It is generally agreed almost universally that Preston Sturges was one of the greatest writers and directors to work during Hollywood’s Golden Age – and when discussing someone whose peers and collaborators include the likes of Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder, it is clear that we are looking at someone quite special. He made several of the greatest comedies of the period, which remain fresh and exciting, even by contemporary standards – but yet, like any director at the time, there were a couple of moments where he fell off the artistic wagon, metaphorically speaking. He was one of about half a dozen screenwriters brought on to cobble together a screenplay for a film that was aiming to be the definitive biographical account of William Thomas Green Morton, the dentist who discovered anaesthetic and essentially helped revolutionise medicine during the middle of the 19th century, a time in which it was a profession that brought far more pain than perhaps was appropriate, leading to his discovery becoming one of the most important moments in medical history. That screenplay, which underwent many different forms, titles and director-star pairings, was eventually handed over to Sturges himself, with the intention of commissioning him to direct the film – he had major success with several previous directorial endeavours. It seemed like the story would be in good hands, or at least be the subject of someone reliable enough to handle some of the more complex ideas. Unfortunately, The Great Moment is, to put it bluntly, nothing special, and despite the best efforts of everyone involved, it just falls flat in places where it should have soared, the reasons for which are not clear, but yet are widespread enough to influence the overall direction in which the film moves.

1944 was a banner year for Sturges, since he directed three films, two of them including Hail the Conquering Hero and The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, both being films that are often considered some of his very best – and with films like Sullivan’s Travels and The Lady Eve already under his belt, he was viewed as one of the most reliably comedic directors working in Hollywood at the time, with an even longer career as a writer consolidating him as an essential voice in the industry. Something that many of his works (and almost all of his directorial efforts) share is their humour – he is quite possibly the greatest comedic director to ever work in the medium, and it is difficult to not see how his writing and directing have influenced the development of humour as a narrative tool. Therefore, imagine the surprise when we discover that The Great Moment is not actually a comedy, but in reality, a slightly dour melodrama that lacks any of the madcap energy that defined his previous work and made it so memorable. Interestingly enough, Sturges himself seemed bewildered that he was commissioned to make a drama – his natural instincts constantly default back to his experience in comedy, and we can see his efforts to lighten the mood of this very serious film throughout the story, but they never feel authentic, and come across as slightly tacky in some ways, which is likely the result of too many people being involved in the conception and early production of the film, but years of trying to make it work, handing it between directors and undergoing many rewrites and reworkings, ultimately resulted in a scattershot, unconvincing script that seems content with just presenting the facts, in the hopes that the audience will be enamoured enough with the story to overlook the very clear shortcomings that exist at the heart of the film.

Yet, even with this in mind – and the clear attempts to infuse some humour into a story that desperately needed to find its voice – The Great Moment proves to be a truly dull affair. Part of this can be credited to the story – Morton was a fascinating figure, and his discovery of the use of ether as a general anaesthetic that can help alleviate the pain associated with surgery is vitally important. Yet, we have to question whether it warranted an entire film based around this discovery, because as fascinating as it may be, it doesn’t lend itself to having much narrative weight. Biographical films like The Story of Louis Pasteur and Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet proved to be quite successful at the time, so it’s logical to imagine why someone would think this story would be able to capitalize on that same sense of intrigue that audiences had to films about famous scientists who make major discoveries. Not to compare the films unfavourably, but the differences are astounding – this film is simply too straight-laced and didactic to be effective, and it tries too hard to raise the emotional stakes and becomes somewhat convoluted in the process. The misguided humour feels shoehorned into the narrative and can feel quite tacky, despite clearly being there as a method of breaking the monotony. It doesn’t help that the film isn’t quite sure of the tone it wants to take, and it leaves far too much out (and at only 80 minutes, there were some clear cuts made to give it a shorter running time, which ultimately meant a lot of important context was elided), which can impact our understanding of the story and our overall experience with this material, which is quite weak at the best of times. It’s just simply too dour of an affair to capture our attention, and it feels like a more assured director who was well-versed in this kind of biographical drama would have made something much better – Sturges is a remarkable director, but he was a poor fit for this material, and it feels like it doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of his otherwise solid body of work.

One of the more promising aspects of The Great Moment is that it served to be a reunion between Sturges and Joel McCrea, who may have been one of the most highly coveted leading men in Hollywood, but who almost definitively did his best work under Sturges’ direction as the titular Sullivan in Sullivan’s Travels, which made his casting here quite logical, especially since it was clear that Sturges always brought out the best in his actors. However, his performance can be described in much the same way as the direction – solid but unremarkable, and perhaps even a slightly bad choice. Morton is a fascinating figure, but there is nothing to suggest that he was this kind of overly heroic, dashingly handsome rebel that he is presented as throughout this film, and the very act of casting McCrea instantly makes it clear what they were trying to achieve, which is logical considering where the industry was at the time, but not any less cheap or tacky. He turns in a serviceable performance, but much like the entire cast, he is exclusively at the mercy of the script, which is not particularly strong or noteworthy in any conceivable way. If anything, the ensemble tries their best to bring these characters to life, but whether it is the exclusion of many key moments or the fact that the film may just not have much for them to do, no one emerges from The Great Moment as being particularly memorable, and there is a clear lack of passion in these performances. Everyone did what was required, but there was nothing else that could have elevated these performances above being merely serviceable, and it becomes a matter of trying to understand exactly why it faltered in perhaps the one area where it could have at least marginally succeeded.

The Great Moment is a film as plain and uninteresting as its title, and while calling it a blight on an otherwise impeccable career feels harsh, the traces of Sturges’ brilliance are almost entirely absent from this film and its proceedings, which feel extremely uninteresting and simply not as smart or compelling as it genuinely believes itself capable of being, which is one of several shortcomings embedded deep within this film. This is not a very good film – the writing is obvious and tacky, the tension false and manufactured to an inch of its life, and the overall experience is overwrought and lacks complexity and nuance, which is at least partially a prerequisite for this narrative. It’s a dull film without any spark, and we fail to feel the emotions that the script seems to be demanding we experience, without actually being willing to do the work to get there. Overall, The Great Moment is certainly composed of very few moments that even come close to greatness, so not only is the title dull, but it is blatantly false. If anything, this proves that not every major discovery and historical event should be made into a film, since without the right approach and clear attention to detail, it can fall apart and become nothing but a boring, lacklustre affair without much merit, and where the only praise we can scrape together is that it is mercifully short, and thus can never overstay its welcome, even though it does do its best.