The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

Plot synopsis:
Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) is a small-town girl with a soft spot for soldiers. She wakes up one morning after a wild farewell party for a group of them to find that while drunk the night before, she married a soldier whose name she can't remember, except that "it had a z in it. Like Ratzkywatzky [...] or was it Zitzkywitzky?" She believes they both used fake names and she doesn't know how to get in touch with him or even what he looks like.
The matter is complicated when she learns that she became pregnant that night as well. Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken), a local 4-F boy who has been in love with Trudy for years, steps in to help out, but Trudy's over-protective father (William Demarest), a policeman, gets involved and complicates matters. Before long, Norval is arrested on 19 different charges, and then he finds himself on the run as an escaped prisoner.
All seems lost until Trudy gives birth to sextuplets. At that point Governor McGinty (Brian Donlevy) and The Boss (Akim Tamiroff) step in and provide a phone call which results in a happy ending for everyone.
When Norval discovers that Trudy has borne not just one son but six, he faints, and the movie ends with this epilogue on a title card:
But Norval recovered and
became increasingly happy
for, as Shakespeare said:
"Some are born great, someachieve greatness, and some
have greatness thrust upon
them."
        THE END

Tags: comedy, satire, flashback

Review:
This movie may be the best comedy produced during World War II, especially in reference to the timing and the language related to the humorous treatment of a serious subject.
Often overlooked, The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek ranks with Sturges' absolute best work.Sturges takes an almost Capra-esque WWII America and turns it on its pointy little head, with Betty Hutton as a girl who's more than willing to give "the boys" departing for the war the utmost reason to fight for our country.
Eddie Bracken is his usual self-effacing self, and his sad-sack Norval Jones is an earnest, often moving portrayal of the kind of understanding, devotion and love almost never seen in American movies of the era.A "screwball comedy" only on paper, the often frenetic pacing and physical humor was sufficient to distract censors (and often audiences) from Morgan Creek's almost brutally derisive satire about the hypocrisy of small town "values" and military behavior during wartime, satire that still resonates given the current political climate.
It is easy to see how in most of his films he keeps showing a lot of the same faces, as it's evident the actors loved the quick tempo he gives to the movie.Betty Hutton was an incredible appealing Trudy.
After all, Trudy only wanted to do the best for the boys going to a war where most of them wouldn't come back alive.Eddie Bracken was given one of the best opportunities of his career to play the kind hearted Norval.
William Demarest, who played in a lot of Mr. Sturges' films, is seen as Trudy's father, the nutty Constable Kockenlocker.
Eddie Bracken is a well put-together package of the Sturges comedy trademark:  physical humor, good comedic timing, articulate performance just a little beyond the fringe but not too broad for the time (remember that Laurel and Hardy were simultaneously competing for screens).
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.
Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, Diana Lynn and William Demarest give phenomenal performances (Lynn is particularly funny as she keeps her composure while everyone else is cracking up around her), and Preston Sturges's writing and direction were never more frenetic and explosive.
Many of their scenes are done in one long take and it's amazing how much material and physical comedy they had to memorize for such extended takes.Some of the storyline seems a bit dated by today's standards but on the whole the film holds up well in the laugh department.
I liked it much better than HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO with Bracken in a similar role.Preston Sturges deserved his nomination for Best Original Screenplay but lost the award to Lamar Trotti for WILSON.
Not as well known to the general public as the Marx brothers movies, this film is unquestionably one of funniest, best-written, best-acted & best-directed comedies of all time, right up there with Bringing Up Baby, Duck Soup & The Bank Dick.
They are one-to-one experiences - even if you see a film like Preston Sturges' MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK in a packed revival house laughing uproariously en masse, you can only share a surface pleasure with those strangers: the deeper joys of this movie are yours and yours alone, shocking you into an awareness of how potent the alchemy of a great film can be, no matter how often you've felt that seismic shift with other great films.
A STAR WARS or Tarantino fan clucking terms like 'dated' or 'foolish' at a Preston Sturges movie is too pitiable a wretch to deserve actual scorn: maybe one day they'll figure it out, if they're lucky.
The story of a small-town girl who finds herself both married and unmarried at the same time - but DEFINITELY pregnant in either case - is deliriously funny and brimming with great heart and honest sentiment, yet it's never less than a devastating indictment of the kind of mean-spirited provincialism that brought the Code into being in the first place.
