Il grande McGinty

Preston Sturges won the Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay for this film. Surprisingly, it was his only award despite such films as "The Lady Eve", "Palm Beach Story" and "Hail the Conquering Hero" to his credit. It's probably among his very, very best films, but "The Great McGinty" is excellent. It manages to take a relatively simple story and makes the most of it--thanks to wonderful dialog and pacing.

The story begins with Brian Donlevy playing a tough mug lining up at a soup kitchen. He's obviously down and out and manages to stumble into a great little racket--a racket that gets the attention of the big boss in town (Akim Tamiroff). After proving that he's a man with no scruples and a desire to make it big, he quickly moves up the organization. Soon, he goes from hobo to mayor--and eventually to the governorship! Along the way, he marries a very nice lady and has a family...and then something horrible happens--he develops a conscience! The film is a great satire about politics. Although it's quite funny, it also seems VERY believable! It also sparkles with fine dialog, interesting characters and a story that shines. Well done--and probably the best thing Donlevy ever did.

In a banana republic, bartender Dan McGinty (Brian Donlevy) saves a customer from killing himself. He then tells him and the barmaid how he used to be an American governor. He started out as a bum. Mayor Tillinghast offered $2 a vote and McGinty ended up voting 37 times. The political boss liked his guts and took him into his organization. Corruption becomes headline news. McGinty marries secretary Catherine in a marriage of convenience in order to get elected as reform mayor in order to continue the corruption. She's a mother of two and he gets an instant family. As he falls in love with Catherine, he starts reforming his ways which ends up being his downfall.

This is a modern political satire. There is a small rom-com inside. It's Preston Sturges' first directing effort in a legendary $10 sale of his screenplay. Donlevy is a compelling lead. It's terrific writing and solid work overall.

The Great McGinty grabbed me with its verve and jaunty iconoclasm from the beginning. "This is the story of two men who met in a banana republic. One of them never did anything dishonest in his life except for one crazy minute. The other never did anything honest in his life except for one crazy minute. They both had to get out of the country." In McGinty, a guy on the outs votes for a politician something like 72 times, and for this he is rewarded with a political boss's favor--"The Boss," and what a boss. Akim Tamiroff is simply wonderful: "Where you get that horse blanket?" And: "What a wonderful opportunity. This state needs everything. ... We'll need - you'll kiss me for this - a new dam. ... You think a dam is something you put a lot of water in. A dam is something you put a lot of concrete in. And it doesn't matter how much you put in there's always room for a lot more. ..." As the lead, "The Boss's" counterpart and equal, it's Brian Donlevy as he never had been before, never was again. McGinty (and Sturge's second movie, Christmas in July) may not quite be up there in the stratosphere with his absolute best like The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, or Unfaithfully Yours, but they are nevertheless both wonderful movies with the Sturges stamp of buoyant uniqueness.

Preston Sturges couldn't get any studio interested in doing his "Story of a Man," nor could he even get it published when it was retitled "Biography of a Bum," so he offered it to Paramount for $10 on condition he could direct it. It was an offer the studio bosses couldn't refuse and it paved the way for other writers, such as John Huston, to take control of their own work by directing its film production. The script, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, has some extremely funny moments, with almost all of them involving Akim Tamiroff, who steals the movie as "The Boss," the man who pulls the political strings in the entire state. He is the perfect counterpoint to the rather bland Brian Donlevy, who is in the title role, as a bum who votes thirty seven times in an election for mayor to get the two dollars per vote. This makes a deep impression on Tamiroff, who likes his chutzpa, and eventually runs him for alderman, then mayor, and finally governor. The pace of the film is slow at its start, but picks up when Donlevy starts his story (in flashback) until he's elected mayor, and then slows down again. The condition that he marry to win any election begins his downfall, because he marries his secretary, Muriel Angelus, who wants him to do great things and eliminate the graft in politics. Although it's a marriage of convenience, he falls in love and wants to please her. And you see what she means when Tamiroff is all smiles as he says, greeting the new governor: "What a wonderful opportunity. This state needs everything. ... We'll need - you'll kiss me for this - a new dam. ... You think a dam is something you put a lot of water in. A dam is something you put a lot of concrete in. And it doesn't matter how much you put in there's always room for a lot more. ..." The level of writing is first rate, but I wish there were no flashbacks in the screenplay construction, since you know how it ends from the start. I've always felt the flashback construction in nine out of ten films is detrimental to their enjoyment. The supporting cast includes William Demarest, who has the classic line "If you didn't have graft, you'd have a lower class of people in politics!" Muriel Angelus was and is a relatively unknown actress who quit making movies after 1940. Sturges had severe budget constraints and couldn't use high salaried actors, which would have benfited the film.

Government corruption may not be a laughing matter, but writer director Preston Sturges made some of his funniest comedies from the most unlikely material, and he smartly lampooned the political process in his big screen directing debut. Brian Donlevy is the title character, a less than scrupulous bum elected to the State Governor's office under the patronage of underworld boss Akim Tamiroff and, in a clever reversal of the usual formula, reformed by the responsibilities of public office. But the Governor's newfound honesty spells the end of his fledgling political career because, as McGinty himself so eloquently says, "you can't make a silk purse out of a pig's ear". The film lacks the madcap pace and eccentric characters of later Sturges classics, but compensates with plenty of rich satire (says big boss Tamiroff: "if it weren't for graft you'd get a very low type of person in government…") and an unusual romantic subplot decades ahead of its time. After more than half a century Sturges' wit and originality is still invigorating, not unlike a bracing slap in the face.