Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that morning-after nightmares about sex and unplanned pregnancy are at the center of this comedy, even though the scandalous material is presented within the boundaries of good taste (and old Hollywood's strict censorship code, though it's pretty amazing how much they got away with). Technically, at least, there's no pre-marital sex -- it's just that heroine Trudy can't remember whom it was that she drunkenly married and took to bed. Kids not used to classics may not be clamoring to see this, but it's definitely worth a try if they like comedies.
Families can talk about the WWII historical backdrop to this film -- when young male soldiers were departing regularly for battle, and there was a certain expectation that they were entitled to get married, or even fool around, before marching off to fight and likely die. Premarital sex and single mothers no longer carry the stigma they did when this film was made. Do you think that's a good thing? Do you think this film could have been in today's R-rated climate and remained as funny? It might need explaining that a few of the supporting characters, whose role in the action is rather puzzling, are holdovers from a previous Preston Sturges comedy, The Great McGinty.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Charles Cassady, Jr.
Long before Knocked Up there was this classic, rapid-fire comedy about unintended pregnancy and the consequences of casual sexual intercourse -- made in a Hollywood so strictly ruled by iron-fisted censorship that even using terms like "pregnancy" and "casual sexual intercourse" were forbidden. Director Preston Sturges was a master of rollicking comedies that heavily utilized suggestion, character reaction, and innuendo, and he made this farce surrounding some of the most taboo subjects without holding back.
It takes place in a very real WWII milieu of young American servicemen, going off to battle and possible death in Europe or the Pacific, having rowdy parties and quick marriages with girls they hardly even know; they're trying to cram as much fun in as possible before shipping out. Vivacious small-town girl Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) schemes to go out and join the frantic dancing and drinking, despite being kept a virtual prisoner at home by her protective, widowed father (William Demerest), the local cop, who knows exactly what happens at these parties.
Trudy has a longtime admirer, Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken), a wimpy bank clerk, disqualified from the military because of his incredibly shaky nerves (nonetheless, he desperately wants to serve, typical of the post-Pearl Harbor Hollywood boosting the Allied cause).
Trudy gets Norval to pretend to take her to the movies, with Mr. Kockenlocker's grudging approval. In reality, Trudy takes Norval's car and gets drunk and disoriented with a crew of soldiers and girls at a succession of clubs. When she wakes up back at home she has a makeshift wedding ring (borrowed from a curtain rod) and a vague memory of spending a passionate night with a man whose name she thinks goes something like "Ratsky-Watsky."
Soon after, Trudy realizes she's pregnant. Noble Norval says he'd do anything to help her out of any jam, and together they conspire to elope and get married. But because Trudy is technically married already, Norval has to impersonate "Ratsky-Watsky." His attempt to legitimize things is what brings down the law on him, for impersonating a military officer, bigamy, corrupting public morals, and host of other charges. Even thought the sputtering Mr. Kockenlocker is on Norval's side, it takes the "miracle" of the title to suddenly turn Norval into a national hero -- maybe even turn the tide of the war.
Bracken is hilarious in his nonstop comical meltdown as a jittery but pure-hearted suitor -- so incredibly naïve and innocent he has to be walked, step-by-step, through a jailbreak, not comprehending what's going on. Hutton was a blonde, wholesomely gorgeous singer-actress who has an early scene here lip-syncing to a record that could stand by itself as one of Hollywood's funniest moments. Ever. Even with the laugh-out-loud stuff, the basic pathos of these folks, trying so hard to make backpedal from the consequences of one reckless night, is touching as it convulsive.
You might need to explain to kids that a few of the supporting characters, whose role in the action is rather puzzling, are holdovers from a previous Preston Sturges comedy, the more politically oriented The Great McGinty.
It might be a good way to introduce kids to more of the comedies of Sturges, considered one of the American film's greatest farceurs. He also made a terrific burlesque of WWII flag-waving, also starring Eddie Bracken, called Hail the Conquering Hero and did a masterful Depression-era comedy called Sullivan's Travels that concludes that no matter how bad things are, people need humor -- even desperate people have a fundamental need to laugh. Maybe even the censors understood that when their scissors hovered over Miracle of Morgan's Creek.
Rate It!
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| CS | adults | kids | ||
Sexual ContentEven though the movie is about sex, unplanned pregnancy, and abandonment, everything is couched in suggestion and innuendo. |
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ViolenceA gun waved around (and fired, harmlessly). Some slapstick pratfalls. |
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LanguageThe family name "Kockenlocker" is an off-color pun. |
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Message |
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Social BehaviorAs nervous and wimpy as he seems, Norval valiantly tries to do what's right and good for Trudy, no matter the disaster it brings him. He's such a guileless innocent that he practically has to be walked through how to break out of jail. Trudy is a party girl who pays a price for her dishonesty and shows real remorse at the way she uses Norval. |
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CommercialismSome references to other 1940s movies, music, and dance fads. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoDrinking and partying (with dire consequences, but still looks like a lot of fun). |
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