The Lady Eve (1941)

 Preston Sturges' "The Lady Eve"


The 1940s were the twilight years of the standard Hollywood genre of "screwball comedy." Its heyday in the 1930s had reached a more tired, standard format. Despite this, the genre was still flourishing with many of the day's high earning stars signing on to get their screwball on. One director who had spent plenty of time writing the screwball formula in the 1930s was Preston Sturges. By 1940, he became a director himself and was able to direct his own scripts, something that did not occur very often in the Hollywood industry. In 1941, he was able to enlist Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda, two of the biggest stars at the time, to star in his screwball comedy "The Lady Eve." 

"The Lady Eve" centers on a classy card shark named Jean who spends the entire film trying to both swindle and romantically entice an heir to an ale fortune, Charles.  After he finds out her intentions the first time, she transforms herself once again into Lady Eve. Despite being bewildered by her resemblance to Jean, Charles fall for and marries Eve. After things fall apart between them, he gets back together with Jean, not realizing she is both Jean and Eve.

When I realized this film was a screwball comedy, I was bewildered by Henry Fonda's involvement. I would not have pictured the 'stoic' persona of Fonda having the range for something more silly. However, it seems as though Sturges compensated for this performative lacking by making his character extremely awkward and clumsy. Throughout the film, Fonda's character is constantly falling and knocking things over, as well as having things spilled all over him. The 'screwball' opposite persona to this is Barbara Stanwyck's smooth-talking Jean/Eve, who whisks Charles away with her deception and classiness. 

Overall, I felt that "The Lady Eve" was a solid entry into the screwball genre. I did not feel as though it gave me much to offer in the realm of contextualized significance. The only thing I could say about it was its soft touches upon dynamics of class divisions: the awkward, unaware wealthy and the smooth-talking weasel-y larcenists. However, there is not much consideration beyond that. Still, I enjoyed the film to the extent of its classification and genre.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rio Bravo (1959)

Image
  Howard Hawks' "Rio Bravo" To conclude the filmography of Howard Hawks, I watched his 1959 western film " Rio Bravo ." I've got to say that I was expecting a lot more out of this picture based on all the praise for the film. That is not to say that I didn't like it, it was a fine time at the cinema (I was not at the cinema, I was at home). I can't say that I should have expected more, as I'm not entirely that big of a fan of Howard Hawks. Even his best film (to me), " The Big Sleep " is arguably one of the weaker film noirs that I've seen. " Rio Bravo " is a film that apparently is a response to 1952's " High Noon ," which was an allegory about Hollywood's blacklisting and McCarthyism. Howard Hawks and John Wayne felt the film was anti-American and instead made " Rio Bravo " to broadcast an alternative perspective in which the hero of the story doesn't shy away from justice. I personally ha...
Read more

King Kong (1933)

Image
  Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack's "King Kong" There are many post-Depression American 'box office' films that I have seen in my film studies journey. Most of these post-Depression box office films don't typically sit right with me. The films I have in mind are the gangster and monster films that swept the nation in the early 1930s. These films typically were meant to placate an anxious American audience. However, the depth to their thematic intricacies leave something to be desired. Even without this depth, the 'entertainment' aspect of these films were not very entertaining to me. However, there is one film that utterly surprised me, 1933's adventure epic " King Kong ."   The story is well-known. A group of filmmakers travel to a remote island to take advantage of strange and interesting natural wildlife unknown to the outside world. There they meet an indigenous people, all terrified of a large, monstrous primate living on...
Read more

The Big Sleep (1946)

Image
  Howard Hawks' "The Big Sleep" After watching Howard Hawks' 1946 film noir " The Big Sleep ," I have to say that it is not one of my favorite film noirs. That being said, it was definitely the best Howard Hawks film I've seen thus far. It did not have the typical dark ending that permeates the whole film with bleak darkness, which probably made it a lesser noir for me. In fact, it felt more like a 'studio noir,' if that makes sense. I'm not going to go into the entire plot of the film, especially because the entire plot is incredibly convoluted. In fact, this was a major strike against the film at the time of its release. Many reported that they could not keep up with what was happening. I've got to say that, for myself, this was the case as well. I found myself having to rewind to figure out what exactly I missed or who was who. However, upon reflection, the convoluted plot may only add to the feverish intoxication of the film.  Because...
Read more