The Great McGinty (1940) User Reviews

Preston Sturges Begins His Golden Five Years

[geoffparfitt · 7/10 · 9 July 2006]

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.

Satirical, yet true,

[bobsgrock · 8/10 · 4 April 2008]

Preston Sturges' directing debut is a smash as he cleverly shows how even back in "the good old days," politics were as cruel and crooked as ever. The acting is pretty solid here, especially the leads, but the real point here is the story that Sturges has put together. Here, we see a simple man who does what he is told and almost immediately is made governor of the state. This shows that America is the land of opportunity as well as the land of corruption. What amazes me is how fluidly the film moves. It is only 82 minutes long, yet more happens here than in most Disney family movies. This shows the wonderful genius of Sturges and how he was able to enjoy a successful career throughout the 1940s. A very underrated and unknown film, this is a perfect gem about our not-so perfect government.

Donlevy Was An Underrated Actor

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 28 May 2006]

Once again, Brian Donlevy ("Dan McGinty") provides pretty good entertainment. He isn't one of the more famous actors of the classic era but he did his share of good films and good performances. This certainly ranks among his best. And he mixed well with Akim Tamiroff in here, both verbally and physically. And.....Preston Sturges wrote and directed the film. All of that makes it a surprise there are so reviews of this film on this website.

The story of McGinty and his wife "Catherine" (Murel Angelus) also turns out to be nice with a unique twist to the relationship. It starts off as a business-type of deal, then turns romantic but ends sadly. However, the film doesn't end on a sad note.

To be fair, however, I have to admit I liked this far more on the first viewing. When I looked it at 6 years later after watching thousands of other classic films, this just didn't come across as strong. The first thirty 30 minutes was good with some snappy dialog but then it bogged down with that marriage-for-convenience angle and the politics got really sappy. So beware: you might really enjoy this, or you might find it really stupid. It could go either way, but if you are classic movie fan, you should consider checking this film out.

Looks like the suit got YOU!

[fowler1 · 7 August 2000]

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).

Sturges' first hit

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 18 February 2008]

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.

What's Up is Down, What's Wrong is Right

[mortycausa · 10/10 · 28 January 2007]

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' satire on political corruption is unevenly paced, but with Akim Tamiroff as "The Boss," it is a lot of fun.

[Art-22 · 6/10 · 17 November 1998]

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.

The Truth About the American Democratic System

[theowinthrop · 10/10 · 22 January 2006]

The 1940s saw the appearance of four major American directors: Orson Welles, John Huston, Billy Wilder, and Preston Sturgis. They had careers of varying degrees of success. Welles is usually seen as the great talent done to death by the jackals of the Hollywood system and his own personality quirks. Wilder and Huston were both more successful, although both met with serious problems as well - Huston with the threat of the blacklist in the last 1940s, and Wilder with increasing feelings of irrelevance in the industry after 1969. Sturgis actually had a far longer career in Hollywood, as he was a highly successful screenplay writer in the 1930s. But his heyday as a great comedy director lasted only from 1940 - 1948, and even then with two projects (THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK and UNFAITHFULLY YOURS) failures at the box office. His last two films (THE BEAUTIFUL BLOND OF BASHFUL BEND and THE FRENCH THEY ARE A FUNNY FACE were not as good as the films that preceded them. He was finished as a filmmaker by 1955. Even Welles lasted longer.

His first film comedy (that he wrote and directed) is THE GREAT MCGINTY (1940) starring Brian Donleavy as the title character. It remains the best study of the weaknesses of the democracy our country prides itself on every 4th of July or other patriotic occasion. For the whole joke of the rise and fall of Dan McGinty is that he only succeeds when he fully works alongside the corrupt Boss (Akim Tamiroff) and the latter's underlings (William Demerest, Harry Rosenthal), and when he actually tries to personally reform and be the good statesman, he is brought down by the Boss in disgrace. Said this way the joke sounds flat, but Sturgis' witty and perceptive script is not flat at all.

Basically the problem comes down to this - how seriously do Americans take their system? As I said before we give a lip service to it, and we follow the forms, but do we really understand the nature of the public trust imposed on our elected officials (and the electorate)? It is doubtful.