Rather than single out exemplary performances, I direct you instead to the complete cast-list (for the mark of a Preston Sturges movie is a wealth of expert actors, each blessed with scenes and dialogue devised to play to their respective strengths).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Nowadays with the relentless progress of acceptable "taste" none of this matters - we are not spared the littlest thing!The main actors give it their best and play it with gusto: live-wire Betty Hutton and 4F Eddie Bracken as the simple young lovers who don't find it so simple, Diana Lynn as her sidekick cynical 14 yo sister, but especially William Demarest who turned in his finest knockabout and farcically violent performance here - at 50, too.
It stars Betty Hutton (the Carol Burnett and Bette Midler of her generation), Eddie Bracken, Diana Lynn, and William Demarest.
Throw into the pot that Sturges cast the pristine Betty Hutton as a man mad airhead with few morals of note, well you can see that Sturges was pushing the censors as far as he could.Trudy Kockenlocker (Huton) gets drunk one night and has a night of passion with a soldier, in the morning she has sketchy recollections but thinks she may have married the guy?
This sets us on an hilarious journey as Norval winds up being sought after by the authorities for a number of crimes he is oblivious to committing, thus is no hope for the couple unless a miracle can save them...The performances here are sublime, both Hutton & Bracken seem to be having a competition to see who can out zany the other the best in each scene, and it really results in comedy gold.
All the other actors give special shows as well, William Demarest is top dollar as Trudy's Policeman Father, Brian Donlevy, Diana Lynn & Akim Tamaroff are all in on the fun, and no frame is wasted, no line is a throw away, it's all right on the money.
The scene where Betty Hutton encourages Bracken to propose to her is one the cleverest pieces of comedy put to film.Possibly Preston Sturges' masterpiece; then again 'Hail the Conquering Hero' is just as funny..
In The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek, Betty does in fact really give her all to the boys going over there.How Preston Sturges got this one past the censors is beyond me.
I like it almost as much as I like my favorite Preston Sturges film, Sullivan's Travels.Betty Hutton as Trudy Kockenlocker of Morgan's Creek feels it her patriotic duty to give her all for our fighting men.
All this is watched with some amused detachment by Hutton's younger sister Diana Lynn.The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek got Preston Sturges an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
I saw this film a month ago and it instantly took a place as one of my all-time favourite comedies; the enthusiastic feedback of most of the other IMDB reviewers begs the question, Why hasn't it got legendary status on a par with, say, Bringing Up Baby or His Girl Friday?The core of the film is the amazing chemistry between Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton; they summon up extraordinary levels of endearing daftness as Norval and Trudy, out of what was obviously very edgy material for its day.
William Demarest and Diana Lynn provide top rate support as Trudy's curmudgeonly father and smart-alec kid-sister and the entire film sprints along as a delicious combination of verbal dexterity and outlandish slapstick.Now how do I get hold of some other Preston Sturges classics?.
Into the latter category falls Norvil Jones: 4-F Marine Corps reject and reluctant fiancé of happy-go-lucky Trudy Kockenlocker, who after getting a little too happy and too lucky finds herself pregnant by an outbound soldier whose name she recalls only dimly as something like Ratskywatsky.Of all the classic Preston Sturges comedies in the 1940s none was more miraculous than this outrageous wartime farce, which dared to satirize the war effort while the war was still being fought.
How it ever escaped the censors is anyone's guess (critic James Agee maintained the Hays Office was "raped in its sleep"); perhaps because the Allied armies were by then on the offensive Sturges was allowed to do likewise at home.Either way, it remains a model of sophisticated slapstick entertainment, as fresh and funny now as it was more than 60 years ago.
Betty Hutton is responsible for "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek," a 1944 comedy written and directed by Preston Sturges.
Hutton shares the screen with Sturges regulars Eddie Bracken, William Demarest, Brian Donlevy, as well as Diana Lynn, Akim Tamiroff and Porter Hall.
Hutton plays Trudy, a small-town girl who lives with her sister (Lynn) and irascible father (Demarest).
A lot of people claim that "The Philadelphia Story" is the best comedy, but I don't believe that, as much as I love that movie, Barry can touch Sturges for laughs.
Girl lies to father, goes to party, gets drunk, married, and pregnant, then falls for the guy next door.Huh?I had three (and only three) genuine laughs at this so-called classic "screwball comedy." That's probably because I never really cared about any of the characters.
I love William Demarest in a number of other films, but here he's just loud and even somewhat violent and unpleasant.A lot of the laughs are SUPPOSED to be in the physical comedy - pratfalls, double takes, etc.
Betty Hutton, who dosen't sing a note in this turns in a hilarious performance as Trudy, matched by Eddie Bracken.
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.
Then there's the tender scene in which an exhausted Betty Hutton softly tells Eddie Bracken that he will be a true & loving father even though he's not the birth father (which must have had rich resonance for writer/director Preston Sturges, since he was raised by a loving stepfather) --- a poignant interlude devoid of Capraesque sentimentality.
