Preston Sturges

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Blu box from Wild Side in France later this year Hopefully there's an Arrow equivalent on the cards.
http://www.dvdfr.com/dvd/f161352-presto ... omedy.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Werewolf by Night]

Madame et ses flirts. What a wonderful, if inaccurate title for The Palm Beach Story.

[Drucker]

Blu box from Wild Side in France later this year Hopefully there's an Arrow equivalent on the cards.
http://www.dvdfr.com/dvd/f161352-presto ... omedy.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Arrow said after they released Sullivan's Travels that if it sold well they'd do all the films in this box. I think it's safe to assume that no more Sturges from them means it didn't sell well enough, unfortunately.

[domino harvey]

If they can release two more volumes of the American Horror Project, surely they can also release one box of films that are actually good

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Blu box from Wild Side in France later this year Hopefully there's an Arrow equivalent on the cards.
http://www.dvdfr.com/dvd/f161352-presto ... omedy.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Arrow said after they released Sullivan's Travels that if it sold well they'd do all the films in this box. I think it's safe to assume that no more Sturges from them means it didn't sell well enough, unfortunately.

Either that or they are waiting for the same improved elements that has apparently caused the Wild Side delay from 2016.

[domino harvey]

In addition to all his great work behind the camera, Sturges also dabbled in clothing design (!), as evidenced by this Life photo-story of Sturges and his longtime mistress Frances Ramsden (star of the Sin of Harold Diddlebock):

[MichaelB]

The booklet for Arrow's Sullivan's Travels contains a long essay that persuasively argues that far from being a filmmaker who dabbled with inventions on the side, Sturges was in fact primarily an inventor who just happened to have a brief but glorious period as a filmmaker.

[Gregory]

In the last photo, Sturges is on the phone asking Eugene Pallette if he has any old pants he doesn't wear anymore.

[domino harvey]

Has anyone read Tom Sturges’ recent book on the later years of his father’s life? Was amused to learn Preston Sturges’ son was a music exec responsible for signing 50 Cent and Afroman to record deals, among others

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Has anyone read Tom Sturges’ recent book on the later years of his father’s life? Was amused to learn Preston Sturges’ son was a music exec responsible for signing 50 Cent and Afroman to record deals, among others

I actually read it last month. It’s excellent, although if you’re looking for contributions from his son, they’re pretty minimal as he was basically estranged from his father due to the circumstances at the end of Preston Sturges life. It goes deeply into all the works Sturges began and for whatever reason, never got to finish and the failures of his few produced late works (his last film and a single stage production). The man sounded insanely arrogant, but quite charming when necessary and even at his lowest low, couldn’t shake the shadow of his former success. The relationship between him and his last wife is interesting too as they remained in love (to a degree) even though they separated three years before his death. He would write her almost every single day and the book uses all of his letters and notes to document his life. It seems when Sturges turned thirty-something, he became obsessive note taker and would write regularly into his journals, kept every letter, and even wrote the exact times his flights would depart and arrive. It also makes you sad about his failures to get projects off the ground as several of them sound excellent and quite funny. As dense and as well researched as any book on Sturges can be.

[domino harvey]

Sounds great, thanks for the writeup! I’m way more interested in details and insights into his work and life than I am in family perspective etc, so that’s just fine with me. I’ve wanted to have a go at some of the surprisingly plentiful bios / overviews of his work for some time now, will have to make sure this is one of them!

[Revelator]

Thanks, now I'm eager to the new book too. I disagree with its co-authors' assertion that Sturges's last film, The French They Are a Funny Race, was a failure. The excellent Sturges biography by Diane Jacobs states that the film was a commercial success in the U.S. As for artistic merit, it's not Sturges's worst film (that would be The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend), and though it's not what one expects from a Sturges comedy it remains an enjoyable little film about cultural differences.

[therewillbeblus]

I just did a full revisit/filling in the gaps of Sturges' catalog. New to me were The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend, a western farce that has a few good laughs and many failures, almost all centered around Betty Grable's gunplay. It's a gag that's milked far too often, but shenanigans get a bit more fun towards the end. Overall a forgettable experience. Sturges' final film, The French, They Are a Funny Race fares worse. I watched the English-language cut, but I have a hard time believing this is funnier in French. Aside from a drunken courtship on horseback, nothing else is really memorable and the brief runtime is a slog to get through. Meanwhile, The Great Moment is quite good, and a lot more humorous than it gets credit for. It's an interesting biography in construction alone, but the playful attitude in dialog and execution - in particular making the subject out to be anything but a spectacular fellow - are smart and novel. It also has one of the better usages of William Demarest (well, it would make the top half of his appearances in Sturges' oeuvre), which is a pleasant surprise and adds a lot of laughs to the picture. Oh, and Safeguarding Military Information is a rather bland WWII propaganda short.

