Travels with Preston
Sturges takes Hollywood for the proverbial ride
Orson Welles, John Ford and Billy Wilder are well-known names in the pantheon of American cinema, yet few people remember the works of auteur Preston Sturges – surprising not only because of his unheard of power as a writer-director in his prime, but because his films The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story and most notably Sullivan’s Travels are as powerful and durable as any of those other masters’ works.
Often cited as the most autobiographical of his films, Sullivan’s Travels features Sturges regular Joel McCrea as Depression-era director James L. Sullivan. Tired of comedic pursuits, his plans to make the quintessential drama for the everyman, O Brother, Where Art Thou? are put on hold when he realizes he knows nothing about poverty. His remedy is to head out on the road with nothing but a dime in his pocket to learn how the other half lives.
Dressed in a hobo costume, he sets out to ride the rails with a young ingenue (Veronica Lake), and it is not long before Sullivan learns what most of his friends had told him, that poverty is not to be envied. Yet, as in any good fable, Sullivan learns something else – be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.
The setup is a classic fish-out-of-water scenario and one would expect the broad comedy of the screwball era to ensue, which of course it does. What makes Sullivan’s Travels so entertaining is the way Sturges is able to play each joke for all it’s worth, effortlessly fusing slapstick antics with his signature verbal patter, creating comedy that is almost always working on two levels at once.
For most filmmakers this would be more than enough, but Sturges deftly raises the stakes. Sullivan sets out for one last penniless night, this time getting the hard-luck story he was wishing for. At this point, Sturges effortlessly transforms Sullivan’s Travels from a flat-out comedy into the movie Sullivan had been threatening to make. Sturges gets what he wants by defending his clearly defined comedic roots as a director, yet at the same time proves he is capable of more serious fare.
Throughout the film, Sturges takes on the Hollywood system, but his jabs are never more effective than when Sullivan hits rock bottom. Earlier, Sullivan complains that he couldn’t possibly make a comedy, let alone a musical, with the world in such an impoverished state. But once Sullivan loses everything, Sturges turns the tables on his audience, and his lead character, by incorporating a chilling and beautiful musical number.
The deft filmmaking certainly stands on its own, but this Criterion edition DVD revels in the perspective that context provides. Aside from the usual trappings, the disc offers a 76-minute Emmy-winning documentary on the rise and fall of Preston Sturges. Focusing not merely on Sullivan’s Travels but on Sturges’s life and times, the documentary makes his jabs at Hollywood that much more potent and cement the fact that Sturges was truly one of a kind. The disc also offers feature commentary by Kenneth Bowser – the maker of the documentary – as well as Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and director Noah Baumbach.
Bowser’s commentary, like the documentary, offers a look at a meticulous craftsman who was able to use elements of everyday life to create some of the finest movies of the era.
As for Sullivan’s Travels, whether it’s autobiographical for Sturges or not, McCrea brings to life a Sturges alter-ego that rationalizes the director’s comedic bent. At the same time, Sturges has created a brilliantly funny yet touching look at humanity that few have matched before or since. |
