Der große McGinty (1940)
7KDer große McGinty: Directed by Preston Sturges. With Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angelus, Akim Tamiroff, Allyn Joslyn. Dan McGinty has great success in his chosen field of crooked politics, but he endangers it all in one crazy moment of honesty.
“The conventional wisdom on McGINTY is that itu0026#39;s lesser Sturges, more important as his directorial debut than as a standalone comedy. Pish and tosh. This is a supremely satisfying comedy and had it been Sturgesu0026#39; only directing credit, would still mark him as a filmmaker to remember. (And, no, thatu0026#39;s not a subtle swipe at his others, merely a defense of this too-often overlooked movie.)Maybe the best asset of McGINTY is its budget constraint, which steered Sturges towards the u0026#39;ensembleu0026#39; casting which would become one of his hallmarks. The movie is filled stem to stern with sharp-eyed turns by primarily supporting players (including the leads, Donlevy u0026amp; Tamiroff, who are excellent). What I canu0026#39;t help but notice is how the Sturges films of the 40s are really the last gasp of the great breakneck comedies of the pre-Code 30s, just prior to the u0026#39;screwballu0026#39; era, when Hollywood was still allowed to poke fun at people/institutions/conventions of the Real World. In fact, McGINTY -with only minor casting changes- would have fit right in with the Warner Bros/First National bumper crop of fast, cynical comedies of u0026#39;31-u0026#39;34. (And, by the way, Tamiroffu0026#39;s cheerfully corrupt and malapropping Boss would be paid hilarious homage 20+ years later in animation form as Boris Badinov in Jay Wardu0026#39;s ROCKY u0026amp; BULLWINKLE cartoons.) The love interest of Muriel Angelus, and adjoining subplot, may come off a bit treacly, but Sturges was canny enough to make this studio-mandated mawkishness an integral part of the plot…even as early as 1940, he was subverting True Love to his devilishly satiric purposes! So stop nitpicking and thoroughly enjoy one of the great American comedies, brought to unforgettable life by that great if unrecognized repertory company, The Sturges Players (featuring, among others, Wm Demarest, Thurston Hall u0026amp; Arthur Hoyt).”
