Miracle in the Rain

Ruth is a mousy secretary in 1942 New York, caring for her invalid mother when not at her workaday job. Arthur is an affable but lonely PFC from Tennessee, on leave while waiting to be sent into battle overseas. They meet in a rainstorm. It could just as well be raining daisies. Get out your handkerchiefs for Miracle in the Rain, starring Jane Wyman and Van Johnson as strangers who meet, fall in love and make plans never to part when he returns from the front. Like The Clock of 11 years earlier, Miracle beguiles with vignettes of bustling World War II New York. And like A Guy Named Joe, it shines with its sense that those we hold close to our hearts are always with us. "Love never dies," Arthur will say. For anyone who's ever experienced a war-shattered romance, his words ring true.

• drama
• romance