| |
|
|
| Preston
Sturges |
|
|
| Director
/ Screenwriter / Producer |
| 1898 - 1959 |
| Born August 29,
Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Key
Production Country: USA
|
|
Key Genres:
Comedy, Screwball Comedy, Satire,
Comedy of Errors |
| Key
Collaborators: William Demarest (Leading
Character Player), Hans Dreier (Production Designer), Stuart Gilmore
(Editor), Franklin Pangborn (Leading Character Player), Victor Milner
(Cinematographer), Paul Jones (Producer), Porter Hall (Character
Player), Joel McCrea (Leading Player), Rudy Vallee (Leading
Player), Leo Shuken (Composer) |
| Highly Recommended:
Christmas in July (1940), The
Lady Eve (1941), Sullivan's Travels (1941), The
Palm Beach Story (1942) |
| Recommended:
The Great Moment (1944), Unfaithfully
Yours (1948) |
| Links:
[ IMDB ]
[
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [ Senses
of Cinema: Great Directors ] [
Film Reference ]
[ The Official
Preston Sturges Website ] [ Preston
Sturges: Filmmaker ] [
American Masters ] [
Reel
Classics ] [
Films
on Disc Article ] |
| Books: [
Preston
Sturges by Preston Sturges: His Life in His Words ] [ Between
Flops: A Biography of Preston Sturges ] [ Christmas
in July: The Life and Art of Preston Sturges ] [
Madcap: The Life of Preston Sturges ] [
Five Screenplays by Preston Sturges ] [
Four More Screenplays by Preston Sturges ] [
Three More Screenplays by Preston Sturges ] [
Preston Sturges ] |
| DVD's:
[ Amazon
] |
| 1,000
Greatest Films: The
Lady Eve (1941), Sullivan's Travels (1941), The Palm Beach Story (1942),
Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944) |
| |
    |
| |
| |
|
|
| |
"Sturges
is one of the great makers of Hollywood comedy: from The
Great McGinty (1940) through to Hail the Conquering Hero
(1944), everything that he touched turned to gold. His films
strike the most delicate balance between cynicism and
sentimentality, creating a world of real and beautifully
ridiculous people. And, to put it simply, The Lady Eve
(1941) and The Palm Beach Story (1942) are two of the
funniest films ever made." -
(The Movie Book, 1999) |
|
| |
|
|
| |
"American director
who made wild, weird and wonderfully lunatic comedies for the
war years that are still fondly remembered today. The swift
collapse of his talent after those years had gone is one of the
screen's great sadnesses. Still, the inspired idiocy of his
seven comedies between 1940 to 1944 is something to treasure,
and perhaps it is greedy to expect more." -
David
Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999) |
|
| |
|
|
| |
"Sturges's
sophisticated handling of sexual relations (which the heiress in
The Palm Beach Story refers to as "Topic A") make his
films seem remarkably contemporary. And there can be no doubting
Sturges's screenwriting abilities. But only recently have
critics come to appreciate Sturges's consummate skills as a
filmmaker." -
Eric Smoodin (The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia, 1998) |
|
| |
|
|
| |
"Hilarious, often extremely cynical satires on American manners
and mores were Sturges' specialty. His plots were always complex
and even his minor characters stayed in the memory." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
|
| |
|
|
| |
"I
did all my directing when I wrote the screenplay. It was
probably harder for a regular director. He probably had to read
the script the night before shooting started." -
Preston Sturges |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
