I only saw the first half of this film so can't comment on it as a whole, but do not be deceived into thinking that this is some uncute story about cute babies, mother love, and sacrifice. The only two directors who shot successful sequences involving babies are Howard Hawks and Sergei Eisenstein. Well, Charlie Chaplin in "The Kid", if you want to stretch the definition.Burgess Meredith wakes up one morning with his wife Paulette Goddard -- sleeping in THE SAME BED. Already, you can envision how disgusting and vulgar this movie will be. Not really, of course. The same-bed business broke one of the movie code's rules in 1948 but the stories are innocent. At any rate, this introduction is frenzied and excessively chipper. Meredith and Goddard constantly run, shout loudly, and sing during a shower. It's exhausting to watch.Meredith, a reporter pursued by bookies, imitates one of those inquiring photographers of the period. This is Los Angeles at a time when newspapers were the chief source of news, and they were ubiquitous. I was interviewed by a representative of the New York Daily News while I was eating a knish on the sidewalks of Springfield Avenue in Irvington, New Jersey. The question had to do with the transfer of the Dodgers' franchise from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. I didn't know the meaning of the word "franchise." When it showed up in print I sounded like the financial manager of a professional ball team.Where was I? Yes, the movie. Meredith dreams up his question of the day: "In what way has a baby influenced your life?" The first story that Meredith gets from ordinary people is about the song "Melancholy Baby." The episode features Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart as itinerant musicians who've been force into staging a musical contest on a pier and rigging it so that the mayor's son wins, though he can't play anything on the trumpet but clinkers. The plan is for trumpeter Fonda to play the song from a rowboat under the pier while the mayor's son just tries to finger the valves. It works until the boat begins to bob up and down. Fonda's playing is increasingly erratic. The judge, Harry James, winces. The scenes is hilarious, with Stewart trying to lead the band and help the phony candidate. He winds up with a lemon stuffed into his mouth.It's good to see Fonda and Stewart together. They work perfectly off one another and were pals in real life despite their opposing political positions, Stewart conservative, Fonda liberal. They shared quarters early in their careers in Provincetown and were plagued by stray cats. They painted one of the cats purple, hoping it would scare off the rest. Instead they wound up with the same dozen cats, only now one of them was purple.Meredith gets the story in his notebook and takes off, still pursued. He stumbles into the house of a movie star, Dorothy Lamour, and asks her if she's ever had a baby. "It's not true," she replies spiritedly, "I only met him twice." The baby in this story is a Shirley Temple figure who is petty and demanding while a movie is shooting. Lamour gets to sing two song in a sarong. One of them echoes her personal history -- born in New Orleans, elevator operator in Chicago, and so forth. This episode, too, is funny, especially the climax, a parody of Lamour's 1937 movie, "The Hurricane." That's about as far as I got. It's a light-hearted and fast-paced comedy. You'll probably enjoy it.

¨A Miracle Can Happen" was the original title of this film , it deals with a down-and-out reporter called Oliver Pease (Burguess Meredith) gets a dose of courage from his wife Martha (Paulette Goddard) as she suggests him an interesting inquiry : "Has a little child ever changed your life?" . Oliver gets answers from two slow-talking musicians (Henry Fonda and James Stewart) , the second sequence Charles Laughton played a bible-reading minister , and the third part about an itinerant couple (Fred MacMurray , William Demarest) who is deceived by a child . In each case the "little child" is hardly innocent: in the first, a local auto mechanic's "baby" results out to be fully developed as a beautiful girl ; in the second , an unfortunate church Minister (Charles Laughton) teaches a grumpy father (Henry Hull) to learn kindness by Bible reading ; in the third, the family of a spoiled brat doesn't want him returned . Did You Ever See A Miracle Walking?This is a sketches movie full of humor , fun situations , entertainment and amusement . Interesting screenplay by Laurence Stallings and Lou Breslow based on original story by Arch Oboler . The picture is made up of many vignettes featuring many capable stars , it belongs to sub-genre about ¨anthology film¨ ; movies like "Flesh and Fantasy" and "O. Henry's Full House" used large casts to tell several interlocked stories , though "Tales of Manhattan" is the best of the anthology films , it follows the adventures of a tuxedo's tailcoat as it passes through the hands of several diverse people , being also starred by Laughton and Fonda . This ¨A miracle can happen¨ consisted of three short stories , about 20-25 minutes each , linked by the Burgess Meredith character. Titled "A Miracle Can Happen", this film debuted on February 3, 1948 at the Warner Theatre in Manhattan , during February, the feature also opened in Philadelphia and Detroit ; in June, when released nationally, the picture ran nine minutes shorter than its original 107 minutes, and the film's name had been changed to "On Our Merry Way," thus avoiding any religious connection that moviegoers might assume by seeing the word "miracle" in the title . Nice acting by Burguess Meredith as a misfit journalist pursued by a creditor , he writes lost pet notices and looking for a good scoop he tricks the editor of the newspaper . Sensational duo formed by Henry Fonda and James Stewart , they are fabulous as an amusing couple become involved into a funny contest . Charles Laughton plays masterfully an unlucky Minister ; however, this segment was eliminated in some copies with a parody of an actress whose roles usually feature a sarong as Dorothy Lamour's South Seas movies , as the powers-that-be decided to drop this 'religious' story altogether and it was replaced by a more comic one . Independent producer David O. Selznick offered to buy the film in order to issue the Laughton sequence as a short, scrapping the rest of the picture ; Selznick's plan was rejected by producer Benedict Bogeaus and producer-star Burgess Meredith . In Spain, "A Miracle Can Happen", complete with the original Laughton sequence intact but of course without the alternative Dorothy Lamour story , as it has been released on DVD there, and retains the English-language soundtrack, the movie can now been seen as it was originally intended . Extraordinary support cast formed by notorious secondaries such as Harry James , Victor Moore , William Demarest , Hugh Herbert , Eduardo Ciannelli , Henry Hull , John Qualen and Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer . The film has an atmospheric cinematography carried out by four prestigious cameramen as Joseph F. Biroc , Edward Cronjager , John F. Seitz and uncredited Ernest Laszlo . Evocative and appropriate original musical score by Heinz Roemheld . The motion picture was well directed by four classic Hollywood filmmakers as King Vidor, Leslie Fenton and, uncredited, John Huston and George Stevens . Rating : Good film , 6'5/10 .Well worth watching .