The reason is that everyone is more concerned with earning a living for themselves and their families. At one point Muriel Angelus tells William Demerest she has just read a book in which the writer points out that the money spread around by political corruption actually does help everyone by stimulating business and prosperity. Demerest shoots back that he wishes that book was read by everyone in the country.

Of course Demerest's self interest would push this theory. But is he far from totally wrong? When Donleavy runs for Governor he is Mayor of the state's largest city. There is a series of inter-cut scenes of Demerest giving a speech for Donleavy while Robert Warwick gives a speech for the "reform" candidate. Warwick keeps harping on the useless public roads and public works that Donleavy and his cronies have foisted on the public to line their pockets. But Demerest reminds the public that as a result of these acts of public construction hundreds of families were fed during what was the depression, and the result gave the people "the most beautiful city in the world." For all of Warwick's high toned attack, the actually results of the corruption seem rather sensible.

Akim Tamiroff's boss seems like a typical political hood, but if you listen carefully his comments culminating in "America is land of great opportunity" merely mirrors comments like those of the Tammany Hall sage George Washington Plunkitt in the early 20th Century, who said he "saw his opportunities and took 'em." Plunkitt differentiated between "honest graft" (i.e. inflating the prices of public works projects which do benefit the city), and "dishonest graft" (stealing the iron roof of an almshouse to sell it to a scrap iron dealer). But there are examples of dishonest graft in Tamiroff's world - examples that Plunkitt would have known of. When Donleavy starts his way up the political power tree, he is an "enforcer" collecting bribes from bordello operators and bar owners. This is not as gray an area of corruption as the public works issue - how do you defend shake-downs of small fry?

Sturgis, in the end, destroys the machine and the would-be reformer by showing the impossibility of reform. Donleavy tries to make a stand, but his principled attempt is ignored as the public learns he took bribes. He is swept out of power as rapidly (in it's way) as his rise from bum to governor had been. Yet even Sturgis must have realized that in the real world such sudden altruism would not have occurred to rock the boat. In his later film, THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK, we find both Donleavy and Tamiroff back in power together, running the state - and (in the end of that film) solving the problems of the hero and heroine.

A sterling slice of Sturges

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 30 June 2012]

Writer-director Preston Sturges, he of the immaculately-concocted situation-comedy, stretches his scope a bit with this well-conceived drama involving a penniless mug, hired as a strong-arm by gangsters, who works his way up the political ladder before becoming the next elected governor. Engaging hard-luck fable, told with the filmmakers' customary irony, is given a great boost from Brian Donlevy's terrific lead performance. Some of the plot elements in the final third don't quite wash, however the framing of the story as a tall tale is pulled off wonderfully, and the hand-picked supporting cast (down to the last bit player) is confident and joyous. **1/2 from ****

"This Is A Land of Opportunity"

[bkoganbing · 9/10 · 17 February 2007]

In his debut as a director Preston Sturges turned in one of the brightest political satires ever done for the cinema in The Great McGinty. Sturges allegedly got the idea for the film and the various scenes therein from talking to a judge from Chicago who filled them in one the various shenanigans pulled there back in the day and still being pulled in some parts of the USA.

Preston Sturges though he had a successful Broadway play, The Good Fairy, and had written several sparkling screenplays for Paramount, the moguls that ran Paramount were a bit uneasy about giving him his own film to direct as well as act. The Great McGinty was a B film when it was released, playing the lower half of double features. It had a competent cast of players, but none of them you could say were big box office.

Imagine the surprise the following year when The Great McGinty won an Oscar for Preston Sturges, not for directing, but for Best Original Screenplay in 1940. The Great McGinty returned a tidy profit for a film they had not spent all that much money on. Sturges was given greater autonomy and control after that and for the next four years turned out a series of comedy classics with much larger budgets. But he was in constant warfare with the money people at Paramount for the rest of the time he was there.

The film is told in flashback as Brian Donlevy as a philosophical bartender tells a distraught Louis Jean Heydt his life story after preventing Heydt from shooting himself. There both in an unnamed South American country without extradition to the USA.

Donlevy was the epitome of the American dream as Preston Sturges sees the American dream. In Sturges's view any bum with nerve enough to seize opportunity before him, there's no telling how far he can go in America.

