- Country: USA
- Genres: Biography, Comedy, Drama
- Release: 1944-09-06
- Director: Preston Sturges
- Writers: René Fülöp-Miller , Charles Brackett , Ernst Laemmle , W.L. River , Irwin Shaw
- Language: English
- Stars: Joel McCrea , Betty Field , Harry Carey , William Demarest
- Runtime: 83 min
- Awards: N/A
- AKA: The Great Moment (Canada) , Morton the Magnificent (United States of America) , O Grande Momento (Portugal, Portuguese Republic) , Immortal Secret (United States of America) , 偉大なる瞬間 (Japan) , Great without Glory (United States of America) , El gran momento (Spain) , Triunfo sin gloria (Mexico) , The Great Moment (United Kingdom) , Seger över smärtan (Sweden) , Triunfo sin gloria (Uruguay, Eastern Republic of) , Triunfo Sin Gloria (Argentina) , Unutulmaz günler (Turkey) , The Great Moment (United States of America) , Triunfo Sobre a Dor (Brazil) , Великий момент , The Great Moment , Triumph over Pain (United States of America) , El gran momento (Uruguay, Eastern Republic of)
- Plot: In the winter of 1868, Eben Frost goes to a Boston pawnshop and redeems a silver medal, inscribed to "Dr. W.T.G. Morton, the Benefactor of Mankind, with the Gratitude of Humanity." Frost drives to a country farmhouse and gives the medal to Morton's widow, Elizabeth Morton who explains to her daughter, Betty, that Frost was the first person given anesthesia by her father, Boston dentist Dr. W.T.G. Morton. The story flashes back 20 years to find Morton being wildly acclaimed by medical students as the man whose discovery of "letheon" had forever ended pain as, before that day, even amputations were performed with the patient fully conscious. "Letheron", unknown to everybody but Morton and Elizabeth, is simply highly rectified sulfuric ether - cleaning fluid - easily obtainable at a pharmacy. By keeping the secret, Dr. Morton could be rich, but he had rather be poor than see a girl strapped to an operating table under the knife of Dr. Warren, and he reveals his secret to a group of surgeons in the hospital operating theatre. With his secret out, and all hope of personal reward gone, with the possible exception of proceeds from his glass inhaler, he gets the news that Congress has voted him a reward of $100,000, and also learns that the patent on his inhaler has been infringed. President Pierce, under pressure from newspapers inflamed by jealous medical rivals of Morton, refuses to sign the bill until Morton has proven patient infringement.
- IMDB:tt0036880
The Great Moment Cast · · · ALL
Preston Sturges
Director
Joel McCrea
William Thomas Green Morton
Betty Field
Elizabeth Morton
Harry Carey
Professor John C. Warren
William Demarest
Eben Frost
Louis Jean Heydt
Dr. Horace Wells
Julius Tannen
Dr. Charles T. Jackson
Edwin Maxwell
Vice-President of Medical Society
Porter Hall
(I)
(1888–1953)
President Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pangborn
Dr. Heywood
Grady Sutton
Homer Quimby
Harry Hayden
Judge Shipman
Torben Meyer
Dr. Dahlmeyer
Victor Potel
First Dental Patient
Thurston Hall
Senator Borland
J. Farrell MacDonald
(1875–1952)
The Priest
Roscoe Ates
(1895–1962)
Morton's Sign Painter - replaced by Hank Worden (uncredited)
Hank Bell
Onlooker (uncredited)
Franklyn Farnum
Massachusetts Medical Society Man (uncredited)
Byron Foulger
Morton's Clinic Manager (uncredited)
Hank Worden
Morton's Sign Painter - replaced Roscoe Ates (uncredited)
Arthur Hoyt
Presidential Secretary (uncredited)