Preston Sturges may have had a decade of sparkling dialogue for films and such scripts as the holiday delight “Remember the Night” and “The Good Fairy” on his resume when he finally got to use “written and directed by” in his credits. But it would still be a mistake to label “The Great McGinty,” his directing debut, one of his very best.

“Sullivan’s Travels,” “Hail the Conquering Hero,” “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek” and “Unfaithfully Yours” were to follow, after all.

But 1940’s “McGinty” had glimpses of the trademark Sturges cynicism with a faint touch of optimism, his populism and the crackling screwball comedy banter that would make him an icon of Golden Age Hollywood.

This time out, the dialogue was straight out of “Palookaville.”

“You got me all a’tremble. I bet you’re scared TO DEATH of yourself!”

He took the “romance” out of courtship to comic effect and dared to see optimism in the most cynical political operators.

Sturges cast a couple of Black actors in stereotypical subservient roles, but sees to it that they get their laughs from digging commentary at the white folks, something he’d expand on as his career progressed and Hollywood evolved.

And he built his film around not big name stars, but a trio of the great character actors of his day — Brian Donlevy, William Demarest and Akim Tamiroff. That pays off in most very scene and gives the picture a cute little kick in the finale.

The story here is a Roosevelt/Huey P. Long era political satire, about a down-on-his-luck mug who stumbles his way from voter fraud to “collecting” to graft to Big Time Graft, but who starts to grow a conscience about “helping folks” as he does.

You see veteran tough guy Donlevy (a “Beau Geste” Oscar nominee) in the corner of your eye in the opening scene, in which a tipsy American barfly (Louis Jean Heydt) staggers into a “Banana Republic” suicide attempt before the sultry saloon singer (Steffi Duna) enlists the bartender in helping her pull this failed bank clerk together.

You think you got it bad, the bartender (Donlevy) wants to know? “I used to be a governor.”

The story of Dan McGinty’s rise and fall is told in flashback, a burly, blustery hustler on the bum until he’s solicited to “vote” by a political fixer (Demarest). Two bucks if you go vote for Mayor Tillingast.

Greedy McGinty wants to know how many times he can get away with that unregistered voter scheme.

“Whaddaya think this is, Hicks Corners? Some people is too lazy to vote, that’s all. They don’t like this kind of weather. Some of ’em is sick in bed and can’t vote. Fixer Skeeter (Demarest) pauses a beat.

“Maybe a couple of ’em croaked recently…” 

McGinty pulls the scam at 37 polling stations, which is how he meets the Big Boss (Tamiroff), who pulls all the strings in this town and who lapses into his native Russian at the first sign of aggravation.

A Russian fixing elections? Go on.

McGinty becomes a mob collector then a mob alderman. And when the jig is up on that corrupt administration, he becomes the “unknown” alternative “reform” candidate. He can be the mob mayor if he just runs out and gets himself married.

Few screenwriters handled the comical pragmatism of coupling negotiations as well as Sturges, and Muriel Angelis impresses as the get-down-to-brass-tacks secretary who becomes the willing “Mrs.”

But it’s the two-fisted scenes between Donlevy and all-comers that carry “The Great McGinty.” Threatening customers who “ain’t paid up” their protection money, charming and reasoning with the ladies and diving into brawls with a “Boss” who’d expect no less from a protege, “McGinty” feels like slap-around slapstick at times.

The political subtext about what he learns from his wife about the covenant between politicians and the public works well enough. Barely.

The framing device set in a “Banana Republic” bar fares so poorly that it almost spoils the final scene payoff Sturges cooked up for it.

But Tamiroff never lets on that he’s having any less than the time of his life as a blustering, brawling lead. He’d become a great and loyal favorite of Orson Welles in the years to come. Demarest would rise to even greater character roles in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “Hail the Conquering Hero,” “Sullivan’s Travels” and “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek,” with his best work coming in Sturges films.

And Donlevy, who’d reprise his character here in a cameo in “Morgan’s Creek,” would pile up the credits in the ’40s and ’50s playing characters of a “type.” But he’d make this assortment of tough guys, crooked guys, cheats and mugs almost as interesting as the real life of this Pancho Villa-hunting trooper turned Lafayette Flying Corps pilot turned Broadway and then Hollywood star.

Rating: “Approved,” TV-PG, fisticuffs, gunplay

Cast: Brian Donlevy, Akim Tamiroff, Muriel Angelis, William Demarest, Libby Taylor, Charles R. Moore, Louis Jean Heydt and Steffi Duna

Credits: Scripted and directed by Preston Sturges. A Paramount release on Youtube, other streamers.

Running time: 1:22