When we meet Donlevy he's exactly that, a hobo. He's on a soup line and ready to earn a few bucks by being a repeat voter for some people who for one reason or other are still on the voting rolls, but just can't make it to the polls. By earning $74.00 a vote by voting 37 times at $2.00 a vote, he comes to the attention of boss Akim Tamiroff.

Though they are immediate antagonists, Tamiroff sees potential in Donlevy and he begins a great political career and then has a very big fall.

Preston Sturges was starting to assemble his stock company of players who were in most of his films at Paramount, like William Demarest, Jimmy Conlin, Robert Grieg, etc. Although Sturges was only at Paramount for four years his stock company rivaled that of John Ford for that brief period.

Seen 67 years after its debut, The Great McGinty is a fresh as the day it was first made. It's dated in that the political bosses like Akim Tamiroff are not what they used to be in the age of information. Still though the ethics or lack thereof are still present in the age of television and the internet.

the dark side of the moon of frank Capra

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 13 April 2010]

In a banana-republic saloon, Jean-Louis Heydt gets drunk and tries to shoot himself but is rescued by McGinty, the bar tender, played by barrel-chested Brian Donlevy.

Donlevy is no soft shoulder to weep on. Heydt begins to launch his sad tale of having been a reputable bank clerk who, in a moment of madness, betrayed the public, ran off with the dough, and now finds no reason to live.

Donlevy brushes him off. Reputable bank clerk? Donlevy was a state governor.

A flashback takes us to Donlevy some years ago. He's a bum in line for a soup kitchen. Boys and girls, "soup kitchens" were well-know places where, during the Great Depression (viz., October, 1929), the unemployed, the wastrels, the miscreants, could get a free hand out. A low-level functionary of the wimpy mayor, William Demarest, picks Donlevy out of the crowd, explains to him that the mayor needs a couple of extra votes, see? Now, many of the mayor's usual voters happen to be dead but that's no reason to deprive the mayor of their support. All Donlevy has to do is to go to a voting place, say, "Hello, Bill," and the superintendent will allow him to vote for the mayor, then give him a ticket stub which will entitle Donlevy to two dollars upon his return to the office.

Donlevy is a tough and ambitious guy. He runs from voting place to voting place, shaking hands, saying, "Hello, Bill!", and collects 37 ticket stubs. The total is seventy-five dollars. That's a lot of money during the Great Depression (op. cit.). "The Boss", Akim Tamiroff, who runs the mayor's campaign as well as the mayor himself, is duly impressed and hires Donlevy as a political goon. He promotes him to the role of enforcer, whose job is to go out and collect money for the protection racket, and beat up those who prove truculent.

Soon Donlevy is sporting a big cigar and a checked suit so repugnant in appearance that it would be doing the sighted world a favor to burn it at the stake.

In a few years, Donlevy has proved so cooperative and so effective that he is now an Alderman -- or a Selectman or Councilman or something; I get them all mixed up. Then the wimpy mayor is kicked out and Donlevy elected in is place. And he does a grand job of taxing the public and hiring The Boss's favorite friends as contractors. He builds bridges and dams where there is no need for bridges and dams. Everybody agrees he's doing a grand job, especially Donlevy, despite his frequent fist fights with The Boss.

They plan to run him for governor too, but they need him to have a wife to fill out his resume, so they force him into a marriage de convenance with his secretary. He's elected governor, according to plan, but, well -- cherchez la femme, to continue these Anuran intonations. Donlevy and the not-unappealing secretary fall in love. She reforms him. He spills the beans on The Boss but in doing so exposes himself to all sorts of criminal charges and he beats it out of town.

Back to the framing story. By this time, Jean-Louis Heydt is sobered up and fascinated and has rethought his life. Maybe his descent into criminality hasn't been so bad after all. Donlevy tells the janitor to take care of Heydt. The janitor is The Boss. Donlevy and The Boss get into a fight.

This isn't Preston Sturges's funniest movie, I don't think, but it's certainly one of his most outrageous. In Frank Capra's movies there was always a sentimental ending in which the hero was redeemed, the evil-doers remorseful, and the public realized the hero's worth. Not here. Donlevy has had just one moment of madness, like Heydt, in which he brought the corrupt temple down around his head. He's lost his family without the slightest sign of grief. He's as pugnacious as ever. He's probably had moments in which, if it were anatomically possible, he would kick himself in his own rear for having turned ethical.

