Sullivan’s Travels: 1940s screwball comedy pre-empted debate about ‘poverty porn’

No film has contemplated the divide between “high” and “low” art with as much flair, gusto and flat-out fun as Preston Sturges’s 1941 magnum opus Sullivan’s Travels. The writer-director elevated screwball comedies, making irresistibly entertaining pictures full of banter and repartee, showcasing some of the genre’s best dialogue and creating moments that rank among the most enjoyable of 40s-era Hollywood.

Part of the film’s focus is the tension between studio bigwigs and hotshot directors, the former driven by the almighty). Sullivan intends it to be a “commentary on modern conditions, stark realism, the problems that confront the average man” and “a true canvas of the suffering of humanity”. One studio executive listens to this and adds: “But with a little sex in it.”