This review is for the version without the Charles Laughton sequence, as this was the one shown by Turner Classic Movies recently.The film stars and was co-produced by Burgess Meredith. Considering that he mostly got supporting roles after this and only a few other producer credits, it is probably safe to assume this film was responsible for this.The film consists of various small films that are tied together by an overall theme. You see, Meredith wants to get a job working as a reporter and each time he interviews someone, their story is dramatized. The question he asks each of the people is "how did a child influence your life?". Surprisingly, the vignettes have various big-name Hollywood stars, such as Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda and Dorothy Lamour--perhaps Meredith and his wife/co-star Paulette Goddard got a lot of their friends to be in the film.The first stars Fonda and Stewart. It's about a small-time traveling band that is stranded and puts on a talent show to get the money to get their bus fixed. However, the contest is fixed, as the mayor only let them put on the show if his son (who is a no-talent) is given the award. The film features Alfalfa Switzer (from Our Gang) as the no-talent as well as a surprise cameo at the end by big band leader, Harry James. The film is supposed to be kooky and was an odd waste of the talents of Stewart and Fonda, as the acting and writing were too broad to be taken seriously.The next stars Dorothy Lamour and Victor Moore (an odd combination). They are both struggling actors who have a run-in with a bratty child actor. The kid deliberately ruins their scene they are working for in the film and she thinks this is funny. However, when Moore and Lamour are fired, the kid feels bad and vows to help them with a screen test. The producers love Lamour but are less thrilled about Moore. In the end, however, she hires Moore as her agent. The segment ends with a long dance number. Yes, it did relate to Meredith's question but the style seemed odd and ended very abruptly. Also, the song and dance number seemed out of place.The final segment starred Fred MacMurray and William Demarest (who, you may remember, co-starred together on "My Three Sons" on TV). The film begins with the two being thrown out of town by the cops. The are a couple of grifters in search of some new pigeons (i.e., con-men who want to cheat some unsuspecting people). Oddly, their first potential victim is a little kid with a piggy bank! The kid turns out to be a devilish little prankster, as he makes their lives miserable. In many ways, the story is a lot like a slight reworking of O. Henry's "The Ransom of Red Chief" and the film makers neglected to credit him for the story idea. It is fun watching the kid tormenting the two men but I just wished they'd stuck closer to the original story or just made a film of the O. Henry story--and not all the rest of the vignettes.In the end, Meredith writes his human interest story and goes to see the editor--at which point, the response is not at all what Meredith had expected! But it all works out fine in the end.Overall, not a terrible idea for a film but the film never worked because the first two stories didn't work out well. The biggest negative is bad writing and the only good part was stolen from a famous writer (William Sydney Porter, also known as O. Henry). It's a curious film and is watchable but don't expect it to be much more than a time-passer.

There is a mystery here somewhere: Why was this film made? It is a terrible embarrassment for fans of all the otherwise great actors involved. I saw it the other night on TCM and could not believe my eyes. The "comic" scene between Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart is surely one of the weaker moments in Hollywood history! Fonda playing drunk and Stewart with an apple stuck in his mouth are not exactly hilarious. As for the babe supposedly playing trumpet (it was, of course, Harry James really playing), someone might at least have told her that the mouthpiece smears one's lipstick. At the conclusion of this scene, the Harry James band files off the stand--quickly. One can understand why! Burgess Meredith and Hugh Herbert are not at all amusing. And as for Dorothy Lamour, well, she should have stuck with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. On her own she best belongs in a small town chorus. You get the picture: At all cost avoid this movie. Why was it made? In one shot we see written on a wall: "Kilroy Was Here." Explain that in 1948! In fact, explain anything about this production.