It was Sturges' first real movie, as writer and director, and it's a fine introduction to his short, iconoclastic career.

Hilarious political satire

[lqualls-dchin · 10/10 · 21 December 2000]

Preston Sturges's first film as writer-director was this hilarious political satire. Though uneven, it's still filled with remarkable insight and some incredibly apt barbs about political corruption and susceptibility. Akim Tamiroff is hysterically funny as "The Chief," especially when he's marvelling at McGinty (Brian Donlevy) because of McGinty's audacity in being so obstinate. "He thinks he's me," is Tamiroff's line. Sturges himself was acclaimed for his audacity in being a writer-director, paving the way for other Hollywood writers (including John Huston and Billy Wilder) to graduate to directing.

Gritty graft picture

[Lejink · 6/10 · 23 September 2014]

Remarkable directorial debut from Preston Sturges - I mean who else would take the subject of political corruption as your first feature, okay apart from Orson Welles! Regardless of which it's still a decidedly cynical movie with a rags to riches back to rags story of a go-ahead goon, Brian Donlevy who nuzzles up to the big boss (Amir Terkanoff) and moves up the slippery pole to power and money, conveniently taking on his supportive single-parent secretary Moira Angelus as his wife to help his image with the voters. What he doesn't count on is falling for her and her children and it's her honesty and encouragement that emboldens him to defy the Man and try to go straight. However, like two ferrets in a bag, boss and protégé tear each other apart and both wind up in prison for their sins.

The story is told in flashback format with Donlevy spinning what seems like the unlikely story of his rise and fall to a couple of his customers in front of the bar he now serves. Starting at the bottom as a multiple voter (very topical this for me, with some disquiet about the vote count in the recent Scottish Referendum), he then becomes a debt enforcer, wearing as a sort of uniform, the lairiest suit you'll ever see before somehow becoming the Boss's pick for mayor and later governor. There's a wonderfully written scene where the Boss explains to his acolyte how building a dam is more about filling it with (graftable) concrete than water, a scene which starts with Dunlevy taking in the scale of his governorial success only to be checked by the sudden appearance of said Boss to remind him of his place.

That said there's some flaccidity in the writing too, with a liittle too much concentration for one thing on his adopted wife and kids and for another the stereotypical treatment of blacks in the cast for another. But by setting his satire in today's America, Sturges is making contemporary comment on the American Dream where supposedly anyone can make it to the top, although it obviously helps if you have friends in the right places. For me though, this isn't quite Sturges at his best. There are signs of his strengths particularly his handling of crowd scenes but there's a lack of depth in some of the characterisations, the pacing appears wrong, super-quick at times, languorous at others and the casting isn't quite right but he learned quickly and was soon afterwards creating some of the best movies of the 40's fit to rival Capra at his best.

"Great McGinty" Not So Great

[evanston_dad · 5/10 · 17 March 2008]

A blah Preston Sturges "comedy" about a bum (Brian Donlevy) who climbs up the political ladder in corrupt Chicago as a stoolie for a crime boss (Akim Tamiroff), but who discovers a conscience and a genuine desire to do good work along the way.

Compared to some of Sturges' other sparkling films, like "Sullivan's Travels" and "The Palm Beach Story," "The Great McGinty" is a resounding dud. Donlevy doesn't have the screen presence to carry a film, and there's nary a laugh to be had.

The only thing that felt fresh about the film was its unpredictable resolution. Sturges had a knack for ending movies on a high note; unfortunately, in this case the rest of the movie doesn't live up to the ending.

Grade: C+

Esther Howard Shines in Cameo

[Ken-67 · 26 April 1999]

This is yet another Sturges classic. My favorite is the scene with Madame La Jolla, another turn from Sturges regular Esther Howard, a classic comedienne. (She's also my great-aunt, but hey, I'm not biased!) A delightful evening rental.

Playing It Crooked

[slokes · 7/10 · 29 November 2013]

Preston Sturges gave us of the most cleverly crooked film openings and one of the most cleverly crooked endings of all time.

