The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1943)

This is How Movies Should Be Made

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Producer: Preston Sturges. Copyright 5 January 1944 by Paramount Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Paramount: 19 January 1944. U.S. release: January 1944. Australian release: 20 April 1944. 10 reels. 8,869 feet. 100 minutes. (Available on an excellent Paramount DVD).SYNOPSIS: In the small town of Morgan's Creek lives Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton), who works in a music store and whose father, Officer Kockenlocker (William Demarest) is the traffic policeman and a sergeant of the last war. Little sister Emmy (Diana Lynn) is worldly wise and sharp-tongued and Trudy's boy friend, Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken), is a bashful guy who works in the town bank.Norval would like Trudy to go to the movies with him the evening the story opens, but Trudy is sorry, she is going to dance with the soldiers. Norval can't be talked into going to this dance because he's long wanted to be in uniform, but every time he tries to enlist he gets so nervous, up goes his blood pressure and spots appear before his eyes.NOTES: Second to "Going My Way" as Paramount's top domestic box- office successes of 1944. Initial box-office gross: over $10 million. Nominated for a prestigious Hollywood award for Original Screenplay, losing to Lamar Trotti's "Wilson". Number 3 on the National Board of Review's list of the Ten Best Movies of 1944. Betty Hutton was cited by the National Board of Review (along with nine other players) for the year's Best Acting. One of Bosley Crowther's Top Ten for The New York Times, in fact "the year's best farce". Re-made in 1958 as "Rock-a- bye Baby". COMMENT: How this movie got past the Hays Office, was something that puzzled all reviewers from New York to Los Angeles. The answer, of course, is simple. Censorial bodies are not only blind and deaf, they have absolutely no common sense. Did you notice the heroine's name? If you still haven't got the joke, just say her name out loud. And this is just the start. You wouldn't believe how many times this name is repeated in the movie. I would say at least forty times. Maybe even fifty? I first saw this movie at a revival in the early 1950s. To my surprise, the usually half-empty suburban theater was packed to the doors and every time, our heroine's name was mentioned - which, as I aid before, was at least forty times - the whole theater just exploded with laughter. In fact, there was one particularly long scene between the hero and the heroine's dad, in which our hero answered a multitude of questions from his soon to be father-in-law by consistently addressing him as "Mr. Kockenlocker!" The whole theater just exploded with continuous laughter. A few of us even fell off our chairs! OTHER VIEWS: "Excellent. The funniest picture of this year, or any other year within memory." — Archer Winsten in N.Y. Post."Situations spark, dialogue crackles and the Sturges camera works like a playful Peeping Tom." — Bosley Crowther in N.Y. Times."One of the funniest pictures I've ever seen in a long span of viewing and reviewing." — Film Daily."I am still hysterical over The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. It is the funniest picture I ever saw. I'd never laughed so much in all my life." — Lee Mortimer in N.Y. Daily Mirror.P.S. I'd like to give the movie 10/10, but it is so brazen - and this one play-on-words is repeated at least forty times - I just can't bring myself to rub it in!

