The Great Moment (1944)
July 18, 1944Release Date
The Great Moment (1944)
July 18, 1944Release Date
Plot.
Where to Watch.
Cast & Crew.
Joel McCrea
William Thomas Green Morton
Betty Field
Elizabeth Morton
Harry Carey
Professor John C. Warren
Louis Jean Heydt
Dr. Horace Wells
William Demarest
Eben Frost
Julius Tannen
Dr. Charles T. Jackson
Preston Sturges
Director
Edwin Maxwell
Vice-President of Medical Society
René Fülöp-Miller
Writer
Charles Brackett
Writer
Porter Hall
President Franklin Pierce
Ernst Laemmle
Writer
Franklin Pangborn
Dr. Heywood
W.L. River
Writer
Grady Sutton
Homer Quimby
Donivee Lee
Betty Morton
Irwin Shaw
Writer
Harry Hayden
Judge Shipman
Torben Meyer
Dr. Dahlmeyer
Victor Potel
First Dental Patient
Thurston Hall
Senator Borland
J. Farrell MacDonald
The Priest
Roscoe Ates
Morton's Sign Painter - replaced by Hank Worden (uncredited)
Hank Bell
Onlooker (uncredited)
Franklyn Farnum
Massachusetts Medical Society Man (uncredited)
Byron Foulger
Morton's Clinic Manager (uncredited)
Hank Worden
Morton's Sign Painter - replaced Roscoe Ates (uncredited)
Arthur Hoyt
Presidential Secretary (uncredited)
Edith Head
Costume Design
Wally Westmore
Makeup Artist
Hans Dreier
Art Direction
Buddy G. DeSylva
Executive Producer
Media.
Details.
Wiki.
The Great Moment is a 1944 biographical film written and directed by Preston Sturges. Based on the book Triumph Over Pain (1940) by René Fülöp-Miller, it tells the story of Dr. William Thomas Green Morton, a 19th-century Boston dentist who discovered the use of ether for general anesthesia. The film stars Joel McCrea and Betty Field, and features Harry Carey, William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn and Porter Hall.
The movie was filmed in 1942 but not released for over two years. Paramount Pictures disliked the film Sturges had made, and pulled it from his control, re-titled and re-edited it. The studio's released version was marketed in a way that made it appear to be one of Sturges' comedies. The film was not well received by the critics or the public, and marked the end of a sustained run of success for Sturges, who had already left Paramount by the time the film was released.