Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 20-May-07
Spoiler Rating: Medium

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)

I tend to admire classic screwball comedies more than I like them. One must be impressed with writers of lightning repartee and actors who can handle it, but too often these stories exhaust me with their manic energy. Maybe it's because "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" is set in a leisurely town instead of a bustling city that it feels like the pitch-perfect screwball comedy. Goofy enough to be funny but not frenzied enough to be tiresome, Preston Sturges' tale of unwanted pregnancy and wartime values is nothing short of delightful.

As befits a movie meant to distract viewers during troubled times, "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" turns tragic circumstances into comic victories for nice, well-meaning people. The laughs come quickly as we meet Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton), a pretty blonde who amuses a horde of GIs by lip-synching in a record store. The men long to flirt with her and she longs to oblige them, being young and friendly and eager to support the troops. Unfortunately, Trudy's widowed father (William Demarest) squelches her plan to attend a dance in the soldiers' honor. He knows what they're after on their last night stateside, although he doesn't comprehend his daughter's cunning. She rounds up a date for the movies instead (wink, wink) and then lams it for the dance hall posthaste.

Trudy's front is a dweeb named Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken) who has loved her all his life. He's a marvelous character with the stuttering and moping of a loser and the enthusiasm and loyalty of a hero. Norval endures being sacrificed for the object of his affection not once but many times as Trudy's night out develops into a scandal of colossal proportions (for a small town, anyway). The only thing she remembers about it is some guy in her crowd saying "Let's all get married!" and suggesting she use a fake name. She can only assume that she wed a departing soldier (dubbed "Ignatz Ratsky-Watsky" for lack of a reliable memory), and her fear is confirmed when she learns she is bearing his child.

With much affection and foolishness, Trudy and Norval try to extricate her from this plight, abetted by her precocious little sister Emmy (Diana Lynn). They're hilarious. "What's the matter with gas?" she asks, pitching a double-suicide. "What's the matter with bigamy!" he counters, while running afoul of her father's suspicions. Their chemistry enhances the bumbling schemes all the way through the raucous finale, in which Sturges even twits a convincing-looking Hitler. It's silly stuff executed with extraordinary precision, which is almost a miracle in itself.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.