In the middle of WWII comes this film that is full of references to that war yet manages to undermine the usual image of the valiant warrior marching off to battle, suggesting that along the way one of them took advantage of a tipsy girl, maybe even drugged her drink from her lack of recollection of the evening that was supposed to be an innocent farewell dance for the soldiers, and left her pregnant from a one night stand, never to inquire about her again. In the 21st century date rape comes to mind. If it was even a date.Now of course this soldier is never found or named. And instead a sanitized version of the story appears. What I wrote in the first paragraph is strictly between the lines. Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) is an underaged girl, probably late teens, back when legal age was 21, who is told by her widowed father, the town constable (William Demarest), that she is not to go to the farewell party because he rightly fears the rowdiness of the event. So Trudy says instead she will go to the movies with Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken). She knows he loves her and she is accustomed to using him, although she would probably never admit that to herself. So she borrows Norval's car, tells him she will pick him up after the last feature, but does not appear again until the next morning at 8AM, with a big blank where the latter part of the evening should be. As they drive away a "Just Married" sign falls off of the car's rear bumper, and when Trudy gets home she notices she is wearing a ring. Slowly, through the haze of memory, a "maybe" wedding comes back to her, but not the who or where. The trouble appears later when Trudy realizes she is pregnant by her anonymous husband, and she has no marriage license to prove her story.As in any Sturges film, there is a veritable cornucopia of wonderful one liners, which can come from any and every member of the large comic ensemble cast, at any time. No scene is too sacred, including a wedding, or a father's viewing of his newborn children. As for the cast, Hutton plays it sweet and somewhat dizzy, showing that she could prevail in other genres besides musicals, Eddie Bracken plays it nervous and a bit over the top as the only man in Morgan's Creek between 18 and 40 who is not in the military because of his 4F status, and the always funny William Demarest is full of pratfalls and one liners and even compassion when it is called for as Trudy's exasperated dad. Why does this remain in Paramount's possession when they sold off just about every other talking picture made between 1929 and 1949 to Universal? It is because, at the time, nobody believed anyone would ever allow this to be shown on TV.Highly recommended.

In the small town of Morgan's Creek, Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) likes to dance with the soldiers going off to war. Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken) would love to be a soldier but he can never pass the physical. Single father Constable Edmund Kockenlocker (William Demarest) refuses to let his girls Trudy and Emmy (Diana Lynn) go to the party. Trudy tricks her father and uses Norval as a cover to go to the party. The next morning, she wakes up pregnant and married but don't know who's the guy. Emmy suggests Trudy should marry poor sap Norval. Then it's loopy schemes, all kinds of cops, arrest, a reluctant escape and sextuplets. It's utter mayhem.The censors must have taken a bribe. The story is outlandish and inappropriate for its time. Trudy starts off not very well liked and that does stop some of the comedy in the beginning. She wins me over when she starts stuttering. For the first time, she and Norval match. They become believable as a couple. They're both idiots and they're still funny even today.

I didn't find it to be that great the first time I watched it, but the second time around, I caught a lot of the subtleties, which I appreciated, such as the sign about the lemonade and what Mr. Kockenlocker (William Demarest) says about a half a dozen of kids while complaining about daughters and children in general. I absolutely loved Emmy (Diana Lynn) and she was the voice of reason throughout the film despite being only 14 years old. I thought that Demarest's acting was great and the way he portrayed Mr. Kockenlocker made the character likable that I even started admiring Demarest. I can honestly say that Demarest steals the show in every scene he is in and that I've enjoyed it whenever Mr. Kockenlocker was in the scene. Also, isn't "Kockenlocker" a great name? *winkwink* The way Trudy is introduced was brilliant and Betty Hutton's exaggerated mouth movements had me in tears because it was hilarious. I didn't find Trudy (Hutton) to be a likable character and found her to be a bit exasperating at times. I guess it's very similar with The Palm Beach Story in that Trudy cares a lot about Norval (Bracken) thus she does what she does, but at times, I wanted to slap her in the face for being selfish.What I noticed about Sturges's films is that I focus on every scene. I don't lose track of what is happening and I pay attention as if every scene/aspect is important. A lot of films have a sub-plot with the romance but with Sturges's film, it is all mixed up and there really isn't a sub-plot but a main story that is told through various events. For example, with His Girl Friday, I didn't really care much about the sub-plot but with Sturges's film, the audience focuses only on what is happening in front of them. There are no distractions and I think I like it! I wasn't too impressed by this film but was more shocked watching it. I couldn't help but wonder how in the world this film even got past the Hays Code. Watch it for yourself and wonder if this film should be considered scandalous for its times! It sure made me confused and I couldn't help but wonder what Sturges was thinking while making this film. The ending is so outrageous that I wonder if it was a tactic to distract the censors. I know that Sturges used some tactics to beat around the bush so that this film could be released, but I really don't understand how the script passed.http://sachlichkeit.net