Watch The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek For Free

Beautiful, moving film.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

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.

After an all-night send-off party for the troops, a small-town girl (Betty Hutton) wakes up to find herself married and pregnant, but with no memory of her husband's identity.There were problems with the censors at the Hays Office over the film's subject matter. In October 1942, after a story conference, the office sent Paramount a seven-page letter outlining their concerns, including remarks made by the character Emmy, who is 14 years old; the potential of the film's portraying Trudy as being drunk; and reducing anything to do with Trudy's pregnancy. Of course, all these objections are part of what makes the film so darn funny, along with the screwball nature of it all. The scene where the cop tells a man over and over how to escape is just hilarious.Critic James Agee noted (not too subtly) that "the Hays office must have been raped in its sleep" to allow the film to be released. Although the Hays Office received many letters of protest because of the film's subject matter, it was Paramount's highest-grossing film of 1944, playing to standing-room-only audiences in some theaters. Such an interesting situation of humor trumping censorship... today, do we even have a censor? The MPAA is a shell of its former self.

"The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" is a first-rate comedy from Director Preston Sturges... it's the story of a girl named Trudy (Betty Hutton) who gets drunk, married & pregnant by a GI who ships off to war the next morning. The problem: she can't even remember his name & now has to face her over-protective cop Father and the judgments of her small-town neighbors.Enter Eddie Bracken as Norval Jones, the goodhearted schlub unfit for military detail who's been in love with Trudy as long as he can remember. The comedy that follows is often hilarious, sometimes repetitive, and only occasionally flat. Great moments include Trudy picking up Norval after her wild night, Norval with Mr. Kockenlocker on the front porch, and Norval's "escape" from prison.This was a very good movie and Eddie Bracken really walked the fine line between comedy and genuine sympathy... my only complaint was that it ran too long, and as a result took one too many plot twists. Otherwise a classy comedy...GRADE: B-

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.