Чудо Морганова ручья (1944)

1944 film by Preston Sturges

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek is a 1944 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton, and featuring Diana Lynn, William Demarest and Porter Hall. Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff reprise their roles from Sturges' 1940 film The Great McGinty. Set against the backdrop of World War II era America, its plot follows a wayward young woman who, after attending a party with soldiers in her small town, awakens to find herself married and pregnant, with no memory of her new suitor's identity. Sturges began developing the idea for the film in the late 1930s, and wrote both Hutton's and Demarest's roles with the actors in mind. Principal photography took place between late 1942 and early 1943. Early into production, the film was met by considerable objections from the Hays Office for its candid depiction of an unwed pregnant mother, as well as for its representation of American soldiers, which the United States War Department felt may be potentially unflattering. The film's narrative structure is shaped around the titular "miracle"—the lead character's birth of sextuplets—being revealed at the end of the film, and Paramount Pictures promoted it with the suggestion that audiences and the press avoid revealing its surprise ending. Released in January 1944, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek was met by critical praise at the time of its release, and continues to receive generally positive reception in modern reviews. It was nominated for a 1945 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 2001, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The film ranks #54 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years 100 Laughs list of the top 100 funniest films in history.

Sturges biographer Diane Jacobs identifies unconventional family life as the core theme of The Miracle at Morgan's Creek, citing that the families portrayed in the film parallel Sturges's own family.

Sturges developed the idea for The Miracle of Morgan's Creel in the late 1930s: The original story revolved around his heroine, Trudy Kockenlocker, a woman who becomes pregnant by a wealthy banker's son who refuses to marry her, leading her to being cared for by a hermit before she gives birth to sextuplets. The story eventually was reshaped into something "far less sentimental", featuring the character of Trudy becoming pregnant by a soldier, with the character of Norval, her friend, pursuing her. Describing the screenplay, Sturges biographer Diane Jacobs notes that the film features small town characters who "are as diverse and scrappy as city folk. And though perpetually thrown together, they certainly do not blend. Nor do they easily inhabit their landscape." Unlike Sturges's previous screenplays, Easy Living (1937) and The Lady Eve (1941), which blend elements of farce and comedy, Jacobs notes that The Miracle of Morgan's Creek instead combines farce and melodrama, "maximizing the pain and violence inherent in both forms."

While Sturges was completing The Great Moment (1944), he pitched the idea for the film intending to cast Betty Hutton and Harry Carey in the lead roles as Trudy and Norval. Hutton was cast in the lead role of Trudy, while Eddie Bracken was cast as Norval. The role of Papa Kockenlocker was written with William Demarest in mind, while Sturges chose to cast pianist Diana Lynn as Trudy's sister.

Principal photography took place between October 21 to December 23, 1942, with additional scenes shot on February 25, 1943. Outdoor scenes were shot at the Paramount Ranch in Agoura, California. Sturges was reported to have been "moody" on the set, partly attributed to the pressure he had received from the production code over the film's controversial content. Bracken stated that he and Sturges "never had any real problems" on set, but did note that the director was often harshly critical of the actors, which Bracken felt was a method Sturges employed to help "deepen the performances." Despite Paramount's wishes to maintain a tight shooting schedule, Sturges was liberal with his use of film stock, sometimes shooting sequences up to fifty times, inflating the production budget against the studio's wishes. Executive Buddy DeSylva expressed anger over Sturges' shooting methods, stating in a letter to Sturges:

Problems arose with Hays Office censors early into the film's production because of its subject matter, particularly its candid representation of an unwed pregnant woman. In October 1942, after a story conference, the office sent Paramount a seven page letter outlining their concerns, including those about lines spoken by the 14 year old character Emmy and the Trudy character having been drunk and then pregnant. Sturges' intent was to "show what happens to young girls who disregard their parents' advice and who confuse patriotism with promiscuity," and had included in his script a sermon for the pastor to deliver, expressing Sturges' opinions, but the scene was cut by the studio because the pastor was depicted in too comic a manner.

Although shot in 1942 and early 1943, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek was withheld from distribution until early 1944, because Paramount had a backlog of unreleased films, including Sturges' The Great Moment. In September 1942, Paramount sold a number of films, such as I Married a Witch, to United Artists, which needed to keep its distribution pipeline filled, but Paramount held on to The Miracle of Morgan's Creek because it was directed by Sturges, waiting for an opportunity to release it.

The film premiered at New York's Paramount Theatre on January 19, 1944. To promote the film, Paramount aired a 20 minute preview on the some 400 television sets then in use in New York City on March 21, 1944, with stills from the film, narration by Eddie Bracken and an interview with Diana Lynn.

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek received overwhelmingly favorable reviews from critics upon release. Bosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times: "a more audacious picture—a more delightfully irreverent one—than this new lot of nonsense at the Paramount has never come slithering madly down the path. Mr. Sturges has hauled off this time and tossed a satire which is more cheeky than all the rest It's hard to imagine how he ever got away with such a thing, how he ever persuaded the Hays boys that he wasn't trying to undermine all morals Maybe the humor is forced a little, and it may be slightly difficult at times to understand precisely what in heck is going on. But that doesn't make any difference. At those times, you can catch your breath." Critic James Agee noted that "the Hays office has either been hypnotized into a liberality for which it should be thanked, or has been raped in its sleep" to allow the film to be released. In a second review, Agee described the film as "a little like taking a nun on a roller coaster." U. S. Military General Dwight D. Eisenhower was an outspoken fan of the film.

Reviews from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes indicate an 87% approval rate with an average of 8.2/10 based on 30 reviews. Its critics' consensus says: "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek finds director Preston Sturges at his most zanily subversive not to mention hilarious." Metacritic assigned a weighted average of 86 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim" and labelling it a "must see". In a positive review of nine out of ten stars by Mike Massie, writing for Gone With The Twins, states the film is "handled with a spectacular hilarity and cleverness; when the hole is dug this deep, the only way out is through further outrageousness." Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid gave a rating of three and a half stars out of four, noting the zany tone of the film, and positively questioning how Sturges got away with such a film, especially during the era of the Hays Code.

The film was released on DVD and VHS on September 6, 2005.