The Miracle (1912 film)

This article is about the British film. For the German film, see Das Mirakel.

The Miracle
Scene from the Lyricscope play of The Miracle with Florence Winston, Ernst Matray and Ernst Benzinger
Directed byMichel Antoine Carré (film)
Max Reinhardt (play)
Written byKarl Vollmöller (play and film)
Produced byJoseph Menchen
StarringMaria Carmi
Ernst Matray
Florence Winston
Joseph Klein
Music byEngelbert Humperdinck (play and film)
Distributed byJoseph Menchen (UK)
Release date
  • December 1912 (1912-12) (UK)
Running time
7,000 feet (UK)
CountriesUnited Kingdom (American producer with main production office in London, French co-director, filmed in Austria, coloured in France, international cast)
LanguagesSilent film
with intertitles
Budget$50,000[1]

The Miracle (1912) (German: Das Mirakel, French: Le Miracle), is a British[n 1] silent full-colour film, using a hand-coloured process similar to Pathéchrome. Produced by Joseph Menchen and directed by Michel Carré, it is among the first full-colour feature films to be made. It stars Maria Carmi, Ernst Matray, Florence Winston and Douglas Payne, and was filmed on location in Austria.

The Miracle was not intended to be shown as an ordinary film in the usual way but was designed by Menchen to be shown as part of a 'Lyricscope play'.[2] This was an unusual (if not unprecedented) spectacular theatrical presentation which – in its most elaborate and complete expression – included: the projected colour film; a full-sized symphony orchestra and chorus performing Engelbert Humperdinck's score; live sound effects such as church bells and crowd noises; stage sets around the projection screen which changed during the performance;[3][4] and live (non-speaking) actors and dancers in medieval costume.[5][6] The various component parts of this ideal production varied somewhat according to local conditions.

This 1912 multi-medium production was an adaptation of Max Reinhardt's wordless spectacular stage production of Karl Vollmoeller's play of the same name, which had played to huge audiences at the Olympia, London exhibition hall in 1911–1912. As some contemporary critics realised, The Miracle was not a "moving picture drama" in the normal sense of the word, but a "filmed pantomime," a celluloid record of the action of the stage production in a unique presentation.[7]

The world première of the full-colour 'Lyricscope play' of The Miracle took place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, on 21 December 1912 and it was shown all over the country until Easter 1913, breaking many records for attendance. The colour film with its attendant show subsequently made its way around the world, being shown in the U.S., Australia and Germany.

A rival, unauthorised version (Das Mirakel) directed by Mime Misu for Continental-Kunstfilm in Germany appeared in the same year with the same subject and English title ("The Miracle") and was the subject of various copyright legal actions in the UK and the United States, resulting in seven different titles shared between the two films.

  1. ^ "Alleged Miracle piracy". Variety, 28 February 1913 Vol.XXIX, no. 13, p. 15, col. 3
  2. ^ Athenaeum 1913, p. 52.
  3. ^ Slough, Windsor and Eton Observer & 26 July 1913, p. 8.
  4. ^ The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, Tuesday 21 July 1914, p. 2
  5. ^ Souvenir Programme 1913.
  6. ^ Evening Post (Wellington, NZ), 6 March 1914, p. 3
  7. ^ e.g. Bush, Stephen W. "Reinhardt's Miracle" in MPW 1913a, p. 868


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