Table Of ContentReFocus: The Films of Preston Sturges
ReFocus: the American Directors Series
Series Editors: Robert Singer and Gary Rhodes
Editorial Board: Kelly Basilio, Donna Campbell,
Claire Perkins, Christopher Sharrett, and
Yannis Tzioumakis
ReFocus is a series of contemporary methodological and theoretical approaches
to the interdisciplinary analyses and interpretations of neglected American
directors, from the once-famous to the ignored, in direct relationship to
American culture—its myths, values, and historical precepts. The series
ignores no director who created a historical space—either in or out of the
studio system—beginning from the origins of American cinema and up to the
present. These directors produced film titles that appear in university film
history and genre courses across international boundaries, and their work is
often seen on television or available to download or purchase, but each suffers
from a form of “canon envy”; directors such as these, among other important
figures in the general history of American cinema, are underrepresented in the
critical dialogue, yet each has created American narratives, works of film art,
that warrant attention. ReFocus brings these American film directors to a new
audience of scholars and general readers of both American and Film Studies.
Titles in the series include:
ReFocus: The Films of Preston Sturges
Edited by Jeff Jaeckle and Sarah Kozloff
ReFocus: The Films of Delmer Daves
Edited by Matthew Carter and Andrew Nelson
ReFocus: The Films of Amy Heckerling
Edited by Frances Smith and Timothy Shary
www.euppublishing.com/series/refoc
ReFocus:
The Films of Preston Sturges
Edited by Jeff Jaeckle and Sarah Kozloff
© editorial matter and organization Jeff Jaeckle and Sarah Kozloff, 2015
© the chapters their several authors, 2015
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
The Tun—Holyrood Road
12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry
Edinburgh EH8 8PJ
www.euppublishing.com
Typeset in 11/13 Monotype Ehrhardt by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire,
printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4744 0655 0 (hardback)
ISBN 978 1 4744 0656 7 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 1 4744 0657 4 (epub)
The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been
asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the
Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The editors wish to thank the following people for their invaluable assistance:
Robert Singer, Gary Rhodes, Barbara Lucas, Caitlan Moore, and Alice Royer.
Financial support came from Vassar Ford Scholars Program, Vassar College’s
Research Committee, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Foundation, and the Betty and
Richard Duvall Foundation.
Contents
List of Figures vii
Notes on Contributors ix
Introduction: An Agile Mind—The Many Stands of Preston Sturges 1
Jeff Jaeckle
Part 1 Contexts: Genre, Studio, Authorship
1 Preston Sturges and Screwball Comedy 25
Leger Grindon
2 Preston Sturges, Sullivan’s Travels, and Film Authorship in
Hollywood, 1941 46
Virginia Wright Wexman
3 To Write and Not Direct 66
Sarah Kozloff
4 “The Edge of Unacceptability”: Preston Sturges and the PCA 83
Matthew H. Bernstein
Part 2 Cultural Commentary: History and Identity
5 Sturges’s Many Mothers 109
Kristine Brunovska Karnick
6 “These Are Troublous Times”: Social Class in the Comedies of
Preston Sturges 133
Christopher Beach
vi CONTENTS
7 “They Always Get the Best of You Somehow”: Preston Sturges
in Black and White 155
Krin Gabbard
8 Falling Hard: The Sin of Harold Diddlebock 173
Joe McElhaney
Part 3 Technique: Scripting, Performance, Music
9 The Unheard Song of Joy 193
Jeff Jaeckle
10 The Eye of the Storm: Preston Sturges and Performance 211
Diane Carson
11 Presto(n) con Spirito: Comedies with Music, Sturges-style 232
Martin Marks
Part 4 Impact: Reception/Reputation
12 Thrust with a Rapier and Run: The Critics and Preston Sturges 261
G. Tom Poe
13 H ail the Conquering Auteur: Preston Sturges in
La Revue du cinéma (1946–1949) 280
Christian Viviani
14 O Preston, Where Art Thou? 293
Sarah Kozloff
Index 311
Figures
1.1 The Lady Eve: Jean moves from the glow of fresh love to a
breakdown of tearful sorrow 34
1.2 The Lady Eve: Jean/Eve’s gestures present a calculation mocking
Charles’s earnest declaration 36
1.3 The Palm Beach Story: the Ale and Quail Club, an example of
cartoon sexuality 40
1.4 The Palm Beach Story: the return to the altar where Tom and
Gerry were wed 42
2.1 The screening room with its projector light 48
2.2 Sullivan surrounded by studio supporters 51
2.3 Poster for Sullivan’s Travels 54
3.1 Max’s point of view, as Luisa tries to sneak away 72
3.2 Mary holds her two new dogs close as she escapes from the Ball
family 75
3.3 Mary offers Johnny a place to sleep after he has lost his job 76
3.4 Returning to New York City, John and Lee detour through
Canada 78
4.1 The Palm Beach Story: Gerry melts after Tom has kissed her 92
4.2 The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek 98
5.1 The beatific Madonna shot 123
6.1 Jimmy McDonald is confused by events in Christmas in July 139
6.2 John Sullivan in search of life in Sullivan’s Travels 144
6.3 Gerry Jeffers is stuck between eccentric millionaires in The Palm
Beach Story 149
7.1 Preston Sturges appears with two anonymous actors in an early
scene in Christmas in July 161
7.2 Jess Lee Brooks sings “Go Down, Moses” to his congregation in
Sullivan’s Travels 166
viii FigurES
10.1 A dominant Jean teasing a physically uncomfortable Hopsie in
The Lady Eve 218
10.2 Preston Sturges regularly used slapstick humor to relieve verbal
tension, as in The Lady Eve 220
10.3 An animated Gerry and a stiff, immobile Tom in The Palm Beach
Story 225
12.1 Publicity poster for Sullivan’s Travels 269
14.1 Miles and the hardened divorce lawyers giddy after Miles’s pro-
love speech 295
14.2 Juliette and Alex are watching Juliette’s favorite movie in Alex’s
hotel bedroom 306
