taking the plunge

1941 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Commentary, Intro, Featurettes, Radio adap,Booklet

You just can’t get a better picture in terms of comedy than The Lady Eve,” says Peter Bogdanovich. Some might contest that claim - after all, there’s stiff competition from writer/director Preston Sturges himself, who minted another classic chuckler the sameyear as Eve with Sullivan’s Travels, swiftly followed by 1942’s The Palm Beach Story.

Those latter films starred Joel McCrea, who regularly acted opposite Barbara Stanwyck - but not star repeatedly go arse over tit in some of Golden Age Hollywood’s finest pratfalls (the sofa accident is a particular standout). Stanwyck, meanwhile, performs dazzling verbal gymnastics; take the scene where she rattles off a running commentary on a string of diners vying for Fonda’s attention. Extras reveal that shooting was “the most fun she’d had in movies,” and it shows; hers is as relaxed a performance as you’ll find in a whiplash screwball comedy.