Preston Sturges Collection (The Lady Eve/Sullivan’s Travels/The Palm Beach Story/Umbrella Entertainment/PAL Format/Region 4)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: B-     Films:

 

The Lady Eve A-

Sullivan’s Travels  A

The Palm Beach Story B+

 

 

PLEASE NOTE: This DVD set can only be operated on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region 4 PAL format software and can be ordered from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment at the website address provided at the end of the review.

 

 

I rarely like to use the word “magical” when describing anything, let along cinema, but there really is something magical when watching a Preston Sturges film.  Of course he is typically associated with words like “screwball” and “comedy”, but that only scratches the surface as I find his films to have more charm and wit, but also they have a message and a meaning rooted deep below the whimsical surface and have emotional depth that very few films rival, even serious dramas. 

 

I was first introduced to Sturges when I watched a double billing of The Lady Eve and Sullivan’s Travels, which have since become not only two of my favorite Sturges films, but perhaps two films at the top of my all-time list.  There are very few films that rival the hilarity of either of these films and to get them together in this set from Umbrella Entertainment is a sheer delight. 

 

The Lady Eve stars the one and only Barbara Stanwyck (we reviewed here box set here) and a very young Henry Fonda as they meet each other on a ship where they play some cards, flirt, and eventually fall in love, which runs short as a huge misunderstanding causes them to part ways.  What Fonda’s character does not realize is that she is a con woman, but she plays it straight with him for the first time ever after nearly trying to con him.  However, she gets revenge on him as she shows up some time long after as a noble woman in disguise and torments him, but their true love for one another can’t be thwarted for too long, or can it? 

 

The Lady Eve is silly and sexy even after all these years as the characters true desires for one another boil over and over and Sturges was a master at handling these adult themes in a very subversive way that was able to slide through the various codes at the time.  In fact, here we have some prime examples of why the production works even better as it tries to beat the system rather than work for it.  Yet it is in this very aspect that gives the film its tenacity and over time has grown into a full blown comedic classic. 

 

As if The Lady Eve isn’t special enough, then comes 1943’s Sullivan’s Travels, which is easily one of my all-time favorite films.  The film stars Joel McCrea as a wealthy director who is trying to make a new feature film.  The only problem is that he is tired of making silly films, even though they make money; he wants to show what ‘real life’ is really like.  However, when he pitches this idea to his producers he finds himself up against a wall as they tell him that he doesn’t really know what ‘real life’ is about since he is nothing but a spoiled director who wouldn’t know what it’s like in the real world.  Miffed by their disposition he decides to hit the streets as a bum and live amongst the lower class folks to see what life is really like.  Well, that all seems great except despite his best intentions he ends up back in Hollywood no matter how hard he tries to escape it, he also ends up in the hands of Veronica Lake, who captivates him from the beginning and the two begin a long adventure all over the place as he learns about life, love, and the everything in between. 

 

The Palm Beach Story falls between the other two films as it was made in 1942 and is not nearly as funny or clever as the other two films, but make for a great addition in this set nonetheless.  The film stars Joel McCrea in another fantastic role as his wife divorces him and marries a millionaire to help support him, which begins the snowball of comedic errors in this silly and yet cunning film that shows just how money can get in the way of our true identity and certainly our love.

 

This set also features the 76-minute documentary Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer, which is a terrific segment that really shows how tragic it is for a filmmaker of this caliber to be left in the dust after a strong slew of successful films during the 1940’s primarily.  Sullivan’s Travels also features a commentary track by film critic Paul Harris, who obviously loves the film just as much as I do and provides great insight into the film. 

 

All of the films are presented in their original full frame aspect ratio for this release and are in Region 4 coding only, so you will need an all-region player to view these in the United States as well as a PAL to NTSC converter.  Sound is Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono and is adequate, image quality is pretty good despite their age, The Lady Eve and Sullivan’s Travels were released in restored versions by the Criterion Collection, the prints here to not rival those, but are sufficient for a box set like this that includes three great films, a bit of extras, and that alone will make this set a great addition to any film collection.

 

 

As noted above, you can order this PAL DVD import set exclusively from Umbrella at:

 

http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/

 

 

-   Nate Goss