The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1943)

Absolutely Fantastic

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

In the middle of WWII comes this film that is full of references to that war yet manages to undermine the usual image of the valiant warrior marching off to battle, suggesting that along the way one of them took advantage of a tipsy girl, maybe even drugged her drink from her lack of recollection of the evening that was supposed to be an innocent farewell dance for the soldiers, and left her pregnant from a one night stand, never to inquire about her again. In the 21st century date rape comes to mind. If it was even a date.Now of course this soldier is never found or named. And instead a sanitized version of the story appears. What I wrote in the first paragraph is strictly between the lines. Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) is an underaged girl, probably late teens, back when legal age was 21, who is told by her widowed father, the town constable (William Demarest), that she is not to go to the farewell party because he rightly fears the rowdiness of the event. So Trudy says instead she will go to the movies with Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken). She knows he loves her and she is accustomed to using him, although she would probably never admit that to herself. So she borrows Norval's car, tells him she will pick him up after the last feature, but does not appear again until the next morning at 8AM, with a big blank where the latter part of the evening should be. As they drive away a "Just Married" sign falls off of the car's rear bumper, and when Trudy gets home she notices she is wearing a ring. Slowly, through the haze of memory, a "maybe" wedding comes back to her, but not the who or where. The trouble appears later when Trudy realizes she is pregnant by her anonymous husband, and she has no marriage license to prove her story.As in any Sturges film, there is a veritable cornucopia of wonderful one liners, which can come from any and every member of the large comic ensemble cast, at any time. No scene is too sacred, including a wedding, or a father's viewing of his newborn children. As for the cast, Hutton plays it sweet and somewhat dizzy, showing that she could prevail in other genres besides musicals, Eddie Bracken plays it nervous and a bit over the top as the only man in Morgan's Creek between 18 and 40 who is not in the military because of his 4F status, and the always funny William Demarest is full of pratfalls and one liners and even compassion when it is called for as Trudy's exasperated dad. Why does this remain in Paramount's possession when they sold off just about every other talking picture made between 1929 and 1949 to Universal? It is because, at the time, nobody believed anyone would ever allow this to be shown on TV.Highly recommended.

In the small town of Morgan's Creek, Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) likes to dance with the soldiers going off to war. Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken) would love to be a soldier but he can never pass the physical. Single father Constable Edmund Kockenlocker (William Demarest) refuses to let his girls Trudy and Emmy (Diana Lynn) go to the party. Trudy tricks her father and uses Norval as a cover to go to the party. The next morning, she wakes up pregnant and married but don't know who's the guy. Emmy suggests Trudy should marry poor sap Norval. Then it's loopy schemes, all kinds of cops, arrest, a reluctant escape and sextuplets. It's utter mayhem.The censors must have taken a bribe. The story is outlandish and inappropriate for its time. Trudy starts off not very well liked and that does stop some of the comedy in the beginning. She wins me over when she starts stuttering. For the first time, she and Norval match. They become believable as a couple. They're both idiots and they're still funny even today.

In the Paramount All Star spectacular Star Spangled Rhythm, Betty Hutton does a number called Doin' My Bit For Defense. In The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek, Betty does in fact really give her all to the boys going over there.How Preston Sturges got this one past the censors is beyond me. Not only the fact that it deals with illegitimate births in a light hearted way, but it shows the fighting men of the US Armed Services in a less than favorable light during World War II. But because he did this film holds up remarkably well. I like it almost as much as I like my favorite Preston Sturges film, Sullivan's Travels.Betty Hutton as Trudy Kockenlocker of Morgan's Creek feels it her patriotic duty to give her all for our fighting men. One night she does just that, she can't remember whom she might have married that night, if anyone and is left quite pregnant. Though how much pregnant we don't know until the end of the film.Eddie Bracken is her poor dumb schnook of a boyfriend who's a 4-F and he's willing to take the rap. William Demarest is caught between wanting to strangle the guilty party and seeing someone make an honest woman of Hutton. All this is watched with some amused detachment by Hutton's younger sister Diana Lynn.The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek got Preston Sturges an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Sad to say though Sturges was up against himself that year because he was also nominated in the same category for Hail The Conquering Hero. Both lost to 20th Century Fox's solemn biographical film Wilson.This film is Betty Hutton's best screen role in my humble opinion. And quite possibly the same for Eddie Bracken. Certainly no other director was able to utilize the personalities of both these performers as well as Preston Sturges.This is one eternal comedy classic, absolutely don't miss this.

I found this to be a mildly funny and extremely fast paced screwball comedy. Betty Hutton is quite cute in her portrayal of Trudy Kockenlocker. Yes, that's her name. And yes, there are quite a few phonetic gymnastics required in the crazy dialogue. There's "Ignatz Ratzkywatzky" - the so called husband Trudy marries on a whim after a night of partying with soldiers about to ship out. But the problem is, she can't exactly remember his name and used a fake name for herself. So, she can't find proof of the marriage and is devastated when she learns she is pregnant.I'm not sure I like the humor poked at having a unknown marriage partner, and a resulting pregnancy. But I'm sure things happened like that during the war as boys were being shipped out.The dad is very funny and is played by William Demarest (male nanny from "My Three Sons". His pratfalls, at his age, are quite impressive and are probably some of the funnier moments in the movie for me. And the younger sister, played by Diana Lynn, is very wise beyond her years. Quite a mature performance for such a young girl.