Review of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) by Kayla K — 22 Jun 2008
It's so fun to see the Gov. McGinty character pop up right away in this movie. He has been called on by the town Morgans Creek to "fix" a morality issue of one of it's members who is making world news. Without telling you a thing, they go into the story...
A cute quirky blonde, Trudy, wants to give "the (army) boys" a proper goodbye. Since her father wants her to stay away from the army guys, she has her local admirer, Norval, cover for her so she can still go out. She bumps her head and ends up married and pregnant... to a man she can't remember and whom gave a fake name for the marriage license. She brings in Norval in order to cover it all up *since it is his only wish in life to please Trudy. He is so kind to her that she falls for him. Though, because she used the same voice for all her manipulations, I never quite believed she was being honest. Poor Norval with his heart condition. Whatever he tries, he makes the situation worse... all is redeemed when everyone wants to cover up the illegitimacy of the sextuplet boys born to Trudy, which makes international news. Poor Norval and his heart condition.
The thing I'm loving about Preston Sturge's movies is the break-neck banter, the interesting characters, and the playfulness with dialog. The surnames Kockenlocker and Ratzkywatzky were playfully thrown around and stuttered to make a fun poetic sound. I especially like the reactions of the third Riech to the news that the USA is now able to produce awesome numbers of baby boys to fight them.
On the special feature portion of the disc was a neat little expository piece about the movie. Apparently this was made right after censorship became really strict. Preston Sturges basically wrote this movie to break all of the rules without breaking the rules (and to point out the ridiculousness of it all). In fact, the side story of the mayor and powers that be "fixing" the appearance of Trudy's morality for the world to see is a direct comment on censorship. Knowing all of this made a completely enjoyable movie even deeper and more thrilling.
The strict morality of 70 years ago is so alien to me.
This review of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) was written by Kayla K on 22 Jun 2008.
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek has generally received very positive reviews.
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