Matt's review from the old board.
baileyhouse wrote:The film:
I have kind of a hard time thinking of The Lady Eve as a screwball comedy, because nobody really seems all that screwy. At least not in comparison to the characters in, say, Hawks' screwball comedies like Twentieth Century, Bringing Up Baby, or His Girl Friday. Sturges films always seem to have an element of screwball, or moments of screwball, but they're never screwy all the way through. But that's a good thing. Sturges' comedies have a lot of heart and the romance really rings true, especially in this film. Henry Fonda has always seemed a little pretty and feminized to me, but that's the way I like him - he has an innocence and tenderness about him that's believable, however nasty or cold he apparently was in his real life. And Barbara Stanwyck has always seemed a little, well, butch (Watch Fuller's Forty Guns if you don't believe me. The two of them, however, make for a great combination especially in this film. Stanwyck (okay, "Jean") knows what she wants and she goes after it - twice. I won't go on and on about the rest of the film - just take my word for it that it's good, it's sweet, it's funny, and it's perfectly cast. If you caught the short article on the Criterion website when this disc and Sullivan's Travels were released, then you know how important Sturges' supporting players were to him and to his films. This film, his second, is a perfect example of that. Not only does the film feature two perfectly cast leads, but also four of the best character actors working in the business at the time: Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, Eric Blore, and Sturges stalwart William Demarest. Sturges gives each actor at least one short scene in which to shine and usually the best lines in the film as well (though it's pretty hard to top the laughs you get out of me when Stanwyck delivers the line, "Holy smoke! The dropped kerchief - that hasn't been used since Lily Langtry!"). My point, essentially, is that if you like good writing and you like good comedic acting, then I can't understand why you're sitting here reading this instead of watching this movie. But you want to know about the disc, right? Okay…
The disc:
The transfer is good, the print was in very good condition, and the sound is clean. What more could you want? Supplements, you say? Well…
Peter Bogdanovich's introduction, like most in the Criterion Director Introduction series, is short and sweet. In eight minutes, he gives us a brief report on the film's production, the importance of Sturges as one of the first writer-directors, and the film's stature as one of the greatest romantic comedies ever made.
Marian Keane's commentary, however, is exactly the sort of cod-academic, overly analytical, fun-sucking chatter that DVDs could well do without. I have to confess that I could only stand to listen to about twenty minutes of it. I appreciate Criterion's attempt to educate their viewers by asking noted critics and scholars to provide commentaries, but I can't imagine that anyone would play this commentary and think, "gee, I'm glad I listened to that." Most of the time, Keane's observations and "insights" are simply verbose and florid descriptions of what the viewer can plainly see is happening on the screen. At other times, they are cringe-inducing assertions of sexual metaphors that Keane finds in the simplest and most conventional of images. There are, thankfully, moments of silence in Keane's harangue, but they only make you realize how much you'd rather switch her off and hear those great Sturges one-liners and witty rejoinders. I haven't listened to Keane's other commentaries on the Hitchcock discs, but now I know not to waste my time. Anything interesting she notes about the film is covered much more thoughtfully in James Harvey's liner notes. Though few and far between, the good points she does make are poached from Stanley Cavell's 1981 book, "Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage," which, while a daunting and philosophical read, is vastly preferable to 90 minutes of Marian Keane biting her consonants. Indeed, Ms. Keane's only published book is a condensation and overview of Cavell's own theories of film. The kicker is that Stanley Cavell is still alive and probably could have provided a very interesting commentary for this disc. Listen to this one at your own risk.
Moving on, the "Scrapbook" section at first seems to be just what you might expect. Lots and lots of publicity stills, on-set photos, and ads, but if you're patient, you'll come across some amusing memos regarding suggested changes from the Hays Office (the enforcers of the Motion Picture Production Code) and notes from a test screening indicating the total number of laughs by the audience and what they laughed at. Usually I can only click through so many photos of the director looking thorough a viewfinder and the cast wearing funny hats before my thumb starts to ache and I get bored, but this feature was pretty good. I only wished they had put the more interesting stuff at the beginning and left the photos for last.
The costume sketches by Edith Head could have just as easily ended up in the disc's "Scrapbook" section, but having them set aside and annotated with excerpts regarding the film's production from Edith Head's autobiography makes them uniquely pleasurable. I had found out years ago that Barbara Stanwyck had what might be called a low-slung caboose. To overcome this "impairment," Edith Head devised a way of dressing Stanwyck with specially shaped belts on all her garments or with coats with lengthened hems. These garments gave Stanwyck the desired Hollywood figure and detracted attention from her, uh, caboose. However, since I found this out I end up staring at Stanwyck's butt in every picture I see her in. At least for a few seconds. Anyhow, this feature allows you to see the magic that Head worked on Stanwyck to turn her from a plain Jane into a glamourpuss.
The Lux Radio Theater program is a nice addition, but I can't imagine many families sitting around the warm glow of the television set to listen to it. For those who don't know, it was common practice in the thirties and forties for studios to publicize their films by having the actors go on the radio and act them out as radio drama. Naturally, these were shortened versions of the film script and had to be altered for the limitations of radio, but they were very popular nonetheless. This particular program has Barbara Stanwyck and Charles Coburn recreating their roles and Ray Milland standing in for Henry Fonda. It's a nice listen and a good inclusion for fans of radio, but again, why would you just listen when you can watch the real thing?
The trailer is not an original release trailer but is instead from a re-release. It's pretty beat-up, but the opening shot, which is not in the film, is worth seeing it for.
I didn't realize when I picked this up to watch it just how loaded it was. Usually I'm just happy to get a good transfer and a trailer, but Criterion has a knack for including just the right supplements and just enough of them. Any more and you could get sick of it all, especially if it's the kind of fluff that passes for features on big studio releases. Sometimes you look at Criterion's release schedule and curse them for putting you in the poor house, but then you see a disc like this and you remember - it's all worth it.
