# The Great McGinty
**The Great McGinty** is a 1940 American political satire comedy directed and written by [Preston Sturges](https://www.edgepedia.org/preston-sturges), his directorial debut, in which a homeless man rises through a corrupt political machine from paid repeat voter to state governor, and is ruined by a single act of honesty. It stars [Brian Donlevy](https://www.edgepedia.org/brian-donlevy) as Dan McGinty, Muriel Angelus as Catherine McGinty, and Akim Tamiroff as The Boss, was produced by Paul Jones for Paramount Pictures, and runs 82 minutes.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4645-THE-GREAT-MCGINTY) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88174/the-great-mc-ginty)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | 23 August 1940 (US general release); New York premiere on 14 August 1940[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4645-THE-GREAT-MCGINTY) |
| Director/writer | Preston Sturges, his first film as director; sold the screenplay to Paramount for ten dollars on condition he direct[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4645-THE-GREAT-MCGINTY) |
| Cast | Brian Donlevy (Dan McGinty), Muriel Angelus (Catherine), Akim Tamiroff (The Boss), William Demarest (The Politician), Allyn Joslyn (George)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4645-THE-GREAT-MCGINTY) |
| Production | Paramount Pictures; production 15 Dec 1939 to 25 Jan 1940, with final scenes shot 15 Apr 1940; budget about $350,000[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4645-THE-GREAT-MCGINTY) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88174/the-great-mc-ginty) |
| Award | 1941 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, the first awarded in that category[3](https://kinolorber.com/film/the-great-mcginty-special-edition) |
| Legacy roles | Donlevy and Tamiroff reprised Dan McGinty and The Boss in Sturges's *The Miracle of Morgan's Creek* (1942)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4645-THE-GREAT-MCGINTY) |
| Reception | 100% Tomatometer from 27 critics and 79% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_great_mcginty) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story is told in flashback from a seedy barroom in an unspecified banana republic, where the bartender, Dan McGinty, stops a suicidal bank cashier and tells him how a moment of honesty ended his career.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_great_mcginty) • [5](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-great-mcginty)
As a Depression-era tramp, McGinty is paid two dollars by a political fixer to vote for the machine's mayoral candidate under a false name. He votes 37 times at different precincts, which brings him to the attention of The Boss (Tamiroff), who grooms him through the ranks from bill collector to alderman, mayor, and finally governor.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88174/the-great-mc-ginty) • [5](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-great-mcginty) To give his run for mayor respectability and broaden his appeal to women voters, McGinty marries his secretary Catherine, a divorcée with two children, in a marriage of convenience. The sham family becomes real to him: under Catherine's influence he begins speaking out against social injustice, graft, and child labor, alienating The Boss, and his political downfall follows.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88174/the-great-mc-ginty) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_great_mcginty) He flees the country and ends up tending bar in the Central American dive where the frame story begins.[3](https://kinolorber.com/film/the-great-mcginty-special-edition)
The film's moral is stated in the foreword to the original 1933 script, then titled *The Vagrant*: "Meat is not good for cows, whisky is terrible for gold fish, and I purpose to show that honesty is as disastrous for a crook as is knavery for the cashier of a bank."[6](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2005/cteq/great_mcginty/)
## Origins and the ten-dollar sale
Sturges wrote the original story, entitled "The Story of a Man," in 1933 with [Spencer Tracy](https://www.edgepedia.org/spencer-tracy) in mind, according to materials in the Preston Sturges Files at the UCLA Library. He tried to sell it to Universal in 1935, and in 1938 offered it to the *Saturday Evening Post* under the title "Biography of a Bum"; when the magazine refused it, he sold it to Paramount for ten dollars on the condition that he be allowed to direct it.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4645-THE-GREAT-MCGINTY) By the late 1930s Sturges was the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood, known for films such as *[Easy Living](https://www.edgepedia.org/easy-living)* (1937) and *Diamond Jim* (1935), but he was dissatisfied with how directors handled his scripts and wanted to direct his own material.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88174/the-great-mc-ginty)
The film carried the opening credit "Written and Directed by Preston Sturges," which Paramount used in its marketing campaign. The credit was a milestone for the studio system, in which writers and directors were separate departments, and it opened the way for other screenwriters to direct their own material.[7](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2026/01/preston-sturges-ranked/)
