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The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

(1944, Rated NR, Classic, Starring Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, William Demarest)

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 10, age appropriate for kids over 12; suggested age 12.

  • Is it any good?

    5.0

  • Common Sense says

    Hilarious WWII comedy flirts with taboos.

Why We Rated This on for Ages 12 and Up

The good stuff

  • Messages:

    As 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.
 

What to watch out for

  • Violence:

    A gun waved around (and fired, harmlessly). Some slapstick pratfalls.

  • Sex:

    Even though the movie is about sex, unplanned pregnancy, and abandonment, everything is couched in suggestion and innuendo.

  • Language:

    The family name "Kockenlocker" is an off-color pun.

  • Consumerism:

    Some references to other 1940s movies, music, and dance fads.

  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Drinking and partying (with dire consequences, but still looks like a lot of fun).
 

What Parents Need to Know

About The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

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.

Did this review help you decide?

Families Can Talk About

  • 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.
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