Film Review: The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)

History of film censorship is also history of film makers who were dealing with it. They usually did it by finding ingenious ways around it, and this was especially in case of Classic Hollywood with MPAA Production Code a.k.a. Hays Code, the strictest and most infamous system of censorship in 20th Century. But there were also those film makers who tackled censorship head on, hoping that they would simply shock censors with their outrageousness. The most successful among such efforts represents The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, 1944 comedy written and directed by Preston Sturges.

The film was made during Second World War and such event provides backdrop for the plot which is set in small Midwestern town of Morgan’s Creek. Protagonist is Trudy Kockenlocker (played by Betty Hutton), daughter of town’s constable (played by William Demarest). Like so many young women at the time, she is fascinated with young men in uniform and wants to attend farewell party for soldiers. Her authoritative father doesn’t want to go, but she finds the way to trick him in with the help of young bank clerk Norval Jones (played by Eddie Bracken). He asks him to convince her father that they are on a date while she is partying. Norval, who was carrying torch for Trudy since childhood, agrees but plan goes disastrously wrong. Trudy takes too much lemonade spiked with alcohol, doesn’t arrive before early morning and soon discovers that she was apparently married to one of the soldiers. To make things worse, she can’t remember name of her husband and she too has apparently been married under false name. Situation gets further complicated when it turns out that she is pregnant. Norval again volunteers to help, but his efforts would get him in trouble.

The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek is in its essence screwball comedy that lives and dies on snappy and sharp dialogue, quick pace, unusual characters and, most importantly, humour that helps audience forget that the film deals with some unpleasant subjects like war, alcohol abuse and single motherhood. Sturges who, just like in his best known film Sullivan’s Travels, knew how to explore darker side of American society through biting satire, here takes aim at institutions that were supposed to be sacred – religion, family and, last but not least, military, which was supposed to be beyond any criticism during wartime years. He does so not only with good direction, but also with the help of great cast, some of them, like Betty Hutton and William Demarest, playing roles being explicitly written for them. Sturges also succeeds in establishing sympathies for his characters despite their obvious flaws – Constable Kockenlocker is violent tyrant, while Trudy is lying manipulator. In case Norval, who is the most innocent of all characters, the task is much easier but nevertheless well-done thanks to great comedic talent by Eddie Bracken, an actor who liked to improvise on set. Those very improvisations are, on the other hand, film’s greatest flaw. When Sturges began to shoot the film, he actually didn’t have the finished script nor idea what the miracle from the title should be. When he finally found the answer, it didn’t look very inspiring and idea to put in the context of war made the film look dated almost immediately after the war’s end. Despite its flaws The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek was popular at the box office, and one of film’s big fans was General Dwight S. Eisenhower, commander of Allied forces in Europe and future President, whose authority helped with diffusing problems with censors. While audience today can still enjoy film, for critics and film historians it is more interesting as case study how a Classic Hollywood film makers could undermine censorship code which barred word “pregnancy” from being spoken in the film. In 1958 Miracle of Morgan’s Creek was loosely remade under title Rock-a-Bye Baby with Jerry Lewis in starring role.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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