## Production
[Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) ran from 15 December 1939 to 25 January 1940, closing with one day of shooting still owed; the final scenes were shot on 15 April 1940, after a first cut had been made. Production had been postponed so that Tamiroff could appear in *The Way of All Flesh*. During filming Sturges contracted pneumonia and kept a private nurse on the set. Jo Ann Sayers was borrowed from M-G-M for the female lead but was dropped after being declared incompetent in screen tests, and Paramount also tried and failed to borrow [Joseph Schildkraut](https://www.edgepedia.org/joseph-schildkraut).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4645-THE-GREAT-MCGINTY) The TCM account describes a three-week shooting schedule and a budget of about $350,000.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88174/the-great-mc-ginty)
The crew included cinematographer William Mellor, editor Hugh Bennett, art directors Hans Dreier and Earl Hedrick, composer Frederick Hollander, and costume designer [Edith Head](https://www.edgepedia.org/edith-head).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4645-THE-GREAT-MCGINTY)
## Release and reception
The film premiered on 14 August 1940 at the Paramount Theatre in New York's Times Square, with opening-day receipts over $5,000; two days later a Paramount executive wired Hollywood that "Audiences continue enthusiastic about picture."[8](https://cinemontage.org/down-went-mcginty/) It was a surprise hit at the box office and with critics despite Paramount's initial anxiety about the marketability of a political satire, and *Film Daily* included it in its "ten best" films of 1940.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88174/the-great-mc-ginty) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4645-THE-GREAT-MCGINTY)
At the 13th Academy Awards, honoring films of 1940, Sturges won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, the first year that category existed, beating nominees including Charles Chaplin for *The Great Dictator*.[3](https://kinolorber.com/film/the-great-mcginty-special-edition) • [8](https://cinemontage.org/down-went-mcginty/) Before 1940 the Academy had given separate awards for Original Story and for [Screenplay](https://www.edgepedia.org/screenplay); the new Original Screenplay category recognized writers' growing independence from the studios.[6](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2005/cteq/great_mcginty/)
## Legacy
The film's success let Sturges direct his own scripts after ten years as a screenwriter, and it began a run of eight pictures he wrote and directed for Paramount between 1940 and 1944, seven of them box office hits, including *[Sullivan's Travels](https://www.edgepedia.org/sullivans-travels)* (1941), *The Miracle of Morgan's Creek* (1944), and *Hail the Conquering Hero* (1944).[8](https://cinemontage.org/down-went-mcginty/) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88174/the-great-mc-ginty) [Joseph L. Mankiewicz](https://www.edgepedia.org/joseph-l-mankiewicz) called Sturges "the Moses who led us out of the wilderness" for writers who wanted to direct; within five years [John Huston](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-huston), Billy Wilder, Delmer Daves, and Mankiewicz were all directing their own screenplays.[8](https://cinemontage.org/down-went-mcginty/)
In 1942 Donlevy and Tamiroff reprised their roles as Dan McGinty and The Boss in *The Miracle of Morgan's Creek*, and Donlevy starred in a Philip Morris Playhouse radio version of the story on CBS that year. Paramount considered remakes with [Bing Crosby](https://www.edgepedia.org/bing-crosby) in 1950 and [Bob Hope](https://www.edgepedia.org/bob-hope) in 1954 but dropped the project.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4645-THE-GREAT-MCGINTY)
Critics have read the film as a cynical counterpoint to the reform-minded Americana of Frank Capra's *Mr. Smith Goes to Washington* (1939), released the year before: where Capra's hero triumphs, McGinty's honesty destroys him and he ends permanently disabused of the notion that virtue is its own reward.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88174/the-great-mc-ginty) • [9](https://www.commentary.org/articles/terry-teachout/whatever-happened-to-preston-sturges/) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 100% Tomatometer from 27 reviews and a 79% audience score.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_great_mcginty)
## References
1. [The Great McGinty (1940), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4645-THE-GREAT-MCGINTY)
2. [Felicia Feaster, "The Great McGinty," Turner Classic Movies (2007)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/88174/the-great-mc-ginty)
3. [The Great McGinty (Special Edition), Kino Lorber](https://kinolorber.com/film/the-great-mcginty-special-edition)
4. [The Great McGinty, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_great_mcginty)
5. [The Great McGinty, Time Out film review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-great-mcginty)
6. [The Great McGinty (Preston Sturges, 1940), Senses of Cinema (2005)](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2005/cteq/great_mcginty/)
7. [Preston Sturges Ranked, Blueprint: Review (2026)](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2026/01/preston-sturges-ranked/)
8. [Edward Landler, "Down Went 'McGinty'," CineMontage (2015)](https://cinemontage.org/down-went-mcginty/)
9. [Terry Teachout, "Whatever Happened to Preston Sturges," Commentary (2009)](https://www.commentary.org/articles/terry-teachout/whatever-happened-to-preston-sturges/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1940s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license