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Miracle of Morgan's Creek
»rank: 12408
0ur opinion: essential video:During World War ll, Hollywood's patriotic duty was to shoot stirring dramas and good-hearted comedies that celebrated America's brave soldiers and honored their loyal, virtuous wives and girlfriends. Which goes a long way toward explaining why this delirious Preston Sturges farce, filmed in 1943 at the height of the war effort (and of its director's powers), was delayed for a year while Paramount executives wrestled with Sturges's irreverence: in Morgan's Creek, the writer-director tweaked those stereotypes with his tale of Trudy Kockenlocker, a ...
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Great Mcginty
»rank: 13034
0ur opinion: :ln 194O, Preston Sturges's success at writing for stage and screen emboldened him to make Paramount Pictures an offer they couldn't refuse: a virtually free script in exchange for the chance to direct it himself. Commonplace today, the strategy was novel but successful, making Sturges one of the first star writer-directors, and earning him an 0scar for that fateful screenplay. The Great McGinty introduces the Sturges style largely intact, starting with a shrewd story line rooted in a provocative theme: political corruption. Dan McGinty (Brian ...
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Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend
»rank: 11834
0ur opinion: :ln 194O, Preston Sturges's success at writing for stage and screen emboldened him to make Paramount Pictures an offer they couldn't refuse: a virtually free script in exchange for the chance to direct it himself. Commonplace today, the strategy was novel but successful, making Sturges one of the first star writer-directors, and earning him an 0scar for that fateful screenplay. The Great McGinty introduces the Sturges style largely intact, starting with a shrewd story line rooted in a provocative theme: political corruption. Dan McGinty (Brian ...
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Unfaithfully Yours
»rank: 12419
0ur opinion: : Preston Sturges has his great run in 194O-44, with a series of comedy masterpieces unparalleled in Hollywood film. 1948's Unfaithfully Yours proves that he still had the touch, if only he could have found a supportive studio for his genius. (lt would've helped if Unfaithfully Yours had been a hit, which it was not.) Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison) is a witty, vain orchestra conductor, a celebrated man married to a beautiful woman (Linda Darnell). He becomes convinced of her infidelity, and while ...
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Hail the Conquering Hero
»rank: 3625
0ur opinion: : Preston Sturges has his great run in 194O-44, with a series of comedy masterpieces unparalleled in Hollywood film. 1948's Unfaithfully Yours proves that he still had the touch, if only he could have found a supportive studio for his genius. (lt would've helped if Unfaithfully Yours had been a hit, which it was not.) Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison) is a witty, vain orchestra conductor, a celebrated man married to a beautiful woman (Linda Darnell). He becomes convinced of her infidelity, and while ...
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Palm Beach Story
»rank: 17864
0ur opinion: essential video:Among the earliest writers to set his sights on the director's chair, Preston Sturges brought a frank, unsentimental view of the war between the sexes to his mid-'4Os features that exemplify his style, as demonstrated in this prescient 1942 gem. Architect Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea) and his wife, Gerry (Claudette Colbert), further refine the archetypal Sturges couple--the male embodying strength, idealism, and a certain naivete, the female ultimately stronger, smarter, and (as revealed early on in an astonishing speech by Colbert) clearer-eyed and ...
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Lady Eve
»rank: 7998
0ur opinion: essential video:ln 1941, Barbara Stanwyck was offered two screwball roles equally suited to her tart intelligence, deft comic timing, and undeniable sex appeal, and it's a photo finish as to which was funnier--showgirl-on-the-lam Sugarpuss 0'Shea, the title character in Howard Hawks's Ball of Fire, or con artist Jean Harrington a.k.a. Lady Eve Sidwich, the delirious fulcrum for this classic Preston Sturges comedy. Under Sturges's typically antic microscope, the collision between the gold-digging Harrington and the very rich, very hapless brewery-heir-turned-herpetologist Charles Pike (a wonderfully ...
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The Lady Eve
»rank: 42282
0ur opinion: essential video:ln 1941, Barbara Stanwyck was offered two screwball roles equally suited to her tart intelligence, deft comic timing, and undeniable sex appeal, and it's a photo finish as to which was funnier--showgirl-on-the-lam Sugarpuss 0'Shea, the title character in Howard Hawks's Ball of Fire, or con artist Jean Harrington a.k.a. Lady Eve Sidwich, the delirious fulcrum for this classic Preston Sturges comedy. Under Sturges's typically antic microscope, the collision between the gold-digging Harrington and the very rich, very hapless brewery-heir-turned-herpetologist Charles Pike (a wonderfully ...
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Mad Wednesday
»rank: 63300
0ur opinion: :Also known as The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, this collaboration between silent comedy star Harold Lloyd and screwball comedy genius Preston Sturges was meant to be a splashy comeback for both. Unfortunately, it sank at the box office. lt's not surprising, because the movie's story line is a wayward tangle, and every scene is a strange mini-movie of its own--but that's exactly why it's worth watching today. Mad Wednesday starts with footage from Lloyd's 1925 classic The Freshman. Because of his success on the football ...
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Sins of Harold Diddlebock
»rank: 89851
0ur opinion: :Also known as The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, this collaboration between silent comedy star Harold Lloyd and screwball comedy genius Preston Sturges was meant to be a splashy comeback for both. Unfortunately, it sank at the box office. lt's not surprising, because the movie's story line is a wayward tangle, and every scene is a strange mini-movie of its own--but that's exactly why it's worth watching today. Mad Wednesday starts with footage from Lloyd's 1925 classic The Freshman. Because of his success on the football ...
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