For the ending, see "Palm Beach Story;" I'll say no more. For the opening, see this.

I envy anyone who gets to see "The Great McGinty" with no idea what it's about. It starts out as the story of a hapless banker on the lam and a cute barfly who takes pity on him. Just when you are getting to know the pair enough to be interested in them, Sturges swings you into a tale told by a wisecracking bartender (Brian Donlevy) with a past. This brings you into the actual story, which leaves the banker and the dame on the sidelines for the rest of the film, listening to the bartender with glazed expressions of disinterest.

This bartender, McGinty, used to be somebody, rising from the ranks of a crooked political machine to become a mayor and, eventually, governor of a state which is unnamed but, with mention of a lakefront and "Big Wind," seems to have been Illinois. As a crooked politician, McGinty was great indeed, but as the opening titles tell us, lost it all in "one crazy minute" when he decided to play it straight. That'll learn him, as Sturges regular William Demarest would say.

As Sturges films go, "The Great McGinty" isn't great. It is quite good, with its clever framing structure and its gently subversive take on American politics. It won Sturges his only Oscar (a year before Orson Welles won his in the same category, for a similarly satiric take on American politics with a clever framing structure) but it's something short of a classic. Donlevy's central performance lacks warmth and the various characters around him are too broad and cartoony, except for Akim Tamiroff's "Boss" character, which ironically was made into an iconic cartoon character years later on "Bullwinkle."

There is much to like in this movie. Sturges fills the frame with subtle jokes throughout, whether it be the crazy cocktails we see McGinty serving at the beginning (something called a "Maiden's Prayer" apparently involves two squeezed lemons, egg yolk, Tabasco juice, and fruit garnishes) or the use of an Abe Lincoln desk bust as a weapon. Tamiroff warns McGinty about the perils of being led by a woman with the line: "Did you never hear of Samson and Delilah, or Sodom and Gomorrah?"

"McGinty" suffers for being a bit too serious in places for prime Sturges, and a female lead (Muriel Angelus) who plays her role too straight. You need her and her cutesy kids to justify McGinty's road to "ruin," but the less you see of them, the better "McGinty" works as a comedy. Unfortunately, they are in a lot of the film. Sturges would never lose his love for overly broad characters (overusing Demarest for example, though he's fine here), but he did make his movies play faster and lighter over time.

The politics here are barbed but not ideological in their delivery. When he is told about shoddy tenement housing, McGinty points out: "Give them a bathtub, they put coal in it." The corrupt political system McGinty comes to blows with involves both sweatshop labor (a point for the left) and needless public works projects (a point for the right.) Perhaps the lack of banner-waving made "McGinty" more palatable to the studio system than something like "Modern Times."

Some risqué bits sneak past, too. The Boss tells McGinty a husband and wife go together like "a pig and a poke." McGinty also shacks up with a woman, though the lines are blurred here because he's already married to her (out of political convenience though, not, at first, love.)

One great thing about "McGinty": It moves fast, just 81 minutes to tell a lot of story. Sturges would move even faster telling more complex stories in his later films, but he was off to a fine start.

modern political satire

[SnoopyStyle · 8/10 · 4 November 2016]

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.

Sensing The Future

[gamay9 · 7/10 · 11 February 2014]

The screenplay won an Oscar over 'Foreign Correspondent?' It was okay and predicted the future, but not nearly as good as its' competitor. Why did it predict the future? There was clearly fraudulent voting in the presidential elections of 2008 and 2012, but I can't prove it. I CAN prove that the president himself is a fraud; ex: 'If you like your insurance, you can keep it.' When a movie seems too brief, I know it is good. I think it should have been much longer. Just when McGinty falls in love with his 'wife,' he has to go on the lam. That's what distinguishes this film from most comedies, where all is well that ends well. In most other films, they would have lived happily ever after, either in their home town or the good 'wife' would have gone on the lam with him. Of course, that would have changed the beginning. At least McGinty's wife got the key to the lock box because, after all, she was a good sport.

Preston Sturges makes his mark

[mjneu59 · 8/10 · 24 November 2010]

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.

Inconsistent Preston Sturges debuts with an inconsistent film with an awfully true thought about success and honesty.

