Genre:
Comedy, Drama, Classic
Distributor:
Arrow Academy
Rating:PG
BD Release Date:
26th May 2014 (UK)
Director:
Preston Sturgess
Cast:
Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick
Sullivan’s Travels was written and directed by Preston Sturges who brought back the idea of the writer-director. It was very common in the 30s and 40s for major Hollywood films to have numerous writers, but Sturges found that horrible and counterproductive and after some success as a screenwriter he was able to director his own scripts. Sturges made numerous screwball comedies from 1940 to 1942 and only making a few more films later. His quality and work rate was only beaten by such art house directors as Jean Luc-Godard and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Sullivan’s Travel tells the tale of a film director John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea) who wants to make the socially conscious film O’ Brother Where Art Thou? after making bland comedies. This is rejected by his studio boss and decides to “know what trouble is” and leaves on a mission to live like a tramp. His studio boss forces a coach to follow him full of his staff and journalists to keep an eye on him but he eventually convinces them to meet him later. However he always keeps ending up back in Hollywood no matter how hard he tries.
Sullivan meets a young actress known only as The Girl (Veronica Lake) who is planning to quit the film business. Sullivan says he will give her a lift and steals his own car but is arrested. However, after weighing up her options she decides to travel with him on his journey of being a hobo.
The film remains one of the funniest and witty films of all-time and is one of the earliest films that has in-jokes relating to other films; Ernst Lubitsch is mentioned many times and there is a reference to Frank Capra as well. It is also one of the finest films about film and is a very satirical look at how the film industry works due to them wanting Sullivan to keep making the same old bland comedies instead of something more serious. It’s also very unique because it uses pretty much every kind of comedy known to man - from broad slapstick humour to gallows humour – and everything in-between.
The two leads are outstanding despite the fact they hated each other during the shoot. Veronica Lake was notoriously difficult to work with: Joel McCrea was supposed to work with her on I Married a Witch but famously said “Life's too short for two films with Veronica Lake", and Raymond Chandler called her “Moronica Lake”. Despite this, they have fantastic chemistry that brings the best out of both performers and Sturges’ witty script.
Sullivan’s Travels remains one of the most influential comedies ever made with it being referenced in the title of The Coen Brothers’ O’ Brother Where Art Thou?. Preston Sturges has influenced everyone from Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, Woody Allen and perhaps most surprisingly Quentin Tarantino, who has often cited his later film Unfaithfully Yours as one of his top 10 films of all-time, and they both have a knack for witty dialogue and pop culture references.
Arrow has released one of their most packed discs with Sullivan’s Travels. The disc has a commentary by Terry Jones of Monty Python, the American Masters documentary on Preston Struges, more docs and interviews and a WW2 propaganda film by Sturges. The transfer is quite beautiful and naturally contains the long detailed booklets expected from Arrow.
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