Unfaithfully Yours is still the most overrated Sturges - I seem to laugh less and less each viewing, even if I respect the concept's ingenuity. The most underrated is The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, which begins slow though intelligently - Harold Lloyd's confessions of missed opportunities hitting sad and quietly funny tones - only to build into a feature-length drunken bender of youthful experience in late adulthood, and all the poor choices that come with it.

The Great McGinty was a lot more fun this time around. It's no great film by any margin, but it moves with a sense of economy, clever script, and game perfs, giving the movie a kind of irresistible charm. Plus its running gags best a lot of Sturges' repeating jokes in other, even better works. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek improved as well - it's always been a masterpiece, but the perversity of its concept bleeds into every ounce of the celluloid: the performances and script and direction are all just so over-the-top for Hays, it's hard to believe you're watching a movie made 'back then'. I don't need to say more about Hail the Conquering Hero!, Sturges' best film, but it still plays to the heart and the belly laughs equally without mercy. Sullivan's Travels pulls off a similar feat, and it's a very special and brilliant film, even if it's frontloaded with laughs. I'm still the oddball who prefers the back half of The Lady Eve to the boat courtship, but it's a gas nonetheless, aided immensely by its bifurcated structure. The Palm Beach Story struck me as a bit too silly and wild this time, but it's still a good film with a strong beginning (everything involving the Wienie King) and ending (which cannot be spoiled but is genuinely startling in its absurd screenplay cliff-dive). Christmas in July is a classic brief good-natured satire and humanist celebration, and has a warm stronghold that keeps it from ever dipping in the ranks.

I also tried digging into more of his script-only work, after loving The Good Fairy, liking Remember the Night, Easy Living, etc., but Hotel Haywire was poor enough to stop that project from continuing. Though recs on where to go next would be greatly appreciated, if there are still some diamonds left!

[beamish14]

Still waiting on UCLA’s restoration of Harold Diddlebrock, which is longer than what is currently commercially available; to finally get a home video release

[bottlesofsmoke]

I'm happy that The Great Moment is growing in your estimation, I think it's great and probably his most Chaplinesque film, but with more of Sturges' strengths and less of Chaplin's foibles. It's an even better movie when one is familiar with other "great man" biopics of the period. It has similar beats as those other films, but the way Sturges uses satire and comedy undercuts any strains of self-important seriousness.
I also love the non-linear structure and ending the film with the decision to share the discovery, because the previous scenes where we see the cost of his decision add so much weight to final choice, since we know it will ruin him. It's typical of Sturges that the "great moment" in the film is one of failure on one level: McGinty loses everything professionally but gains the love and respect of his family; Jimmy "wins" the contest that turns out to be a practical joke, but that allows him to get a better job and raise (and then he wins the contest anyway); Sullivan suffers enough to make serious movies but realizes he needs to make comedies; and most of all Woodrow admits to being a fraud but in the process proves himself to be an honest man worthy of the position he was originally offered. Morton's moment of greatest failure as a business man is his greatest triumph as a human being.

As far as Sturges scripted films, you've probably seen the best ones. Diamond Jim and If I Were King are considered some of his better screenplays and works that are mostly his. The films are okay as far as I remember, with some little Sturges touches. And though he didn't write the film, you should probably watch Strictly Dishonorable if you haven't, which was his big Broadway breakthrough that got him to Hollywood. As far as I know the Stahl version is pretty faithful to Sturges' play, the later version perhaps less so, though some may know better.

[knives]

As far as script recommendations Whale’s The Invosible Man has got to be one of his best films.

