Roberto Rossellini's The Miracle, filmed in 1948 and now current as part of a two-hour, three-layer omnibus titled Ways of Love (TIME, Dec. 18), is second-rate Rossellini despite a virtuoso performance by Anna Magnani. Performing a minor acting miracle herself, she makes almost credible her role as an insane peasant woman who believes she is to bear a holy child fathered by Saint Joseph.
Last week The Miracle made headlines by offending Edward T. McCaffrey, $15,000-a-year license commissioner of New York City and onetime national commander of the Catholic War Veterans. McCaffrey, a holdover...