Of course, the most amazing 'miracle' is that the Sturges satirical screwball farce ever passed the absurdly restricting Hays censor board. Despite all the reviews I checked over, I didn't find any that dwelled on the identity of the miracle. Clearly, the miracle in the story is the birth of sextuplet boys by Trudy: a small town late teen, who didn't remember having sex with a man, and didn't remember the identity of a possible 'one night stand' husband. Also, the boys were born on or near Christmas, which alludes to the possibility that the sextuplets represent a grossly exaggerated instance of virgin birth, as claimed to have occurred with Mary, mother of Jesus. Clearly, the sextuplets represent a yet more unbelievable birth than that of the then famous Dionne quintuplets of Ontario, hence the newspaper headline 'Canada protests'. At that time, no live set of sextuplets had ever been recorded in North America. The extreme frenetic reaction of the state governor and retinue and the press, and fearful reactions of Mussolini and Hitler are largely a satire on the extent to which the Dionne quintuplets were the object of awe during the preceding decade, when they were taken from their parents and exhibited as 'freaks' to some millions of paying curiosity seekers, helping Ontario survive The Depression.Aside from the governor, there are 4 principle characters. Three: older teen Trudy(Betty Hutton), min-teen Emmy, and her father(William Demarest), have the last name of Kockenlocker, while Trudy's nerdy, stuttering, boyfriend Norval(Eddie Bracken) has the bland name of Jones. I would imagine the somewhat tongue-twisting, yet lyrically memorable, Kockenlocker is derived from Washington Irving's alteration of the Dutch name Knickerbacker to Knickerbocker. An equally ridiculous- sounding name is also periodically bandied about, as Trudy's possible vanished GI husband, in a night of partying with some GIs about to leave: Ratzkywatsky. Despite it's memory-challenging nature to non-Slavs, it also has a lyrical quality that aids its interest and remembrance. I suppose Sturges was satirizing the many inane, often difficult to remember, names many people are saddled with. They also clearly represent verbal slapstick.William Demarest is excellent as the crusty veteran small town constable and Trudy's watchful father, saddled with trying to help figure out the best way to deal with the inane problems generated by Trudy's wild night. Of course, his attempts to help make the best of the situation only get himself and Norval deeper in trouble, in a hilarious series of incidents. See the film to discover the details!Demarest had a long Hollywood career, followed by a TV career. Having seen him in a few other films, he impresses me as Paramount's version of Spencer Tracy, with a dose of William Bendix added. Tracy, of course, would later be in a somewhat similar situation in "Father of the Bride"; considerably less comical than the present film. Demarest would again be part of the Hutton-staring "The Perils of Pauline", as her included film director.Bracken and Betty made an excellent team as sympathetic naïve dimwits, with a long simmering romantic relationship. This film, although not released until '44, was actually made in '42. Thus, it was the 4th and last film audiences saw that teamed Betty with Bracken: "The Fleet's In", "Star Spangled Rhythm, and "Happy go Lucky" being the others. Bracken usually played his typecast Don Knots' or Bob Hope-like character. He would be reteamed with Demarest, as his sergeant, in "Hail The Conquering Hero".Bryan Donlevy gets a respite from his common role in this era as a classy, sneaky, villain, playing the comically corrupt state governor, Dan McGinty: reprising this identity from the previous "The Great McGinty". He's always part of a frenetic circus in his office, relating to Trudy's predicaments, as part of a satire on the seriousness of the times given to women in her predicament, and to the Canadian quintuplets. The film begins with him getting a phone call from a reporter about a very newsworthy event in the obscure town of Morgan's Creek., which causes Donlevy to go berserk. We aren't told the nature of this event, and don't see Donlevy again until toward the end. Trudy's story up until this event is then told from retrospect. We first meet Trudy, working in a music store, lip-syncing to a record of a deep base singer, mugging like Lucille Ball, in her much later TV series., and reminding us of Stan Laurel, in "Way Out West". Yes, Betty does much remind me of the later, comical, Lucy.My main criticism of the film is that the whole beginning episode, where Trudy goes on a movie date with Norval, but really wants to dance and party with some anonymous soldiers about to leave town, is wholly unbelievable. To stop her crying, Norval agrees to loan her his car and go to the movie by himself, while she goes to party with the soldiers all night(a satire on the power of feminine desires to make some men do idiotic things to please them, I assume). She arrives back in the morning, claiming she can't remember the events of the last few hours, until she 'awoke' to find herself driving his car, and not remembering it's his car! Later, she finds a cheap ring on her finger, a 'just married' sign in the car, remembers a soldier jesting at the party that they all get married, and wonders if she agreed to a marriage(and maybe sex?) while in some semi-conscious state, claiming she had drunk nothing but some lemonade. An alien abduction sounds just as plausible! Probably, Sturges figured he had to do it this way to get around the sensor board.

"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-

In the Paramount All Star spectacular Star Spangled Rhythm, Betty Hutton does a number called Doin' My Bit For Defense. In The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek, Betty does in fact really give her all to the boys going over there.How Preston Sturges got this one past the censors is beyond me. Not only the fact that it deals with illegitimate births in a light hearted way, but it shows the fighting men of the US Armed Services in a less than favorable light during World War II. But because he did this film holds up remarkably well. I like it almost as much as I like my favorite Preston Sturges film, Sullivan's Travels.Betty Hutton as Trudy Kockenlocker of Morgan's Creek feels it her patriotic duty to give her all for our fighting men. One night she does just that, she can't remember whom she might have married that night, if anyone and is left quite pregnant. Though how much pregnant we don't know until the end of the film.Eddie Bracken is her poor dumb schnook of a boyfriend who's a 4-F and he's willing to take the rap. William Demarest is caught between wanting to strangle the guilty party and seeing someone make an honest woman of Hutton. All this is watched with some amused detachment by Hutton's younger sister Diana Lynn.The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek got Preston Sturges an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Sad to say though Sturges was up against himself that year because he was also nominated in the same category for Hail The Conquering Hero. Both lost to 20th Century Fox's solemn biographical film Wilson.This film is Betty Hutton's best screen role in my humble opinion. And quite possibly the same for Eddie Bracken. Certainly no other director was able to utilize the personalities of both these performers as well as Preston Sturges.This is one eternal comedy classic, absolutely don't miss this.

I found this to be a mildly funny and extremely fast paced screwball comedy. Betty Hutton is quite cute in her portrayal of Trudy Kockenlocker. Yes, that's her name. And yes, there are quite a few phonetic gymnastics required in the crazy dialogue. There's "Ignatz Ratzkywatzky" - the so called husband Trudy marries on a whim after a night of partying with soldiers about to ship out. But the problem is, she can't exactly remember his name and used a fake name for herself. So, she can't find proof of the marriage and is devastated when she learns she is pregnant.I'm not sure I like the humor poked at having a unknown marriage partner, and a resulting pregnancy. But I'm sure things happened like that during the war as boys were being shipped out.The dad is very funny and is played by William Demarest (male nanny from "My Three Sons". His pratfalls, at his age, are quite impressive and are probably some of the funnier moments in the movie for me. And the younger sister, played by Diana Lynn, is very wise beyond her years. Quite a mature performance for such a young girl.