Detailed accounts of this 2-year studio delay can be found in 2 wonderful books -- "Between Flops" by James Curtis (still the best biography to date of Preston Sturges), and "Romantic Comedy in Hollywood from Lubitsch to Sturges" by James Harvey.I anxiously await the DVD release of this masterpiece --- I've been told (via e-mail from son Tom Sturges) that it will include a wonderful interview with the late Eddie Bracken, who remained to the end a beloved friend to the Sturges family..
Betty Hutton is great as a woman who thinks she married an anonymous soldier in what may or may not have been a one-night stand (how did this one get past the censors of the time?) and hapless Eddie Bracken does his usual good work as the lovestruck loser willing to help her out.
When Preston Sturges was in his prime (1940-1944, with 'The Great McGinty', 'Christmas in July', 'The Lady Eve', 'Sullivan's Travels', 'The Palm Beach Story', 'The Miracle of Morgan's Creek' and 'Hail the Conquering Hero') it made for one of the best golden years/prime periods for any director in my view, where five or more very good to masterpieces in a row were made close to each other.Of those seven films mentioned, the top two for me are 'The Lady Eve' and especially 'Sullivan's Travels' (on a side note, also love his, for me, last great film 'Unfaithfully Yours', though that wasn't made during this period of a consistent if too short career).
Although the subject matter was controversial for the time, the film never stops being full of energy, hilarious and still manages to be accessible.A big star of 'The Miracle of Morgan's Creek' is the script, razor sharp, witty, slyly cynical and sophisticated.
'The Miracle of Morgan's Creek' has that, with charming, spirited performances from both Eddie Bracken and particularly Betty Hutton, both also with great comic timing and terrific interplay.
That is the substance of the story that meets the eye in "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek." It's a wonderful comedy that Preston Sturges wrote and directed during World War II.
Although Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton got top billing, this movie is a vehicle for William Demarest whose performance outshines that of the other performers.
I would like to rectify the misunderstanding so many reviewers have about the Betty Hutton character, Trudy Kockenlocker ("...a reckless moment of pleasure...", "...a drunken joyride...", "...one drunken night...", "...more than willing to give "the boys" departing for the war...", etc).
"The Miracle of Morgan's Creek", like most Preston Sturges films, starts out maniacally, this time told in a series of flashbacks.
While they are coming up with a solution, Trudy discovers that she is falling in love with Norval herself, so the solution is now to find Ratzkywatzky to divorce him so she can marry Norval.It is amazing to me that "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek", Preston Sturges' film (released in 1944 but filmed in 1942) was able to make it past the Hayes code.
This was one of the first film roles for Eddie Bracken, at the time already a veteran song and dance man from vaudeville, and his portrayal of wormy, tender hearted Norval is both charming and fun.Though my favorite Sturges film remains "Unfaithfully Yours" (1948) he really did a great job on this film, and it has plenty of belly laughs.
Fortunately, I have films like "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" and others to look back on when I have a yen for comedy, and I recommend that when you do too, you should do the same.
Support is roundly good because mostly they match the tone of the film.I'm not sure of the relationship between Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail The Conquering Hero (it looks like they were made back to back) but for me they both have similar problems when watching now.
After an all-night send-off party for the troops, a small-town girl (Betty Hutton) wakes up to find herself married and pregnant, but with no memory of her husband's identity.There were problems with the censors at the Hays Office over the film's subject matter.
In the small town of Morgan's Creek, Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) likes to dance with the soldiers going off to war.
Betty Hutton is Trudy Kockenlocker (amusing name!), a small-town girl who feels it's her civic duty to give the boys a good time before the go off to war.
"The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" is a first-rate comedy from Director Preston Sturges...
it's the story of a girl named Trudy (Betty Hutton) who gets drunk, married & pregnant by a GI who ships off to war the next morning.
Great moments include Trudy picking up Norval after her wild night, Norval with Mr. Kockenlocker on the front porch, and Norval's "escape" from prison.This was a very good movie and Eddie Bracken really walked the fine line between comedy and genuine sympathy...
(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.
Three: older teen Trudy(Betty Hutton), min-teen Emmy, and her father(William Demarest), have the last name of Kockenlocker, while Trudy's nerdy, stuttering, boyfriend Norval(Eddie Bracken) has the bland name of Jones.
Yes, Betty does much remind me of the later, comical, Lucy.My main criticism of the film is that the whole beginning episode, where Trudy goes on a movie date with Norval, but really wants to dance and party with some anonymous soldiers about to leave town, is wholly unbelievable.