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The Lady Eve 1941 |
Review by Jonathan Cornwell |
Directed by Preston Sturges
NR, 97 min. |
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Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, William Demarest, Eric Blore, Melville Cooper, Martha O'Driscoll, Janet Beecher, Robert Greig, Dora Clement
Producers: Paul Jones
Screenplay: Monckton Hoffe, Preston Sturges
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Released: 1941 |
Rating:
 (out of ) |
Director Preston Sturges', one of the great directors of all time, The Lady Eve is, for my money, the best film during
his remarkable run of great films between 1940 and 1944. His other classics, The Great McGinty (1940), Christmas in July (1940),
Sullivan's Travels (1942), and The Palm Beach Story (1942), are also memorable for their intelligent
scripts and brilliant direction. Sturges has a magic to his direction that emanates from the screen, an ability that has rarely
been matched over years of cinematic history. His stories are well-developed and irresistibly charming, always leaving
the viewer with a high gratification level for such light fare. The Lady Eve is a screwball comedy much like Bringing Up Baby,
but in this case not everyone in the film has a screw loose. It's also maybe the signature film for Barbara Stanwyck, as she's
able to use all her considerable acting talent to seduce, confuse, and eventually love Henry Fonda's naive character.
Stanwyck plays a beautiful con artist named Jean Harrington, whose current target is wealthy Charles Pike (Henry Fonda),
a herpetologist (the study of snakes) who is unwittingly suckered into Jean's elaborate scheme with her father, Colonel
Harrington (Charles Coburn). They meet on the cruise ship Southern Queen, where Charles is returning from an expedition
to South America. Although many lovely girls are flirting with him, Charles only falls (literally) for Jean, who trips him
as he walks by. Embarassed, Charles escorts her to her room to replace a shoe that has broken as a result of the tripping.
There, Jean works her magic, seducing him with a combination of caressing his ear and rubbing his hair. It's not long before
Charles has proposed marraige, but during their short honeymoon Jean shocks Charles with fabricated stories of her many lovers
before him. Charles escapes, but Jean follows closely and disguises herself as the "Lady Eve Sidwich." She has fallen in
love with her target, and now not even her father can stop her win back her true love. The gullable Charles falls for Lady
Eve, and doesn't realize it's Jean until the film's final moments.
The Lady Eve is effective because of the intense chemistry between Fonda and Stanwyck. While Fonda is grounded in
reality, Stanwyck is a wild, untamed woman who's not used to losing. She's given the freedom to provide arguably the
best performance of her great career. She's graceful, seductive, and more than a match for any man. Fonda is the
rock of the picture, steadfast in a raging current of dishonesty that surrounds him. Without his performance, Stanwyck's
is not as effective. Together, they form a tandem every bit the equal of the Hepburn/Grant team in Bringing Up Baby. In fact,
in many ways, it's a more attractive matchup from the start.
The film may best be known for a wonderful scene between Fonda, Stanwyck, Coburn involving a game of cards. Stanwyck's
compassion for the naive Fonda results in a game of card sharks between herself and her father, which is exquisitely directed
by Sturges. Once Coburn is aware of Stanwyck's resistance to his con, he seems challenged and pushes the envelope
even further. During this intricate game between father and daughter, Fonda is clueless, instead believing in his good fortune
as he continues to win hand after hand. However, when Stanwyck disappears for a few minutes, Fonda quickly loses everything,
writing a check to Coburn for a lot of money. Stanwyck convinces her father to destroy the check, but only when he realizes
how important Fonda is to her. The scene is so enjoyable you have to see it twice to catch all the finer details.
In one of the more interesting mysteries of great Hollywood directors, Sturges would inexplicably lose the magic he
created during his run of seven memorable films during the early 1940s. Although his later efforts weren't terrible, they lacked
that extra touch that made his films so fun to watch. But during his remarkable run, Sturges was nearly untouchable in
the creativity department. The Lady Eve is his masterpiece, a film that's as fresh today as it was in 1941. It's the signature
effort of a career, despite its relatively short time span, that's hard to match.
© 2002 Jonathan Cornwell
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 |
 | Masterpiece - Film perfection |
 | Excellent - A Must See |
| Good - Highly Recommended |
| Fair - Worth seeing |
| Average - Viewable, but not recommended |
| Below average - View at own risk |
| Poor - Avoid at all costs |
| Very poor - An embarassment to the film industry |
| Zero | Awful - One of the worst films ever made |
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