedy.
Some of the townsfolk are skeptical as well, and psychologists want to run tests on her. But she wants to help the community, and even sets up revival-style tent meetings. Well-intentioned, she never exploits the people.
I've been wanting to see this movie for a long time, and it is now available to watch online streaming on Youtube. Ellen Burstyn delivers a good performance; the film is all about how her character deals with the new situations she is faced with after the car accident that kills her husband. Does she really have the power to heal? Well, the movie actually leaves it open for you to decide. I personally don't believe in faith healers, but I do believe that certain healings are sometimes unexplained. Ellen's character even says, "I can only heal 30% of the time".
Maybe that's the point of the movie, to think about what causes this phenomenon.
I think a 1990s movie with John Travolta called "Phenomenon" was somewhat similar, but I haven't seen that movie. It might make for a good double feature with this one.
Co-starring Roberts Blossom (Home Alone) as her father and Sam Shepard and Richard Farnsworth as kind townsfolk. A great cast!
Henry B. Walthall is the moral center of the film; in the film, his character loves Dante's Inferno and creates a museum exhibit devoted to it.
Spencer Tracy, in a swell performance, plays a man who learns some important lessons in life from Dante's The Divine Comedy: INFERNO. The film is known for a 10-minute sequence showing a visual interpretation of hell, including people burning at the stake, falling off cliffs into a river of fire, and more. It's all in glorious black-and-white; combined with the haunting musical score, it's a very impressive and thrilling sequence worthy of an Oscar for Visual Effects - they are really impressive. Here's a video clip of the Hell sequence.
More on the film (some spoilers): The film begins with images of fire and smoke. Then the camera slowly pans out and we realize we are looking at burning coal. Tracy plays a sailor assigned to the boiler room on a luxury cruise liner. Some hoity-toity socialites look down at the men and start laughing. Carter looks up to a snickering woman and thinks to himself, "sister, one day I'm going to be up there laughing".
He soon gets fired, and finds work in a carnival sideshow tent. He soon gets fired again, and is almost arrested when he is sitting at a beverage stand and cannot pay for his drink. A kindly old man (Henry B. Walthall, who was also in Birth of a Nation and Judge Priest) offers to pay for the drink. Carter is impressed and takes a liking to him, discovering that the old man (or "pop" as he's called) runs his own sideshow at the fair, which is sort of a run-down museum called "Dante's Inferno". Pop gives Carter a tour of the exhibit which features well known historical figures whose lives were doomed: Alexander the great, Cleopatra, etc. Carter likes the museum but notices no one is buying tickets. With a gift of gab, Carter steps up and "sells hell" (he says, "if there's one thing I know something about, it's hell!").
After assuming the role as master showman, the museum exhibit becomes a hit. He also falls in love with Claire Trevor, who plays Pop's daughter and employee of the exhibit. She and carter soon get married and have a baby. Then Carter expands the museum into a much bigger attraction with a live theatrical show, rides, and more. In one interesting sequence, someone tries to commits suicide in the exhibit by jumping off a ledge and everyone thinks it's part of the show; it then becomes an even bigger hit. In a montage sequence we learn that Carter builds an empire out of amusement parks all over the world. The adorable child actor who plays Carter's son is played by Scotty Beckett (1929-1968).
One day an inspector comes to warn Carter that the exhibit is not stable and is in a dangerous condition; Carter bribes the inspector to keep quiet about it. Soon the entire structure falls apart and Pop is injured. (The inspector commits suicide.)
Pop wakes up in a hospital room and asks for his favorite poem: Dante's Inferno. He shows it to Carter - this is when the 10-minute sequence of hell begins. Carter is warned, but when he and his wife are called to testify in court, both of them lie - Carter to save himself, and his wife to save their child.
The couple separates for awhile, and in the grand finale, Carter attends the maiden voyage of his luxury cruise, which becomes a disaster: the guests all get drunk, the substitute boiler room workers become drunk and rowdy, and Carter's little boy finds his way on the ship. A fire is started and soon spreads throughout the ship. The climax is a thrilling fight for survival, and Carter is back in the boiler room trying to save the ship.
In the end he is reunited with Claire Trevor. Carter, now a business failure, says to his wife, "all I have to offer you is my love". She says, "that's all I ever wanted".
I highly recommend this film, but it is difficult to find. This film is not available on DVD yet but I hope one day it is. I saw it at a revival house on a couple of occasions.
