Das Mirakel
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Das Mirakel (1912) is a short movie directed by Cherry Kearton and Max Reinhardt. It was adapted by Joseph Menchen from the play by Karl Vollmöller.
Talking pictures were not available or practical until 1927's The Jazz Singer, filmmakers had begun experimenting with mixing sounds and pictures as early as 1895. One such experiment was Das Mirakel. Kearton's pioneering talking film was an adapted version of the Max Reinhardt stage spectacular of the same name. Based on the legend of a statue of the Virgin Mary coming to life to replace a wayward nun, the original stage version ran nearly three hours. Kearton's adaptation was pared down to three reels, concentrating on the most famous of the dialogue sequences, although there were few of those - the play was essentially a pantomime with music by Engelbert Humperdinck. It is said that only the words spoken by the actors were pre-recorded; the other sounds - footsteps, closing doors, church bells - were conveyed live during the screening along with the musical accompaniment.
Shot in 35mm black and white in Austria, it ran for around 30 minutes and premiered in Germany on the 21st of December, 1912.
Das Mirakel was known in America and London as "The Miracle". The film was loosely remade in 1959 under that title by Warner Bros. as a two-hour Technicolor epic, starring Carroll Baker, Roger Moore, Walter Slezak, Katina Paxinou and Vittorio Gassman. While the original had been set in medieval times, this version was set during the Napoleonic era in Spain - in fact, its climax involved the Battle of Waterloo. Directed by Irving Rapper, and not presented as a pantomime, it was mostly panned by critics, and had the misfortune to be released to theatres the same week as MGM's 1959 version of Ben-Hur, starring Charlton Heston - one of the most successful epic films of all time.
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