Barnes & Noble

Of all the comedies made in the 1940s by writer-director Preston Sturges, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek is likely the funniest. It's a rib-tickling romp from the first frame to the last, loaded with this filmmaker's patented blend of dazzling wordplay and dizzying slapstick. Betty Hutton plays a small-town girl who does her patriotic duty by entertaining soldiers about to depart for World War II. After too many drinks and a clunk on the noggin at an all-night party, she wakes up unable to remember anything -- except that she and one of the just-departed G.I.s, swept up in the enthusiasm of the moment, got married under assumed names. Before long she learns that she's pregnant, which further complicates matters. Eddie Bracken plays her rescuer, a longtime admirer stuck in Morgan's Creek during the war because he's 4-F. William Demarest has a showy supporting role as the girl's perpetually apoplectic father, and he takes some bone-crunching pratfalls to punctuate Sturges' gags. The film was rather daring for its day; Hutton's plight, while hardly extraordinary in real-life America at the time, was not exactly the stuff of mainstream Hollywood comedies. (The hoops and rewrites Sturges had to jump through to get the story past the strict Hayes Code censors are documented in one of the DVD's swell bonus featurettes.) But the inspired treatment made Miracle relatively innocuous, and by today's standards it's positively tame -- in regard to subject matter, that is. The humor is Sturges at his zaniest, especially as the story draws nearer its wildly improbable (but somehow fitting) conclusion. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, some have greatness thrust upon 'em." Firmly in the latter category is Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken), a feckless wartime 4-F who must stand by helplessly as his sweetheart Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) entertains every visiting GI in town. One morning after a particularly wild night, Trudy labors under the apprehension that last eve, she'd married a soldier named Ratzkywatzky or something. Evidently something had happened that night, for soon Trudy discovers that she's pregnant. Hiding this information from her bombastic policeman father (William Demarest), Trudy begs Norval to tell the world that he's the father. He agrees, but only after secretly wedding Trudy under an assumed name. Complications and disasters pile up thick and fast, and before long Norval is facing arrest on a variety of charges. Providentially, Trudy gives birth to sextuplets-and suddenly Norval is a national hero! This vintage Preston Sturges farce plays so fast and loose with the censorial restrictions of mid-1940s Hollywood that critic James Agee was moved to comment that, "the Hays office must have been raped in its sleep." As usual, Sturges populates his cast with steadfast members of his stock company-- including, in guest roles, Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff, the stars of his previous film, The Great McGinty. Originally filmed in 1942, Miracle was held from release from two years, not because of censor problems but because its parent studio, Paramount, was overloaded with product. Miracle of Morgan's Creek was remade (and considerably laundered) as the 1958 Jerry Lewis vehicle Rock-a-bye Baby. Hal Erickson

New York Times

Here is one of the comic masterpieces of the American cinema... presented in a superb print for the highly reasonable list price.... So just buy it already. Dave Kehr

Product Details

• UPC: 097360431247
• Source: PARAMOUNT
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Pan & Scan
• Language: English
• Time: 1:38:00
• Sales Rank: 6,230

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