The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Preston Sturges

Writer:

Preston Sturges (writer)

Release Date:

19 January 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance | War

Tagline:

A Scanda-Laugh Fest!

Plot:

After an all-night send-off party for the troops, a small-town girl wakes up to find herself married and pregnant, but with no memory of her husband's identity.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Pregnant | Party | Small Town | Soldier

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win

Cast

Eddie Bracken	...	Norval Jones
Betty Hutton	...	Trudy Kockenlocker
Diana Lynn	...	Emmy Kockenlocker
William Demarest	...	Const. Edmund Kockenlocker
Porter Hall	...	Justice of the Peace
Emory Parnell	...	Mr. Tuerck
Al Bridge	...	Mr. Johnson (as Alan Bridge)
Julius Tannen	...	Mr. Rafferty
Victor Potel	...	Newspaper editor
Brian Donlevy	...	Gov. McGinty (as McGinty)
Akim Tamiroff	...	The Boss

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Paramount Ranch - 2813 Cornell Road, Agoura, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The character Gov. McGinty is Dan McGinty, from the earlier film by Preston Sturges, The Great McGinty (1940). Brian Donlevy played the character in both films. Akim Tamiroff also appears as "The Boss," reprising his role from the earlier film.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Norval and Mr. Kockenlocker are sitting on the front porch talking, Mr. Kockenlocker is cleaning his gun. He has an automatic pistol, he cocks it to open the chamber for cleaning, and in the next scene he cocks it again.

Quotes:

Emmy: That's not being very helpful.
Constable Kockenlocker: What do you want me to do? Learn to knit?

Movie Connections:

References Are Husbands Necessary? (1942)

Whew!

From the very start they're off and running. Even under the opening credits cast members are seen frantically gesticulating and flailing. And the movie has hardly begun.

So what's to be done with the next 98 minutes, if one begins climatically sweating and pulsating? Ease up the pace a bit to allow viewer to catch his breath?

Not Director Sturges: he continues to plow through this comedy at breakneck speed, as though any repose might prove fatal.

We get two super energetic starts--Bracken and Hutton--and a cast of obedient supports obeying the eager director's every frenetic command. We end with one of the screwiest screwball comedies of the forties.

This film has acquired a devoted following of supporters who find "Morgan's Creek" very funny, along with a goodly number of detractors, who see it as an essentially strained and bloated one-joke yarn.

As usual, Sturges makes sharp social comments along the way and handles large groups with Capraesque skill. But that he manages to maintain his unrelentingly breathless pace throughout the shoot may be the real miracle of Morgan's Creek.