calvinnme 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.

morrison-dylan-fan Despite having become interested in taking a look at the work of producer/ writer/directing auteur Preston Sturges since reading a detailed review for a box set of his work in Empire magazine,and also having heard about his link to the Coen Brother's movie Oh Brother Where Art Though? a few years ago,I have found myself constantly pushing the chance to take a look at Sturges work for the first time tragically to the side,due to there having always been "just one more" title that I have had to take a look at,before getting the chance to take a glimpse of a Preston Sturges movie.With my dad also having been keen on taking a look at Sturges work,I was thrilled to recently discover that my dad had decide to pick Preston up from the side that he had been permanently waiting for a lift on!,by picking up the Japaneses DVD edition of one of his most well known films,which led to me excitingly getting prepared to discover the miracle of Morgon's Creek for the first time.The plot:Holding a less than secret crush for Trudy Knockenlocker for a number of years,Norval Jones (who has been found unfit for military service) gets the shock of his life,when Tudy reveals to Norval that she will finally go on a date with him to the movies,due to Knocklocker's dad banning his daughter from attending a military party which his being held for solders to bid a fond farewell to their love ones,before they head off on their tour of duty.Dressed in his smartest clothes,Jones finds his and Tudy's walk to the cinema one of the toughest that he has ever taken,due to Knockenlocker openly showing to Norval that she is deeply upset about not being allowed to wave the soldiers goodbye.With having always hated to see Tudy upset,Jones decides to put his feeling for Knockenlocker aside and do a deal with her,where he will go and watch the triple feature that they both were originally meant to see,whilst Tudy can attend the solider's party,and pick up Jones at the end of the night.The next morning:Waking up outside the cinema,an angry Norval is awoken by a loud honking noise that is coming from a badly damaged car being driven by a rather drunk Tudy.Furious over Knockenlocker, (who cant remember anything at all about the events that took place the previous night)Jones decides to get in the car,and drive Tudy back home.As Norval gets closer to her house,Knockenlocker discover's to her horror that she is wearing a wedding ring from a late night marriage,whose groom she is unable to remember the name,and even the face of.View on the film:Filmed at a time when the Hay's Code was in full swing,producer/writer/director Preston Sturges cleverly decides to use the Screwball Comedy elements of his excellent screenplay as a way to hide some incredibly daring twist & turns in the movie's plot,which hark back to the wonderful Pre-Code era of US cinema.Initially making Tudy look like a wholesome,all American girl,Struges gradually peels away Knockenlocker's good gal image,to reveal the character as a wild'n willing party girl.Struges shows Knockenlocker (what a name!) to have a much more masculine personality than the male lead in the movie,by having Knockenlocker go from driving around after a night out partying,to pressing all the right,easy to reach buttons,in getting Noval to agree in helping Tudy to cover up her wild antics.Going against the traditions of the time,Sturges decides to break as many taboos as possible by openly showing drunkenness,single motherhood,and also making a rather risky suggestion that the solider's may not be as clean cut as the town's folk dream of them to be.Expertly balancing the film to make sure that it never falls into becoming self indulgent,Sturges contrast's the controversial story sections of the movie by filling every section of the movie with ribbons of precise,delightfully screwball dialogue which bounces from every corner of the screen,that is also given the chance to breath,thanks to Sturges shooting Tudy & Norval's building relationship in long,elegantly handled tracking shots,which along with allowing Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton's excellent,subtle performance's to truly shine,also makes the miracle that takes places at Morgan's Creek a wonderful thing to witness.

Jem Odewahn Another great Sturges comedy, though nowhere near as good as The Palm Beach Story. Betty Hutton is Trudy Kockenlocker (amusing name!), a small-town girl who feels it's her civic duty to give the boys a good time before the go off to war. But one night she gets herself married AND knocked-up, and can't remember who the father is! Interesting that this even got made in 1944, with the Production Code in force. I guess Sturges skirted around the censors by insisting Hutton drank only "victory lemonade" (yeah, right) and having her actually marry the father of the baby. Eddie Bracken is Hutton's stuttering long-time friend, who's been besotted with her forever. The guy's so in love he's willing to pretend he's the father, and the film becomes quite touching when Trudy really sees what a great guy that nerdy Norval is. Although this film didn't give me quite the laughs I was expecting, and the crazy humor seems strained at times, it's still very good. I especially liked the scenes between the precocious 14 year-old sister and her high-strung, yet caring, father.

bob the moo Trudy Kockenlocker feels she is only doing her patriotic duty when she sneaks off the a farewell dance for the young men of Morgan's Creek as they mostly head off to war. However the next morning she turns up drunk and married to boot. The problem is she has no memory of doing anything or who she may have done it with and the only thing she knows for sure is that she is going to be in a lot of trouble in this small town when news gets out – not to mention the trouble in her own home. Fortunately young Norval Jones (prevented from military service due to his medical condition) is besotted by her and agrees to try and help her out. What could go wrong? This films appears to have much in common with Sturges' Hail, The Conquering Hero, not least of which is the fact that I came to both on the strength of five stars next to it in the Radio Times listings. Also in common is that I was not as impressed as I thought I should be but still enjoyed it as a "watch it once" affair. The narrative is a comedy but it is built on a foundation of showing how small town America is when it comes to certain subjects. Again it has this in common with Hail because it is clear that the film has a satirical edge to it that runs behind everything else – but both there and here the downside of this is that it is not that sharp or obvious. Indeed with modern eyes it seems very tame indeed, mainly because my cynical generation has not only gotten used to very sharp comedy but also we long since gave up on the idea that anyone was just plain good and homely! What this leaves is a perfectly fine comedy with a good mix of slapstick, screwball stylings and funny dialogue. IMDb tells me that this did show up on Premiere's list of 50 greatest comedies, but that to me smacks of them making sure they have some "classics" in there rather than them actually rolling over it. I might be wrong on that but I do know that I did not find it hilarious and only laughed out loud a couple of times. What it did do though was have me chuckling for the majority. This is driven by the material and the upbeat comic feel the delivery has but also by the cast. Bracken is enjoyable and is another link to Hail (there are many in this cast though). His shy and put upon young man is sympathetic but never pathetic – an distinction that is important for keeping the viewer on board. Hutton works really well alongside him, particularly with some fast paced dialogue. Demerest is a hoot as her father and most of my laughs were for him. Support is roundly good because mostly they match the tone of the film.I'm not sure of the relationship between Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail The Conquering Hero (it looks like they were made back to back) but for me they both have similar problems when watching now. The relevance and impact of the background is less important to the viewer and does feel dated. The comedy is good without being brilliant, leaving an enjoyable film that is worth seeing as long as you take the gushing praise to be more representative of the film's place in history rather than how the casual viewer will find it today.