But Sturges had an ace in the hole: a script so good, he was able to hold it hostage. Paramount head William Le Baron liked the political satire Sturges had written, then titled Down Went McGinty<\/em>, and thought it could do well in the upcoming election year. Sturges, however, was tired of second-tier directors and rewrite men ruining his work. \u201cWhen a picture gets good notices,\u201d he explained, \u201ceveryone but the writer is the prince. So I decided, by God, I was going to be one of the princes.\u201d He invited Le Baron over to his home, cooked him a lavish meal, and made his offer: he would sell Paramount the McGinty <\/em>script for the fee of ten American dollars, as long as he would also be allowed to direct it. Le Baron, equally impressed by Sturges\u2019s cooking and his cajones, had the studio write Sturges a $10 check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Le Baron\u2019s bet paid off: that film, eventually titled The Great McGinty<\/em>, won the Academy Award for Best Original screenplay. And it kicked off a jaw-dropping hot streak for Sturges, who would write and direct eight great movies over the course of a mere five years: McGinty <\/em>and Christmas in July <\/em>(1940), The Lady Eve <\/em>and Sullivan\u2019s Travels<\/em> (1941), The Palm Beach Story<\/em> (1942), and The Miracle of Morgan\u2019s Creek, Hail the Conquering Hero<\/em>, and The Great Moment <\/em>(1944). Some were better than others, and some were not as well-received. But that burst of activity is one of the great runs in the history of filmmaking, in which a distinctive artist stamped his style and personality onto a series of great American movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You won\u2019t find a consensus for the best of the bunch, which is why it\u2019s such a relief that seven of the eight are currently available in the Criterion Channel\u2019s \u201cDirected by Preston Sturges\u201d<\/a> series (the later Unfaithfully Yours<\/em> replaces The Great Moment<\/em> \u2013 the weakest of the batch, so no great loss there). I chose to revisit The Lady Eve<\/em>, because it offers all of the charms of the Sturges filmography \u2013 snappy dialogue, colorful supporting characters, screwball energy, laughs a\u2019plenty \u2013 along with Henry Fonda at his dopiest and Barbara Stanwyck exhibiting what a friend (rightfully) dubs \u201cepic domme energy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the screwball taxonomy, Fonda plays the pampered nerd (see also: Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby<\/em>), the heir to an ale fortune who\u2019s utterly disinterested in the family business; his interest is in snakes, and we meet him as he\u2019s departing from a year-long trip up the Amazon. He boards a cruise ship, and a dazzling tracking shot captures how he\u2019s the talk of the boat \u2013 landing on Stanwyck\u2019s Jean Harrington, a con artist who tells her father and grifting partner, \u201cGee, I hope he\u2019s rich.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other women on the cruise are thinking the same thing \u2013 or, as Jean puts it, \u201cEvery Jane in the room is givin\u2019 him the thermometer.\u201d Her fun, slang-y dialogue is one of the greatest pleasures of Sturges\u2019s script \u2013 particularly when she starts aiming those zingers directly at Fonda\u2019s head. Her seduction of the young millionaire is lightning fast, even considering that, per his admission, he \u201chasn\u2019t seen a girl in a long time\u201d; five minutes into their first meeting, she\u2019s got him on his knees in her stateroom, getting a full view of her legs as he fastens the straps of her shoes around her ankles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She\u2019s absolutely in charge, from the moment they meet, and their flirting is top-notch: when he compliments her \u201cdefinite nose,\u201d she replies, \u201cI\u2019m glad you like it. Do you like any of the rest of me?\u201d Within minutes, she\u2019s running her hands through his hair and whispering sweet nothings in his ear, and Sturges plays the whole thing in a tight two-shot, with no cuts \u2013 and it\u2019s somehow both staggeringly funny and staggeringly sexy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Hays Code had long been the law of the land by the time Sturges was directing his movies, and it was a thorn in his side \u2013 because his pictures were decidedly of an adult nature, for an adult audience. He spent more than a year fighting with the Hays Office over The Miracle of Morgan\u2019s Creek<\/em>, and he couldn\u2019t have been surprised; its mere premise (involving a one night stand that results in an out-of-wedlock pregnancy) was asking for trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He presumably had less trouble with The Lady Eve<\/em> because its sins weren\u2019t so explicit; though the picture is (per the title) all about the lure of sex and the dangers of temptation (Fonda may never return to Eden, or the Amazon, but what a way to go), it wasn\u2019t the things Fonda and Stanwyck said to each other. It was the loaded way in which they said them, and the way they looked at each other as they did. You can\u2019t calculate or predict chemistry, so Sturges really lucked out; theirs is stunning, in both the horny scenes and<\/em> the lovey-dovey ones. (Most films are lucky to get just one <\/em>of those right.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even more impressively, the movie doesn\u2019t slow down when it veers from grift to romance (and back again). Sturges has a lot of ground to cover here, packing more plot into the 99 minutes of The Lady Eve<\/em> than the typical romantic comedy even contemplates. But that\u2019s the joy of this film, and of just about everything Sturges touched: he gives you more than most, but never too much. “The Lady Eve” is streaming on the Criterion Channel<\/a>, as part of their “Directed by Preston Sturges”<\/a> series.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/ladyeve2-1024x768.jpg\")
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