Preston Sturges

[Roger Ryan]

I’m very happy to see this being published. Last October I was asked if I could offer any advice on getting some of Sturges’ unproduced screenplays out to the public. I’m far from an authority in matters like this, but made a small suggestion and a bigger endorsement of the idea itself.

At the time, the number of unproduced screenplays being talked about was more than three, so maybe if the book is successful…

[FrauBlucher]

Next Wednesday I plan on catching The Great McGinty and The Great Moment. Bummed I really can't make all of these films, but I'm officially converted to a full-on Sturges fan.

Sorry to ask you to go deep into your memory bank, what are your remembrances of these two?

[Drucker]

My memory is that I didn't attend this screening! I've seen both films at this time from the Kino blu ray. I remember very little of The Great McGinty and I think I honestly enjoyed The Great Moment. At this point I've seen most of the major Sturges films and I'd rank these at the bottom.

[FrauBlucher]

What would be at the top?

[Stefan]

Sorry for intruding here, but this is some kind of Gretchenfrage, right? Which side are you on - "Sullivan's Travels" or "The Lady Eve"? Difficult!

[FrauBlucher]

No intrusion. I welcome answers to that Gretchenfrage (although my guess will be The Lady Eve based on some prior input)

[Drucker]

What would be at the top?

I saw Unfaithfully Yours during the same series and I have never laughed harder at a movie in my life. Palm Beach Story behind it. And I haven't loved Beautiful Blonde either time I've seen it, but it has a line where Grabel says "Would you talk to your mother that way?" and Romero replies (something to the effect of) "That's an entirely different circumstance..." and it's one of my favorite lines in any of his movies, too.

[MichaelB]

I wrote up The Great McGinty a decade or so ago:

The Great McGinty (1940)

Preston Sturges' directorial debut came about thanks to a cheeky bit of opportunism on his part - he offered to sell the script to Paramount for either $1 or $10 (depending on source), provided he got to direct it. Since he was at the time the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood, this was an offer that was almost impossible to refuse, despite the fact that it was then vanishingly rare for the screenwriter and director to be one and the same (at least in mainstream American cinema). The script went on to win an Academy Award (Sturges: "I received a statuette of a nude gentleman with a very long sword, known as Oscar, and I am looking at it with considerable satisfaction right this minute"), and while the film wasn't a colossal hit, it made enough money to establish Sturges-as-director as a viable commercial proposition. More importantly, its very existence encouraged other top-flight screenwriters to make the leap, including John Huston and Billy Wilder. So film history owes The Great McGinty one hell of a lot.

As for its merits as a film, they're also pretty strong - if it doesn't quite scale the heights that Sturges would reach astonishingly quickly (the following year would produce both The Lady Eve and Sullivan's Travels), it's nonetheless a bright, snappy political satire that's bold enough to look at both sides of the political-corruption argument (yes, it's morally reprehensible, but it also creates jobs and puts food on the table) and deft enough to bring in a reasonably complicated narrative in at a tight 82 minutes. Dan McGinty (Brian Donlevy, getting great mileage out of his bemused-heavy persona) is a shambling down-and-out at the height of the Depression who is bribed $2 to impersonate a voter and thus get a particular candidate elected. Fired with enthusiasm, he ends up voting in 37 precincts, and the resulting kerfuffle over his fee brings him to the attention of The Boss (a scene-filching Akim Tamiroff), an Al Capone type who basically pulls all the strings and who recognises in McGinty someone with genuine potential as a plausible front man. Accordingly, McGinty shoots up the greasy pole, becoming first alderman, then mayor and finally state governor, taking in a marriage of convenience along the way. But then things don't go according to plan: he actually falls in love with his wife Catherine (Muriel Angelus) and starts taking on board her arguments against his political methods...

Of course, we all know how this is going to play out - McGinty recognises the error of his ways, makes a big denunciatory speech, gets the Boss locked up for corruption, McGinty himself is hailed as hero and we fade out on a heartwarming shot of him looking noble and upright and his wife looking adoringly at him, right? Well, some of those things happen, but not in the way the Hollywood Book of Clichés would recognise, and what makes the film so peculiarly bracing even today is that you can read it just as much as a pro-corruption statement - or at the very least an acknowledgement that American politics has always relied on bribes and backhanders, so why rock the boat? Is this despairingly defeatist or deeply, blackly cynical? Well, this is a Preston Sturges comedy, so take a wild guess.

I have the distinct impression that it's going to be rather more resonant today! Which isn't bad at all for a now 86-year-old political satire.

[Drucker]

I think I am definitely due for a revisit as I don't remember it clicking much at all, I must have been out of sorts on my first viewing. My wife is having a small procedure done next week and asked me to choose a fun film to watch that evening and I mentally lined up Palm Beach Story.

