The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

Unrated | 1h 38min | Comedy, Romance, War | January 1944 (USA)

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.

Director: Preston Sturges

Writer: Preston Sturges

Stars: Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037077/

Synopsis by Hal Erickson

This wild, once-controversial comedy stars Betty Hutton as Trudy Kockenlocker, a man-crazy single girl whose favorite pastime involves entertaining 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. She hides this information from her bombastic policeman father (William Demarest), and before long, Trudy's on-again, off-again boyfriend, hapless bank clerk Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken), gets tapped to be the father of the unborn child. He takes the assumed name Ratzkywatzky and poses as a GI (in a World War I uniform!). Unfortunately, this only leads to further complications. Disasters pile up thick and fast, and before long Norval is facing arrest on a variety of charges. Then the miracle of the title occurs. 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 for an inordinate period of time. The picture was remade (and considerably laundered) as the 1958 Jerry Lewis vehicle Rock-a-bye Baby.

http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-miracle-of-morgans-creek-v32822

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek is a 1944 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton, and featuring Diana Lynn, William Demarest and Porter Hall. Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff reprise their roles from Sturges' 1940 film The Great McGinty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Miracle_of_Morgan's_Creek

Great Comedy!

18 May 2002 | by John P. Jarvis (jhnjrv@aol.com) (Northridge, California) – See all my reviews

I first saw "Miracle" during WW2, sitting on an emptied bomb crate in a field where Special Services had set up a screen. We soldiers howled with laughter. Since then I have seen it a few more times and I enjoy it more than ever.