The Great McGinty The Great McGinty The Great McGinty is a 1940 political satire comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff and featuring William Demarest and (in her final screen appearance) Muriel Angelus. It was Sturges's first film as a director; he sold the story to Paramount Pictures for just $10 on condition he direct the film. Sturges went on to win the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay. In the U.K. the film was retitled Down Went McGinty. Dan McGinty (Brian Donlevy) is a bartender in a banana republic who recounts his rise and fall
Half a Sinner (1940 film) Half a Sinner (1940 film) Half a Sinner is a 1940 American film directed by Al Christie. It stars Heather Angel as a schoolteacher who in one day becomes Public Enemy Number One in Pennsylvania. The film is based on Dalton Trumbo's short story "Lady Takes a Chance". The working titles of this film were "Everything Happens to Ann" and "The Lady Takes a Chance". On the last day of the school year, dowdy 25-year-old teacher Anne Gladden has her student Willy write punishment lines on the blackboard. After the class is dismissed, she releases the boy and tells him