[FrauBlucher]

Thanks Michael. Much appreciated. This will air on TCM later this month. I’ll be sure to catch it.

Drucker, good luck to the Mrs. It must be fun playing the role of programmer

[Matt]

The Palm Beach Story is my favorite Sturges, one I will watch any time it's on. I think it's got the most rewatchability because not only is the main situation funny, but all of the bits and supporting characters are funny. It's not as manic as something like The Miracle of Morgan's Creek or Hail the Conquering Hero, but breezier than some of the others. My second favorite would have to be Sullivan's Travels, which only gets better each time I watch it. To think I didn't like it at all the first time I saw it.

I'd say my #3 is Christmas in July. I love how brisk it is, and Ellen Drew and Raymond Walburn are terrific.

The Lady Eve has a marvelous first half, but the actual Lady Eve Sidwich business between Stanwyck and Fonda drags for me. The last half is only saved by Eric Blore, Eugene Pallette, and William Demarest. It's probably just above The Great McGinty, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, Hail the Conquering Hero, and Unfaithfully Yours (which relies much more heavily on a dark strain of slapstick than the other comedies). I do think Eddie Bracken in Miracle is one of the all-time great but unhailed comedic performances.

The Great Moment is a fine biopic in the tradition of those Warner Bros. films like Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet and The Story of Louis Pasteur. Absorbing, but nothing to write home about.

Can't speak on the others as I've never made it all the way through them.

[therewillbeblus]

I actually prefer the second half of The Lady Eve, but I realize that’s not a popular opinion!

Already did my recent writeups on the previous page. Hail the Conquering Hero! is easily my favorite

[Matt]

That's great! I think Sturges really has something for everyone.

[Beloved Aunt]

The Palm Beach Story is one of Sturges' wonkier contraptions. The stuff with the Ale & Quail club is hilarious, and the Mary Astor section is exhilarating, although not really actually funny, for the most part, and i also like the Weenie King sections, but the main plotline, most of Claudette Colbert + Joel McCrea's scenes together are pretty boring, and not really all that witty or anything. It's definitely second-tier Sturges to me. The Lady Eve and Hail the Conquering Hero are my favorites, although I haven't seen Unfaithfully Yours. HTCH is Sturges most verbally ingenious and quotable film. Sullivan's Travels has always struck me as a "Sturges film for people who don't like Preston Sturges", i.e. Sturges using his skills to do something less personal and more commercial, for people who don't want his unadulterated genius, although its still a very good comedy.

[Stefan]

Beautiful comments in here. We should play this game more often.
One more vote for "The Lady Eve". Nothing matches Charles Coburn playing poker.

[Stefan]

And since we're talking comedy and because I watched it again on New Year's Eve: "What's Up, Doc" features what must be the greatest character-actor in comedy history: Liam Dunn, "the judge" at the end. Whenever I see his trial I feel some ten years younger from laughing. Sturges would have loved him, I'm sure.

[Drucker]

Glad to see I'm not the only one that was slightly underwhelmed by The Lady Eve which I feel is a shameful opinion to have. Definitely need to revisit. My love for Unfaithfully Yours is definitely informed by my theatrical experience. A perfect Film Forum crowd collectively laughing non-stop, especially during the first imagined murder sequence really was a treasure to be a part of.

[FrauBlucher]

I’m with Matt on The Lady Eve. The first half was brilliant and felt nonplussed for the second half. Maybe I need to re-watch. I do need to see some more, the less popular Sturges’.

I do wish he directed Remember the Night.

[Finch]

Been a while since I've watched The Lady Eve and Miracle of Morgan's Creek. Sullivan's Travels does nothing for me. Palm Beach Story is my favorite right now.

I thought Leisen's direction of Remember The Night was totally fine. The short scene where they visit Stanwyck's parents felt very Gothic and I still think about it since my viewing of the Indicator BD.

[FrauBlucher]

It has more to do with what Liesen removed and changed from the script

Edit: Finch, was that scene not in Sturges original Script

[domino harvey]

They’re all good, but this as a top four has been hard to beat for me:

Hail the Conquering Hero
the Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
Sullivan’s Travels
Christmas in July

[Stefan]

Strange, no one votes for "Bad Day at Black Rock"?

[Dollyartasia8800]

I’m very happy to see this being published. Last October I was asked if I could offer any advice on getting some of Sturges’ unproduced screenplays out to the public. I’m far from an authority in matters like this, but made a small suggestion and a bigger endorsement of the idea itself.

At the time, the number of unproduced screenplays being talked about was more than three, so maybe if the book is successful…

It's wonderful to hear that. Getting more of Sturges' unproduced work out there feels long overdue, and even a tiny push from the right individuals can make a difference. Hopefully, the book succeeds and leads to more.