[Drucker]

Great write-up, TWBB. I'm probably due for a re-watch of most of these, but to address some of your takes. I actually really enjoyed Beautiful Blonde. The first time I watched it, it did nothing for me (the second picture in a Struges double-feature I thought it was the weaker of the two I saw that night), but revisiting it at the Nitrate Picture Show in 2019(!), I liked it a quite deal and didn't find it to be quite the slog anymore. And I still think the joke in the middle, which I don't recall perfectly, but something to the effect of: "Would you talk to your mother that way?" and Romano's retort, "That's entirely preposterous, as my mother...." was one of the funniest one-liner's I've ever experienced in a film (though I can't remember the punch line!)
I still have yet to see Miracle Of Morgan's Creek, but I have to take umbrage with your view of Unfaithfully Yours. And maybe I just rank it higher because I had a great time at the theater, but I saw it with a packed crowd and we were all rolling in our seats laughing. It's perhaps the meanest of his films, but watching the first scene he imagines where he's killing his wife and then seeing it pull back and he's still up there conducting I just thought was the absolute best. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in a theater. To your point, this was the first time I've watched it and I only revisited it once since then, but I won't blame the picture for being less funny the second time just because I know the gags.

[MichaelB]

I'm not a massive fan of Unfaithfully Yours either, although admittedly that came almost right at the end of a Sturges marathon, which probably didn't do it any favours.

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, on the other hand, really is a work of untrammelled genius.

[therewillbeblus]

I'm sure theatrical experiences would enrich both those films, especially Unfaithfully Yours. It's a film that gets so many raves that I'm constantly frustrated by how little I get out of it. Next time it plays at the Brattle around here, I'll try to go

I should stress that I find all Sturges films (with perhaps the exception of his last) worthwhile. Even Beautiful Blonde landed more gags than the average comedy, but its ratio of miss-to-hit just eventually exhausted me. Perhaps that's an unfair take, since the effect is largely a product of Sturges packing in so much more than the average artist into his films - so I probably rank comedies without as many laughs above it, but here we are

Drucker - Definitely prioritize Miracle Of Morgan's Creek. If Hail the Conquering Hero! didn't exist, it'd probably be his best work

[hearthesilence]

I remember noticing that a brand new restoration of Unfaithfully Yours was being shown as a DCP at MoMA, long after Criterion had already issued its DVD, so I thought wrongly a Blu-ray upgrade would probably show up eventually. This was well before the pandemic, so it's been quite a while.

I haven't seen it in years, but I highly enjoyed it. I have to admit it struck me as some pretty dark shit, which to be fair was the point of the whole movie:

Spoiler

The moment that I remember best is the close-up of Rex Harrison laughing his ass off, almost maniacally, after his daydream concludes with the grisly death of his wife. This of course happens while he's still conducting his orchestra. It could have inspired that later gag in The Simpsons where everyone's giving Mr. Burns creepy looks as he laughs sadistically (and incessantly) at the memory of himself crippling an Irish laborer.

[Drucker]

I remember noticing that a brand new restoration of Unfaithfully Yours was being shown as a DCP at MoMA, long after Criterion had already issued its DVD, so I thought wrongly a Blu-ray upgrade would probably show up eventually. This was well before the pandemic, so it's been quite a while.

I haven't seen it in years, but I highly enjoyed it. I have to admit it struck me as some pretty dark shit, which to be fair was the point of the whole movie:

Spoiler

The moment that I remember best is the close-up of Rex Harrison laughing his ass off, almost maniacally, after his daydream concludes with the grisly death of his wife. This of course happens while he's still conducting his orchestra. It could have inspired that later gag in The Simpsons where everyone's giving Mr. Burns creepy looks as he laughs sadistically (and incessantly) at the memory of himself crippling an Irish laborer.

Spoiler

Yep this is exactly the moment I referenced above. There's a moment where you don't yet know he's imagining it, and yet it's still absolutely hysterical and then when you go back to the view of him conducting, there's a really powerful emotional come-down as a viewer which, again, works really wonderfully in a crowd.

[Tom Amolad]

Working my way through Sturges at the moment. (I've seen most of the films before, often several times, but I've never been systematic about it -- though I suppose it's still TBD whether I make it as far as The Great Moment.)

One that I've not seen before is The Sin of Harold Diddlebock. For that one, is it important to have seen The Freshman first? Also, amid the talk of different versions, is the one that's streaming cheaply on Amazon adequate?

[knives]

It’s not specifically essential, but it does deepen an appreciation and you should be familiar with Lloyd’s persona.

[Stefan Andersson]

Three unproduced Sturges screenplays:
https://stickingplacebooks.com/o-brothe ... reenplays/

[domino harvey]

Wow, that looks great, thanks for sharing— I’ll be ordering next week for sure. Nothing Doing sounds like classic Sturges