The Great McGinty
Stars Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angelus, Akim Tamiroff, Allyn Joslyn, William Demarest
Directors: Preston Sturges
Theatrical Release Date: August 23, 1940
Synopsis - Told in flashback, Depression-era bum Dan McGinty is recruited by the city's political machine to help with vote fraud. His great aptitude for this brings rapid promotion from "the boss," who finally decides he'd be ideal as a new, nominally "reform" mayor; but this candidacy requires marriage. His in-name-only marriage to honest Catherine proves the beginning of the end for dishonest Dan...

Christmas in July
Stars Dick Powell, Ellen Drew, Raymond Walburn, Alexander Carr, William Demarest
Directors: Preston Sturges
Theatrical Release Date: October 18, 1940
Synopsis - An office clerk loves entering contests in the hopes of someday winning a fortune and marrying the girl he loves. His latest attempt is the Maxford House Coffee Slogan Contest. As a joke, some of his co-workers put together a fake telegram which says that he won the $25,000 grand prize. As a result, he gets a promotion, buys presents for all of his family and friends, and proposes to his girl. When the truth comes out, he's not prepared for the consequences.

The Lady Eve
Stars Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, William Demarest
Directors: Preston Sturges
Theatrical Release Date: February 25, 1941
Synopsis - Returning from a year up the Amazon studying snakes, the rich but unsophisticated Charles Pike meets con-artist Jean Harrington on a ship. They fall in love, but a misunderstanding causes them to split on bad terms. To get back at him, Jean disguises herself as an English lady, and comes back to tease and torment him.

Sullivan's Travels
Stars Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick, William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn
Directors: Preston Sturges
Theatrical Release Date: December 1941
Synopsis - Sullivan is a successful, spoiled, and naive director of fluff films, with a heart-o-gold, who decides he wants to make a film about the troubles of the downtrodden poor. Much to the chagrin of his producers, he sets off in tramp's clothing with a single dime in his pocket to experience poverty first-hand, and gets some reality shock.

The Palm Beach Story
Stars Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee, Sig Arno
Directors: Preston Sturges
Theatrical Release Date: November 7, 1942
Synopsis - Gerry and Tom Jeffers are finding married life hard. Tom is an inventor/ architect and there is little money for them to live on. They are about to be thrown out of their apartment when Gerry meets rich businessman being shown around as a prospective tenant. He gives Gerry $700 to start life afresh but Tom refuses to believe her story and they quarrel. Gerry decides the marriage is over and heads to Palm Beach for a quick divorce but Tom has plans to stop her.

The Great Moment
Stars Joel McCrea, Betty Field, Harry Carey, William Demarest, Louis Jean Heydt
Directors: Preston Sturges
Theatrical Release Date: September 6, 1944
Synopsis - In the winter of 1868, Eben Frost (William Demarest) 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 (Betty Field) who explains to her daughter, Betty (Donivee Lee), that Frost was the first person given anesthesia by her father, Boston dentist Dr. W.T.G. Morton (Joel McCrea.) 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 sulphuric 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 (Harry Carey), 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.

Hail the Conquering Hero
Stars Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines, Raymond Walburn, William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn
Directors: Preston Sturges
Theatrical Release Date: August 9, 1944
Synopsis - Having been discharged from the Marines for a hayfever condition before ever seeing action, Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith (Eddie Bracken) delays the return to his hometown, feeling that he is a failure. While in a moment of melancholy, he meets up with a group of Marines who befriend him and encourage him to return home to his mother by fabricating a story that he was wounded in battle with honorable discharge. They make him wear a uniform complete with medals and is pushed by his new friends into accepting a Hero's welcome when he gets home where he is to be immortalized by a statue that he doesn't want, has songs written about his heroic battle stories, and ends up unwillingly running for mayor. Despite his best efforts to explain the truth, no one will listen.