Sullivan's Travels (1942)
Starring: Veronica Lake, Joel McCrea
Just as he had with Stanwyck, Sturges had to convince Veronica Lake's studio that the sultry star of film noir dramas could be funny. In hiring her, he did reveal an untapped comic talent, but he also found plenty of trouble. Though Lake was not as difficult and unpredictable as usual on the set of Sullivan's Travels, she was pregnant and Sturges' wife had to talk her into telling him why she might be limited in filming certain scenes. Despite her idiosyncrasies, Sturges admired Lake's talent and convinced director Rene Clair to cast her in another comedy, I Married a Witch(1942). These two delightful performances show a rare glimpse of the comic talent that she was never allowed to fully develop.
Sturges wrote Sullivan's Travels for his fellow comedy directors, who had suddenly decided to make "important" dramas in the wake of the depression; his message was "to leave the preaching to the preachers."** Joel McCrea plays John L. Sullivan, a successful comedy director who disguises himself as a tramp in order to research the rough side of life for his first dramatic film. Lake is a girl that he runs into on the road who eventually becomes his traveling companion. She is essentially the same smooth, cool character that she plays in her film noirs, but there's an extra spark here. Though she is underplaying, Lake glows with charisma, she gets everything just right.
Sullivan's Travels was a success with critics and audiences, but both were reserved about Sturges' methods. Though the movie is entertaining, he never gets the mixture of drama and comedy quite right. He ultimately proves his own point; most good comedy directors should stick to the funny stuff. Sturges was aware of the imbalance and he even admitted that he never figured out how to end the movie. Still, Travels remains one of the most entertaining and fast-paced comedies of the era, and it does make its point.
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee
In 1941, Mary Astor played a femme fatale in The Maltese Falcon, the movie she is best remembered for. A year later, she played a screwball dame that would do Carole Lombard proud in The Palm Beach Story. She should be remembered for this role. Though Claudette Colbert plays the female lead in Palm Beach, Astor steals all her scenes as the talkative and self-absorbed Princess Centimilla. After playing silent movie damsels in distress and troubled women in a series of early sound dramas, Astor plays her fast-paced comedy role as if she's never done anything else.
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