Directed by Preston Sturges
Written by Preston Sturges (and an uncredited Ernst Laemmle)
Starring Joel McCrea, Betty Field, Harry Carey
Unrated
Available on Blu-Ray from Kino Lorber February 1

by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, The Red Herring

Is there a more maligned movie structure than the biopic? They tend to overplay their hand when it comes to someone ‘destined for greatness’ or they are focused on explaining little details like ‘here’s where the inspiration for that song you love comes from.’ Worse yet, they are either so surface level they act like a very famous person is unknown to the audience, or they feel like they have to explain why the person is important–the “today we call them computers” end tag from The Imitation Game is still stuck in my teeth like a rogue popcorn husk. But they don’t have to be this way, Spencer and King Richard being two good examples from last year, each with its own approach to the genre.

Biopics from Hollywood’s past are no less guilty of these faults, and if anything, they tend to be even more sentimental toward their subjects than contemporary efforts. However, The Great Moment, from the delightfully rebellious mind of Preston Sturges, is an exception in every way. Based on the book Triumph Over Pain, Moment tells the true story of William T.G. Morton (Joel McCrea), a dentist depicted as the first to use ether as an anesthetic for surgical operations. Although the flashback structure of the film is a bit confusing at first (likely from Paramount trying to reign in Sturges’ anti-elite feelings while we were in the midst of World War II), the tone of the picture is a very pointed and often funny satire. 

In some ways, The Great Moment is a cautionary tale, with Morton as a tragic figure. Being a dentist, he is an outsider to the medical community. Therefore, his ideas are not taken seriously at first, and much of the runtime depicts his efforts not just to refine how to use ether as an anesthetic, but also how to make doctors and surgeons believe him. (Sidebar: check out the book Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard to learn how germskeptical doctors finished the job after Charles J. Guiteau shot James A. Garfield) In order to prove his discovery’s validity, he tries to perform surgeries in public. Sturges gets a lot of mileage poking fun at skeptics here, showing doctors to be closed-minded and not even open to the idea that invasive medical procedures can or should be painless. It’s easy to forget that more soldiers died from disease or infection than they did from actual combat in the Civil War (Morton was a volunteer surgeon for the Army of the Potomac near the end of his life).

As a history nerd, having Morton’s story told in an entertaining and mostly factual way made this a very entertaining film for me. However, its current day relevance should not be underestimated. Early in the film, Morton travels to Washington, D.C.–at great personal expense–to meet President Franklin Pierce (Porter Hall). The president advises him to patent his anesthetic so that Pierce may ask Congress to give Morton a financial reward for his discovery. At the film’s climax, doctors performing an amputation on a young girl decline to use Morton’s invention due to his patent obscuring the nature of the chemicals within. Caught between great personal fortune and the unnecessary pain the young girl is scheduled to endure, Morton elects to reveal the secrets of the ether, nullifying any shot he has to capitalize on his work. 

In the last two years, we have seen Trump and Biden waffle back and forth on vaccine patents during the pandemic. Where doctors in Morton’s time were skeptical and jealous, here we have pharmaceutical companies prolonging the pandemic for the sake of profits. Worldwide economic injustice is one of the reasons that new COVID variants have evolved as the virus remains unchecked because wealthier nations horde vaccines. It’s not that Morton or Pfiizer are wrong for wanting compensation for research and development, but that does not entitle them to unlimited profits from necessary health care needs.