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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.

In his golden five years 1940-44, Preston Sturges was the writer & director for eight movies for Paramount, ALL GOOD and MOST of them BRILLIANT.

I first came to know these movies when five of them were shown on the BBC at Christmas in the early 1990's, including my personal favourites 'The Lady Eve' and 'The Palm Beach Story'. Since then I have had to wait for the invention of the DVD, and then last year's Preston Sturges DVD box set, when at last I could check out the other three.

Of those three, 'The Great McGinty' was the first movie to be "Written & Directed by Preston Sturges", and has to go into the GOOD rather than the BRILLIANT category. But for his first such project to be so good has got to be seen as a brilliant achievement for Sturges. I know how long he had to wait, and how hard he had to bargain to get that opportunity. He knew he had to succeed, not in his own terms but in those of his bosses at Paramount. In other words he had to bring in an economical movie that was conventional enough to be popular with audiences and critics alike.

The lead, Brian Donleavy plays McGinty as quite a straight character who has comic moments in set pieces with other players. The best comedy of the movie probably comes from Bill Demarest as "the Politician" and especially Akim Tamiroff as "the Boss", who drives the movie and its plot along, as he pushes McGinty and his career forward.

The second movie in the Preston Sturges golden period would be 'Christmas in July', again not one of his brilliant best, but beginning to include more of the lunacy and eccentric characters of a true Preston Sturges movie. By the time of his third project 'The Lady Eve', Sturges would be at the top of his form and the top of his art, and 'The Great McGinty' has to be seen not only as a good movie in itself, but as the first step in that direction.

The conventional wisdom on McGINTY is that it'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 Sturges' only directing credit, would still mark him as a filmmaker to remember. (And, no, that'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 'ensemble' 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 & Tamiroff, who are excellent). What I can'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 'screwball' 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 '31-'34. (And, by the way, Tamiroff's cheerfully corrupt and malapropping Boss would be paid hilarious homage 20+ years later in animation form as Boris Badinov in Jay Ward's ROCKY & 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 & Arthur Hoyt).

Brian Donlevy is "The Great McGinty" in this 1940 film written and directed by Preston Sturges. The film also stars two men who would become part of the Sturges group of actors, Akim Tamiroff and William Demarest. Muriel Angelus plays McGinty's wife.

Sturges always had interesting beginnings - or ends - to his films. This one begins: One man was always evil and had a moment of honesty; another man was always good and had a moment of evil. They both had to leave the country (paraphrasing). In a foreign country, a bartender tells his story to a suicidal man, an embezzler whom he has just saved, and a woman who works at the establishment. His story is a wild one - he was once governor of a state. As the story unfolds, McGinty - that's the man's name - was a hobo when he was paid $2 to vote to get a man into office. He voted 37 times and attracted the attention of a crooked political boss (Tamiroff) who gets him elected as alderman, mayor, and finally puts him up for governor. Along the way, he marries his secretary (Angelus) in order to have the appearance of a stable, good man. It's a marriage of convenience - she has two children and a dachshund. But he falls in love with all of them, and with her encouragement, decides to turn his back on the graft and the stealing and start thinking of the people. That's when he gets into trouble.

"The Great McGinty" isn't a crazy comedy like "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" or "The Palm Beach Story." The humor comes out of the fact that this bum rises to the office of mayor and locks horns with the big boss. The best scenes are between Tamiroff and Donlevy, who work beautifully together, particularly when they're trying to kill one another. Though one of the last scenes is a sad one, Sturges gives us our smiles back with the last moments of the film.

Brian Donlevy, who is usually in a supporting role, does a terrific job as McGinty - tough and belligerent, but with a kind side even he didn't know he had. Donlevy repeated his role of McGinty in "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" in a cameo. Muriel Angelus, a British leading lady who retired to raise a family in 1946, is lovely as Mrs. McGinty, who never wanted to get married again and then falls in love with her husband. Tamiroff makes a powerful "Boss" who has a volatile relationship with his puppet, who sometimes gets out of his strings. An excellent movie that pokes fun at political machinery and behind the scenes plotting. It also shows us what can happen when a little love comes into our lives.

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.