Not "Great" But Good!
Added 2/19/2006
To hear some people talk about Preston Sturges' "The Great Moment" you'd think it was the worst film ever made, below par with Pauley Shore movies. Well, I'm here to tell you that couldn't be further from the truth. This movie is so unpopular among Sturges fans that you can't even find it to rent it! I just happened to be lucky enough that my local library had a copy of it. But even I must admit, I too hesitated to see this movie, but in the end I'm glad I did.
"The Great Moment" actually does something pretty impressive. It takes a serious subject and actually find room for laughs. In my opinion that just goes to show you what kind of talent Preston Sturges was. The movie follows the life of W.T.G. Morton a failed medical student turned dentist. As some people may know, many years ago when doctors would perform surgery it was done without anesthesia. It was Morton whom discover what could be done with ether.
Morton died a poor man whom was never given proper credit for his discovery. Many people, close friends and associates, claimed they had done it first, in some varaition or other, and Morton merely built upon their original idea.
This material doesn't sound as if it could easily lend itself to comedy. But Sturges finds room to put his brand of slapstick humor into the film. Now of course this isn't one of Sturges' best works, I admit that. It does not rank high among my favorite Sturges films such as "Hail the Conquering Hero", "Unfaithfully Yours", or "The Palm Beach Story" but it is hardly his worst. Have you ever seen "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock"? That was a sadly missed opportunity.
Besides Joel McCrea, who is quite good in the movie, William Demarest (a Sturges regular) is also a lot of fun to watch. And there's even room for Franklin Pangborn (another familar Sturges face) in an amusing cameo. The movie also co-stars Betty Field as Morton's wife Elizabeth.
So despite the movie's misgiving, a rather abrupt ending and a lack of information about Morton's life and of course the running time, it's not even ninety minutes, it's still entertaining and I enjoyed it.
Bottom-line: This Preston Sturges film has been given an unrightly bad reputation. It is not as bad as so many people may have lead you to believe. I admit it isn't a great movie but it does have entertaining moments. After it, it is a Preston Sturges movie!
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Sturges' "Worst" is Better than Almost Anyone Else's "Best"
Added 12/3/2002
Hollywood has often acquired the rights to best-sellers that are virtually impossible to film. One such book was a non-fiction work, "Triumph Over Pain," the story of William Morton's discovery of ether anaesthesia.The tale is basically a downer -- Morton was reviled as a moral thug attempting to profit from his discovery, while others attempted to deny him the honor of it by claiming to have made it themselves. Morton died in poverty, a broken man. Not surprisingly, no one could figure out how to make an "entertaining" adaptation. The book kicked around Paramount for several years until it was assigned to Preston Sturges, who'd written and directed a string of films that were wildly successful with both the public and critics. Sturges resolved the book's "problems" by telling the story in flashback, so that all the unhappy stuff was at the beginning, and by treating the material as -- a comedy!!! The resulting film makes abrupt shifts between seriousness and farce. This -- along with Paramount's attempt to market it as a straight comedy -- probably explains why it was such a flop. Although the film was shortened and re-edited by the studio, it remains (contrary to some reviewers' opinions) completely coherent, with most of the story told in an ordinary linear fashion. There were some unresolved plot points -- why was the US Government willing to give Morton [$$$] -- but they don't affect one's comprehension of the story line. There has never been a better screenwriter than Preston Sturges, and in "The Great Moment" he shows a marvelous ability to puncture serious scenes with wisecracks. Joel McCrea -- a generally stiff and uninteresting actor -- is at his comic best, brilliantly trading barbs with the other performers. The best part of the film is the last scene. With the ever-unimaginative Victor Fleming providing an underscore of the "Ave Maria," Sturges ends the film with a truly nasty send-up of "inspirational" movie making. If you're a Sturges fan, don't let "The Great Moment" pass by. This review is based on the out-of-print MGM LaserDisk edition. I have not seen the tape, and cannot comment on its technical quality.
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