The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)
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.
~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, (more)
- Director(s):
- Preston Sturges
- Format(s):
- DVD
View All Versions to rent and buy
Synopsis of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
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.
~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Theatrical Feature Running Time:
- 98 mins
Complete Cast of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
- Eddie Bracken - Norval Jones
- Diana Lynn - Emmy Kockenlocker
- Brian Donlevy - Governor McGinty
- Al Bridge - Mr. Johnson
- Akim Tamiroff - The Boss
- Esther Howard - Sally
- John Farrell MacDonald - Sheriff
- Frank Moran - First M.P.
- Torben Meyer - Doctor
- Harry Rosenthal - Mr. Schwartz
- Budd Fine - 2nd MP
- Keith Richards - Secret Service man
- Jan Buckingham - Nurse
- Freddie Steele - Soldier
- Chester Conklin - Pete
- Jimmy Conlin - The Mayor
- Jack Norton - Man Opening Champagne
- Kenneth Gibson - Secret Service man
- Betty Hutton - Trudy Kockenlocker
- William Demarest - Constable Kockenlocker
- Porter Hall - Justice of the Peace
- Emory Parnell - Mr. Tuerck
- Victor Potel - Newspaper Editor
- Almira Sessions - Justice of the Peace's Wife
- Julius Tannen - Mr. Rafferty
- Georgia Caine - Mrs. Johnson
- George Melford - US Marshal
- Nora Cecil - Head Nurse
- Robert Dudley - Man
- Roger Creed - State Police
- Bobby Watson - Adolf Hitler
- Byron Foulger - McGinty's Secretary
- Joe Devlin - Mussolini
- Hal Craig - State policeman
- Arthur Hoyt - McGinty's Secretary
- Judith Lowry - Nurse
- Director(s):
- Preston Sturges
- Writer(s):
- Preston Sturges
- Producer(s):
- Preston Sturges
- Categories:
- Comedy
- 2001 - Library of Congress - U.S. National Film Registry
- 1944 - National Board of Review - Best Acting
- 1942-1943 - New York Times - 10 Best Films
- Looking for special editions of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek?
- See All Versions
- Subtitles:
- Check All Versions
- Closed Captioning:
- Check All Versions
