Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Directed by Preston Sturges

Film Review

There has been a significant (and long overdue) reappraisal of the work of Preston Sturges in recent years.  In the 1930s and 1940s, Sturges was a major creative force in Hollywood, winning acclaim as both a screenwriter and a director for his raucous, idiosyncratic comedies, yet his name and his work fell into obscurity in the decades that followed.  Although he made barely a dozen films, he is regarded today as one of the few genuine auteur filmmakers working in Hollywoood in the 1940s.  His films show a genius for quickfire comedy which is on a par with that of his idol, Ernst Lubitsch, but they also have a modernity and realism which gives them an enduring widespread appeal.

Sullivan's Travels is Sturges's masterpiece, a brilliant satire on the filmmaking business which is just as relevant today as it was when it was made, in the early 1940s.  The film asks us to consider what the primary role of cinema should be - is it to inform and educate or simply to entertain?  At the time, many filmmakers who had built their reputations on the entertainment side of the equation - Frank Capra being an obvious example - were beginning to drop elements of social commentary in their films.  In his film, Sturges challenges the value of this and concludes that cinema's main raison d'être is to help lighten the burden of ordinary men and women, not to remind them of the misery that surrounds them. 

After Sturges's faultless screenplay and direction, the thing which makes Sullivan's Travels so memorable is the on-screen chemistry between its two attractive leads, Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake.  The two actors spark off each other perfectly, and in a few scenes we are reminded of another great cinema double act, Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard in Modern Times.  At the time, Lake was six months pregnant, which created a major headache for her costume designer Edith Head.  Reportedly, Lake had a very strained relationship with McCrea, who refused ever to work with her again after this film.

The approach that Sturges uses to make his point is, to put it mildly, eccentric, but extraordinarily effective.  The film contains some of the finest comedy of any of Sturges's films - most famously the hilarious chase sequence at the start of the film, which owes a lot to the Keystone Kops and other comedy classics of the silent era.  But it also contains some of the most depressing sequences imaginable - harrowing images of early 1940s depression, with homeless wretches huddled together in doss houses and soup kitchens, and prisoners condemned to hard labour and unspeakable brutality.

This dramatic switch from outrageous farce to devastating tragedy demonstrates Sturges's extraordinary talent for writing and directing.  In the hands of a lesser director, such dramatic mood swings would feel contrived, but Sturges manages it with the skill of a master storyteller.  Just as the caricatured portrait of his Hollywood milieu makes us laugh out loud, so are we deeply moved by the images of hardship and suffering that we are also shown.  Yet the point of this film is not to make a profound comment on the unfairness of American society, but simply to show what a difference cinema can make to the lives of people of all backgrounds.  Whether or not you agree with Sturges's conclusion, he makes his case with great sincerity and style, whilst treating us to a film that is one his most entertaining.

Film Synopsis

John L. Sullivan is a successful Hollywood film director.  His lightweight comedies, such as Ants in Your Pants of 1939, have made him a rich man.  But now he is smitten with the urge to make a different kind of film - one about real human suffering, with an important message for society.  Before he can make such a film, Sullivan has to experience for himself the misery of the poor and dispossessed, and so he intends to take to the streets and live like a tramp for several weeks.  Naturally, his studio bosses are appalled by this at first, but having failed to dissuade Sullivan, they wake up to the publicity value of such an escapade.  So, closely followed by a caravan packed with studio staff, Sullivan sets out on his great new adventure, oblivious to the perils that lie ahead...