Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake try to get serious in Preston Sturges’s socially conscious comedy
SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS (Preston Sturges, 1941)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Friday, August 17, 6:50
Series runs through September 17
212-415-5500
www.bam.org
When a successful Hollywood director decides to make a socially conscious film instead of his usual fluff comedies, he gets more than he bargained for in this classic Preston Sturges film starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake. McCrea gives one of his finest performances as John L. Sullivan, a filmmaker who has made a string of shallow comedies but is ready to take on far more serious subjects, despite what the studio wants. So he heads out on the road, pretending to be a tramp to learn about the real world as he is followed by a crew ready to bail him out of any trouble, but he is soon thrust into actual distress when he winds up on his own, with no money and no memory, a railroad hobo desperately trying to survive against seemingly impenetrable odds. In the wake of the financial mortgage crisis and the country’s continuing economic woes, Sullivan’s Travels feels as fresh and relevant as ever; just as McCrea’s Sullivan does in the film, writer-director Sturges is letting everyone know that it’s okay to enjoy life even in troubled times. To that end, the film opens with a special dedication that reads, “To the memory of those who made us laugh: the motley mountebanks, the clowns, the buffoons, in all times and in all nations, whose efforts have lightened our burden a little.” Sullivan’s Travels is screening August 17 in the BAMcinématek series “American Gagsters: Great Comedy Teams,” which runs through September 17 and consists of fifty films (all but one in 35mm) featuring fabulous comedic pairings; Sturges’s The Palm Beach Story, a madcap romp with McCrea and Claudette Colbert, is also being shown on Friday.
Writer-director Preston Sturges was on quite a roll in the early 1940s, making a string of memorable pictures that included The Great McGinty, Christmas in July, The Lady Eve, Sullivan’s Travels, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, and Hail the Conquering Hero. In the midst of that amazing run is The Palm Beach Story, one of the craziest of the classic screwball comedies. Running out of money, married couple Tom (Joel McCrea) and Geraldine (Claudette Colbert) Jeffers are preparing to leave their ritzy Park Ave. apartment until a straight-talking, shriveled old wienie king (Robert Dudley) hands Gerry a wad of cash so she doesn’t have to move out. She pays off their many bills, but Tom is suspicious of how she got the money, demanding to know if any sex was involved, a rather risqué question for a 1942 Hays Code-era romantic comedy. Gerry decides that she is no good for Tom and insists on getting a divorce even though they still love each other. So she grabs a train to Florida, meeting the wacky Ale & Quail Club and John D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallée), a kind, soft-spoken gentleman who takes a liking to her and helps her out of a jam. Things reach a manic pace as Tom heads to Palm Beach as well, trying to save the marriage while fending off the advances of the the Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor). McCrea and Colbert make a great comic duo in, displaying a fiery sex appeal that is still hot all these years later. What’s not hot is the film’s use of black characters, who are horribly stereotyped and are even referred to as “colored” in the credits. It might have been a different time, but there aren’t a whole lot of quality movies that were that blatant about it. In addition, the shooting scene with the Ale & Quail Club goes way over the top. But when the film focuses on Tom and Gerry, caught up in their own endlessly charming game of cat and mouse, The Palm Beach Story shines. The Palm Beach Story is screening August 17 in the BAMcinématek series “American Gagsters: Great Comedy Teams,” which runs through September 17 and consists of fifty films (all but one in 35mm) featuring fabulous comedic pairings; Sturges’s Sullivan’s Travels, the socially conscious comedy starring McCrea and Veronica Lake, is also being shown on Friday.
