Sullivan's Travels

"A pretty girl is better than a plain one 

A leg is better than an arm

A bedroom is better than a living room

An arrival is better that a departure

A birth is better than a death

A chase is better than a chat

A dog is better than a landscape

A kitten is better than a dog

A baby is better than a kitten

A kiss is better than a baby

A pratfall is better than anything."

                             - Preston Sturges

With my mother recently visiting to celebrate her 80th birthday, I was left with the  of how to entertain her. I treated her to Sullivan's Travels - Preston Sturges's 1941 comedy about a movie director, played by Joel McCrea who longs to make a socially relevant drama, but eventually learns that comedies are his more valuable contribution to society. It was one of Veronica Lakes first roles as a leading lady. She'd never seen it before and enjoyed it immensely so it set the tone for the week she stayed as we watched several old 1940s movies I've collected over the years watching Pat O'Brien, Broderick Crawford and Burt Lancaster in black and white. 

Sullivan's Travels is not a laugh-a-minute, but does have some wonderful moments as it plays on Swift's Gulliver's Travels, another story about travel and the process of self discovery... a bit hard to find these days, but anything by Preston Sturges is still gold. A comic genius, Sturges is often regarded as the first Hollywood figure to be initially established as a screenwriter and then to subsequently move into directing his own scripts, at a time when those roles were mostly entrenched and separate. He won one academy award and was nominated for two others for his scripts. Track his work down if you enjoy Frank Capra.

Burn brightly, Pete.