With a visionary writer and director at the helm of The Great McGinty, it shouldn’t come as any great surprise that structurally, the film should be seen as an important step forward.

Released in 1940, the Preston Sturges film predates Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane by just about a year. That latter film has been heralded as a landmark in American cinema for its camera work, but also due to the fact that the Kane doesn’t ape a linear narrative. Instead, Welles’ work is all a flashback. It’s already happened. The funny thing is, though, The Great McGinty uses the same device, although not as heavy handedly.

Viewers first meet McGinty, as played by Brian Donlevy in a rare leading role, while he’s tending bar somewhere in South America. He’s a talkative guy and when two customers reveal that they’re down on their collective luck, the bar keep launches into his own personal narrative sending us back in time.

When the proper story begins, McGinty’s a bum. But a tough one. He finds himself waiting in line for soup during an election year. After getting something to eat, he’s proffered a deal granting him two dollars for each time he votes in the local Mayoral race. McGinty votes 37 times, brining him to the attention of the crime figure behind the rigged election.

The rest of the film ostensibly details McGinty’s rise to political fame and eventual election to the post of Governor. The litany of sacrifices the lead character makes winds up with his marrying a secretary, Cathrine, and taking care of her kids, all in the name of public image.

What no one counts on is that McGinty eventually falls in love her and heeds the political advice she doles out. It’s the good naturedness of this women that McGinty goes in for, perhaps making him a good judge of character. Of course, when his gubernatorial work gets in the way of his underworld associates, McGinty needs to remind folks whose boss and retains his tough guy image even in the Governor’s mansion.

McGinty’s past catches up with him, though, and lands him in jail alongside his crook buddies. There’s a jail brake and the pair high tails it to South America, bringing viewers full circle to the beginning of the narrative.

McGinty’s drunk audience isn’t inclined to believe the tale, but viewers get a sly wink of truth just before the film ends. And while McGinty isn’t on par with the following Sullivan’s Travels, it’s not a bad first effort.