1941’s outrageous screwball romantic comedy, The Lady Eve brought together three of Hollywood’s most dynamic and unstoppable forces: Barbara Stanwyck, in her peak year with five starring roles, including also Ball of Fire (Oscar nominated for Best Actress), and Meet John Doe; Henry Fonda, hot off his award-winning turns in Grapes of Wrath and Young Mr. Lincoln; and perhaps riding highest of all, Preston Sturges, who was in the middle of a run of seven giant hits as writer/director in the space of only three years – a feat that remains unequaled in Hollywood even to this day.

Sturges was so hot that he became the 3rd-highest-paid employee in the world, and yet when the streak ended in 1944, his career crashed like no other.

What remarkable ingredients fueled his artistic rise and fall? Why is his name only occasionally  recalled when the likes of Orson Welles, Peter Bogdanovich, John Lasseter, Wes Anderson, and the Coen Brothers point to his enormous influence? 

And why are these cheeky, offbeat, incredibly witty films that delight critics and audiences so unfamiliar to Millennials? Can a Preston Sturges classic still resonate in today’s culture?

Find out in this episode of Film Generations.

Hosts: Mark Netter & David Tausik 

Panelists: Jake Flowers, Kylee LaRue & Olive Goldberg

An ElectraCast Production

NY Times’ Best Film of 1941

Top 100 lists: #28 AFI Greatest Romances, #55 AFI Greatest Comedies, #52 WGA Greatest Screenplays,

#59 Entertainment Weekly Greatest Films Ever

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033804/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_Eve

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