Wick's Tour de Sturges (8)





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Created May 24, 2013 11:58PM PST • Updated Apr 26, 2015 07:34PM PST

Preston Sturges famously wrote & directed these classic comedies during a furious five-year burst of activity from `39 to `43.

Four of them have been declared among the 100 funniest movies of all time by the AFI. No argument about the first two, as described below.

Need another reason to view them? The legendary Edith Head’s fabulous costuming.

Is Sturges the greatest writer-director ever? He’s in the conversation.

The Great Sturges

Source: http://www.clivejames.com/f...

Average

  • Great
  •  
  • 67 Points
Title Released Trust Weighted Summary ▲ Viewable
5th The Miracle of M...
1944 None Yet 0 Points

TBV

Added May 24, 2013 11:58PM PST • Updated Apr 01, 2022 03:47AM PST
6th The Great McGinty
1940 None Yet 0 Points

TBV

Added May 25, 2013 12:35PM PST • Updated Apr 01, 2022 03:47AM PST
7th The Power and th...
1933 None Yet 0 Points

Written but not directed by Sturges

Added Mar 31, 2022 07:27PM PST • Updated Apr 01, 2022 03:23PM PST
8th Christmas in July
1940 None Yet 0 Points

TBV

Added May 25, 2013 12:44PM PST • Updated Mar 31, 2022 07:27PM PST
4th The Palm Beach S...
1942 Good 66 Points

The Palm Beach Story hasn't aged well.

A Preston Sturges' classic, funny and loaded with iconic style, its heavy-handed comedy sometimes clanks.

No? Sue me. I'm into romantic comedies mostly for the comedy, albeit not those with too many pratfalls.

More egregiously, the use of "colored" characters in The Palm Beach Story pains enlightened sensibilities.

Sturges spins his fantasy about the Rockefellers. John D. and John Jr. each have an unrelated doppelgänger. That way they fill more story space, the elder one a crotchety Park Avenue millionaire happy to give money to a …

Full Review »
Added May 24, 2013 11:58PM PST • Updated Apr 01, 2022 03:47AM PST
3rd Hail the Conquer...
1944 Very Good 66 Points

Hail The Conquering Hero is a welcome stop on the Tour de Sturges, even if not one of the best.

The Greatest Generation dealt with challenge differently than we 2nd Millenniums do, to put it mildly. Preston Sturges made Hail The Conquering Hero during World War II, right after the Marines lost damn near 10,000 men at Guadalcanal. (A name every spellchecker knows.) Yet his comedy of 1944 places a squad of Marines just back from Guadalcanal in the middle of a screwball comedy about a favorite son with a bad back. It takes balls to be funny in that situation, especially because the w…

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Added May 25, 2013 12:44PM PST • Updated Apr 01, 2022 03:47AM PST
2nd The Lady Eve
1941 Great 66 Points

Preston Sturges made RomComs that are funny, sexy, glamorous, clever and sophisticated. The Lady Eve proves the point. It still works three quarters of a century later, especially with the proto-modern Barbara Stanwyck as the minx in the middle of a screwball con-game extraordinaire.

Modern audiences shouldn't shy away. Funny, sexy, glamorous, clever and sophisticated never go out of style.

Full Review »
Added May 24, 2013 11:58PM PST • Updated Apr 01, 2022 03:47AM PST
1st Sullivan's Travels
1941 Perfect 69 Points

When everybody rates a movie as Five Star, calling it one of the greatest ever made, the stakes are high. Expectations of perfection prevail. Expectations, meet Sullivan's Travels, a perfect Golden Age movie.

Sullivan's Travels is a movie about the movies, about comedies mostly, from which an often affecting comedy emerges. Sullivan travels through Depression America, riding the rails and bunking with hobos.

Nevermind that he's rich, a big time movie director and all. A Comedy Director no less. His last hit? Ants in Your Pants of 1939! Big hit. He's gonna leave Hollywood …

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Added May 24, 2013 11:58PM PST • Updated Apr 01, 2022 03:47AM PST

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