[SAMTHEBESTEST · 6/10 · 26 April 2022]

The Great McGinty (1940) : Brief Review -

Inconsistent Preston Sturges debuts with an inconsistent film with an awfully true thought about success and honesty. I have seen almost all those top-rated films of Preston Sturges, but I had this one scheduled later because of its not so high ratings/acclaim. I noticed that very inconsistency in his filmography, despite the fact that he didn't direct a great number of films, but just a dozen. Yet, he had only 6 films that were good enough to be recommended. The Great McGinty is definitely not one of them, but yes, it can be viewed once. Dan McGinty has great success in his chosen field of crooked politics. He even becomes the governor of the state, but then he endangers everything in one crazy moment of honesty. That was some thought, really. He played deceit and got success, but the moment he decides to be honest, he is washed out. All finished. He loses everything. That part was definitely emotional and very honest. What this film lacks most is comedy and engaging drama. It's a short film, about 80 minutes, but it still feels boring on many occasions. The beginning is slow, and so is the middle portion. However, things pick up in the second half and continue to keep you hooked till the end. Though, it's predictable. Brian Donlevy has done well in his role, with a lot of variations from looks to attitude. Muriel Angelus, in his wife's role, doesn't have much to do, but their chemistry looked sweet. From a conditional marriage to love birds, again a predictable portion but still watchable. The boss, Akim Tamiroff, is fantastic in his role. I'm not sure why Preston Sturges won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay because there wasn't anything really extraordinary there. But anyway, who cares about the Oscars and those dumb juries? I still say he could have done better as a writer and a director. Maybe he was saving a better version of himself for his next, Christmas In July (1940), which was a much better film. Overall, a good one-time flick, but nothing great as written in the title.

RATING - 6/10*

By - #samthebestest.

Exquisitely written

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 11 April 2012]

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.

1940s Veep

[dpers · 7/10 · 29 August 2019]

Filled with absurdity and vaudeville type arguments, this classic still drills down our worst fears of American democracy. Having someone in power unfit for office sure sounds hairy, but Donlevy is great as the insightful thug rising is way to the top of the political ladder. It's a little over an hour in length and has some dragging on moments, but the laughs make up for it. Filled with ridiculous sayings and expressions entirely distinct to its time period, and Sturges' filmmaking abilities. If you're looking for an older film with some goofiness, three stooges type violence, and political satire give this classic a try.

A cinematic icon.

[PWNYCNY · 10/10 · 26 April 2008]

This is one of the great movies. It's up there with Citizen Kane and Casablanca. Indeed, in some respects it's even better. The story portrays the corruption inherent in the American political system and does this in a nonabrasive and a political manner. That is, Sturges presents the story and lets the audience draw their own conclusions. Judging from this movie, Sturges shows how the political process is a sham and causes one to reasonably conclude that the only way to get something done is through extra-legal means. Although made in 1941 the movie's story is as relevant today as it was 67 years ago. Brian Donlevy gives an outstanding performance as a down-and-out nobody who rises from the soup kitchen to the governor's office and when he attempts to actually try to reform the system learns some hard lessons about politics and life.

Love Old Films, But this one's a Snoozer

[thespeos · 4/10 · 2 November 2021]

I gave it 30 minutes, but it just goes nowhere.

While the scenes do change, it feels like the whole film takes place in one room.

It's as though the actors change clothes and set, and just repeat the same lines,

look and behave the same way.

The acting is fine, but the story and script just drone on.

Not one of Mr. Sturges' better films.

A snoozer ...

Rare political satire that actually entertains

[dave13-1 · 8/10 · 12 April 2012]

Preston Sturges was a unique figure in Hollywood history, a writer- director of witty, cleverly plotted comedies that combined wacky fun with occasional sharp satiric potshots at social institutions and human foibles. If Hollywood had a Moliere, Sturges was that.

The Great McGinty (1942) shows Sturges' writing at his satiric best in a clever piece about a corrupt politician whose successful career begins to unravel spectacularly when he tries to go straight! It's the sort of piece that, if made now by ham-fisted committee-style Hollywood, would stink in its obviousness, but Sturges makes it work thanks to fast pacing, zippy dialogue and a rogues gallery of memorable and even likable political hacks led by Akim Tamiroff and William Demarest.