Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges
RANKED:
5. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943)
By the mid 1940s, Preston Sturges had developed and name and reputation for himself by making wildly charming and hilariously sharp screwball comedies. With 1943's "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek," he shifted into comedy that was much more slapstick and silly. Centering on a young couple who get tangled in a series of tricky situations after one of them gets intoxicated and married to an unnamed solider, the film erupts in hysterical chaos only Sturges could conjure.
4. The Lady Eve (1941)
When scriptwriter Preston Sturges was finally able to get behind the camera as a director in his own right in the 1940s, he made some lasting contributions to Hollywood cinema. One of these classics is his 1941 screwball comedy "The Lady Eve." Starring Barbara Stanwyck as a smooth-talking card shark trying to both grift and seduce the awkward and clumsy heir to an ale fortune, played by Henry Fonda, "The Lady Eve" makes a few laughs out of mischief and trickery. Not only did it star some of the biggest names at the time, it went on to be very successful, even securing an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Story.
3. Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
Preston Sturges' best period of his filmography was certainly during the war in the early 1940s. However, his films didn't usually comment on the war or contain any elements that one could connect to the event. All except 1944's "Hail the Conquering Hero," a film centering on a young man who is caught up in a lie that he is a war hero. Although approved by the US War Department, the film contains themes centering on mindless hero worship, even on the political level. At the heart of the satire and comedy lies a dramatic tension revolving around the moral center of a society and the people we choose to idolize. It prompts questions about the kind of people our society props up, respect that we attain under falsity, and what it means to be courageous. "Hail the Conquering Hero" would not be Sturges' last film, but it would be his last at Paramount and what many would consider his last great triumph.
2. The Palm Beach Story (1942)
When the screwball comedy was first conceived in the early 1930s, it was meant to tap into the class consciousness that was happening in the midst of America's ongoing economic depression, while also providing escapism in the form of comedy to alleviate said depression. 10 years later, Preston Sturges' films rejuvenated this genre during the second World War in his own unique and quick-witted style. His 1942 film, "The Palm Beach Story," not only mused on class divides and the idleness of the rich, it also brought back Claudette Colbert, one of the actresses integral to the burgeoning genre a decade prior. Although "The Palm Beach Story" was received very mildly by critics in its time, it retrospectively gained respect for carrying on the genre's traditions and offering up escapist entertainment at a time when America was facing global challenges.
1. Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Although Preston Sturges' 1941 film "Sullivan's Travels" was received too warmly by critics at the time of its release, in retrospective evaluation, many consider the film to be the greatest of Sturges' filmography. The film as a metatextual allegory for Sturges, as it centers on a Hollywood film director who is tired of making empty comedies. He wants to make a serious film about the downtrodden, so he decides to live life as a travelling bum in order to get inside that world to characterize it authentically. However, he gets more than he bargained for when he ends up sentenced to six years of hard labor. Through the construction of the film, Sturges explores his own anxieties as a director and muses on the types of films he should be making. He makes the serious drama about the downtrodden in the form of "Sullivan's Travels," and through the experience, comes to the conclusion of self-discover that he's making the exact films he needs to be making at this point in his life and career.
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