The Great Moment (1944)
Genre: Comedy / Drama
Duration: 83 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Preston Sturges
Stars: Joel McCrea, Betty Field and Harry Carey
IMDb score:
6,2 (1.161)
Releasedate: 18 July 1944
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
The Great Moment plot
"Paramount's escapist laugh tonic! Hilarious as a whiff of laughing gas!"
In the winter of 1868, Eben Frost purchases a silver medal with the inscription of Dr. morton. He presents the medal to his widow, because Frost was the first person to receive anesthesia from Dr. morton. The story goes back twenty years, and highlights the heyday of Morton who invented the anesthetic. Later it turns out that this was a very simple trick and his career becomes the target of discussion.
Actors and actresses
William Thomas Green Morton
Elizabeth Morton
Professor John C. Warren
Dr. Horace Wells
Dr. Charles T. Jackson
Vice-President of Medical Society
President Franklin Pierce
Dr. Heywood
Homer Quimby
Reviews & comments
starbright boy (moderator films)
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- 22648 messages
- 5263 votes
This was the film that broke Sturges' chain of success. Paramount shelved the film for two years, and although Sturges went on to make Hail the Conquering Hero and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek for them after this film (which were released earlier), this film caused the split between the studio and Sturges. Paramount made a recut intended to make the originally more serious film lighter, and only then released the film.
What we are left with is not a good film and by far the weakest film in the Preston Sturges box set. McCrea, who was great in Sullivan's Travels and The Palm Beach Story, is completely colorless here. Betty Field as his wife is mostly annoying and overacting terribly. Occasionally, Sturges' slapstick side surfaces, but here it mostly feels out of place. The jokes from sidekick Demearest as the first treated patient were the best part, but even those clashed with the rest of the film.
The master's touch is visible here and there, but unfortunately, this film cannot yet hold a candle to his fine comedies that I have come to love very much.
2.0*
Translated from Dutch · View original
stinissen (crew films & series)
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- 23818 messages
- 77582 votes
I actually found the mix of drama and humor terrible, and it is absolutely not my thing.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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