"The Miracle at Morgan Creek" (1944) In Preston Sturges's high-energy screwball, a nice small-town girl - the awesomely named Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) - wakes up after a farewell dance for soldiers and finds herself married and pregnant. When the nice 4F (Eddie Bracken) who loves her steps in to be the actual husband, all heck breaks loose. Before you judge, Trudy says she was merely doing her patriotic duty. You're in no position to argue.
"Sunset Blvd." (1950) When we meet Joe Gillis (William Holden), he's floating in a pool. Then Billy Wilder's drama backs up to explain how he got there. It has a lot to do with the silent-film star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) who slithers into his life and his screenwriting career. What happens between them produces the kind of morning-after that no gentleman should prefer.
"Goldfinger" (1964) The morning-after episode may be only a small part of the movie. But is there a more memorable sight in all the Bond pictures than Shirley Eaton's gilded corpse? Sleeping with 007 is sure to give a Bond girl that certain glow. With some lethal assistance from Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe) and his henchman Oddjob (Harold Sakata), Eaton's Jill Masterson is the ultimate example.
"The Morning After" (1986) You're a top actress and a top-shelf drunk. And after a party you wake up next to a corpse. So it goes for Alex (Jane Fonda) in Sidney Lumet's thriller. She can't remember what happened and tries to make a run for it, but for some reason Officer Jeff Bridges believes she's innocent. What she does remember is that she once married Raul Julia, who turns up as the most flamboyantly heterosexual hairdresser since Warren Beatty in "Shampoo."
"About Last Night" (1986) Rob Lowe and Demi Moore go to bed together and wake up, more or less, in a fully committed relationship. From some writers this might be a sweet little romantic comedy - which is what director Ed Zwick, pre-"thirtysomething," is going for - but it's based on a David Mamet play. So one is inclined to see only a love nightmare.
"What Happens in Vegas" (2008) Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher are two strangers who drunkenly marry, agree to divorce, then change their minds as they fight over slot-machine winnings. Just typing that sentence brings back the worst of movie-going memories. You needn't have gone to Vegas to pretend this film, or this entry, for that matter, ever happened.
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