Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Veronica Lake and Joel McCrea

'Sullivan's Travels' is an American comedy film made in 1941, written and directed by Preston Sturges and starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake. Although the movie was not immediately successful at the box-office and received a mixed critical reception on its release, it has since been recognised as one of Sturges's most remarkable films and is regarded as a movie classic.

In 1990, Sullivan's Travels was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

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As one of American cinema's earliest auteurs, and one of the first scriptwriters to make the transition to directing, Preston Sturges was responsible for an explosion of now classic films in the 1940's. 'Sullivan’s Travels' was the fourth of the eight films Sturges made between 1940 and 1944. These films are known for their sophisticated verbal wit, uproarious physical comedy, and their affectionate portrayal of eccentric, scene -stealing supporting characters. But Sturges's work is also consistent in its exploration of the possibilities and prospects of upward - and occasionally downward - mobility. In 'Sullivan's Travels' Sturges was assisted by future Western movies director Anthony Mann, and cinematographer John Seitz.

In what may be his finest, most complex film, 'Sullivan's Travels', Sturges brilliantly mixes broad humor with sharp-edged cultural commentary. The very title invites comparison to Swift's satirical masterpiece. Once again - as in 'The Great McGinty' in 1940, 'Christmas in July, the same year, and 'The Lady Eve' in 1941 -Sturges reveals social identity to be a highly unstable proposition, capable of hyperbolic transformation through such prosaic means as disguise, confusion and self-deception.

The film features Veronica Lake, whom Sturges insisted on having, in one of her first leading roles. She was pregnant at the start of shooting, imperceptibly so at the start, but eventually her condition had to be creatively concealed by the costumes from costume designer Edith Head.

John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea) is a successful Hollywood director who specializes in lightweight entertainment, exempified by broad comedies such as the 1939 film 'Ants in Your Plants'. Naive and sheltered by a solicitous staff who have no interest in seeing their meal ticket change genres or become overly ambitious in his cinematic pursuits, Sully nonetheless sets his sights on derecting an epic social commentary picture abouit tough times in depression-era America to be entitled 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' (a fictional title eventually used by the Coen Brothers for their own 2000 film, in clever tribute to Sturges). To research his topic, which involves such unpleasantries as suffering, deprivation, and racial inequality, Sully insists on disguising himself as a hobo and making his way across the country to experience 'real life' first hand.

Once on the road, assorted adventures, meetings (notably with Veronica Lake's down-on-her-luck ingenue), and mishaps - some hilarious, others surprisingly poignant - transpire before Sully eventually comes to terms with his true calling as a lowbrow moviemaker with a gift for makng people laugh. The lesson here is that strained seriousness and forced profundity have far less benefit for the masses then good old-fashioned humor, with its power to help people forget their troubles, if only for a while.

That 'Sullivan's Travels' possesses an autobiographical dimension is impossible to deny, with Sturges affirming the value of what he himself did best - making smart comedies with the power to lift viewers'spirits - while ripping the pretentiousness of Hollywood's more sober and 'socially committed' filmmakers. Personal statements aside, however, the tour de force script brings together a remarkable range of genres, including slapstick, action, melodrama, social documentary, romance, musical, and prison movie. Though it failed to garner a single Oscar nomination,'Sullivan's Travels' is the most remarkable film in the career of one of America's greatest filmakers.