The Great McGinty Preston Sturges won the 1940 Academy Award for "Best Original Screenplay" for "The Great McGinty", which was named as one of the "10 Best Films of 1940" by both "The New York Times" and "Film Daily". The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: Streaming audio 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
Christmas in July (film) work to assign him, including doctoring the script of "Diamond Jim". Once that task was completed, Sturges' mentor at the studio, producer Henry Henigson, left, leaving nobody at Universal to champion Sturges' film. Once Sturges himself moved to Paramount, he made a deal with the studio to buy the script for $6,000. William Holden and Betty Fields were to have played the leads, with Arthur Hornblow Jr. as producer. Production on "Christmas in July" began on June 1st, 1940 and continued through June 29th. According to author Donald Spoto in his book "Madcap: The Life of Preston Sturges", Sturges directed