Preston Sturges probably shouldn’t have ended up working in Hollywood. But Sturges’ is one of those stories that’s almost as full of intrigue as his scripts.

Born to a wealthy family in Chicago, the Sturges clan moved to Europe during Preston’s teenage years. For whatever reason, when in Europe, the youngest Sturges was charged with running the business end of his mother’s perfume company. Surprisingly successful, the soon to be writer moved back to the States.

When back on home turf, Sturges penned a few scripts that made it to New York City for performances. None of them earned enough money or cultural cache to allow for the young man to rest on his laurels. Instead, he wrote a few scripts that gained him access to the Hollywood system. An that’s when the work which would become The Great McGinty started getting shopped around.

Rejected by a number of publishers – magazines and newspapers – Sturges finally convinced Paramount Pictures to buy his script. There was on condition, though. Sturges would be director. And he was, but the man had to make a sacrifice for the deal. He sold the script for one dollar.

Curiously, this first directorial effort beings the exacting critique of politics and the machinations of society which Sturges would work with for the remainder of his career. In using politics as a frame for his work and brining in characters that basically represented the common man, Sturges arrived at some conflagration of comedy and noir.

At the time of McGinty’s release, more than a few German expatriates had already made their way to Hollywood and inserted some of that chiaroscuro into major films. McGinty isn’t too shadowy, but the overall tone of the film is one of mistrust, violence and dishonesty.

In part that stems from the fact that not only was the country embroiled in a World War at the time, but also coming out of the depression, there must have been a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the air.

Growing up in Chicago with its history of political intrigue no doubt played at least some part in McGinty’s conception, although there’s never any indication of what town the action is occurring in. The expansiveness of film makes it seem as if it’s New York, although, there’s no real way to confirm that.

Either way, McGinty marks the introduction of a superbly unsung hero of mid-century American cinema.