The Lady Eve Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: The Lady Eve
Director: Preston Sturges
Year: 1941
Country: US
Language: English

In 2016, Hollywood has all but exhausted its novel ideas about the romantic comedy. The methods with which modern filmmakers use to explore falling in love have become commonplace, dull, and repetitive. Considering love itself is quite complex and thrilling, I'd say we have dropped the ball. Whatever happened to the bygone era of the Classic Hollywood love story that innovated within convention, despite being pressured by a strict production code? Preston Sturges made several of these films, perhaps the greatest of all being The Lady Eve.

 Returning from a year up the Amazon studying snakes, the rich but unsophisticated Charles Pike (Henry Fonda)  meets con-artist Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck) on a ship. They fall in love, but a misunderstanding causes them to split on bad terms. To get back at him, Jean disguises herself as an English lady, and comes back to tease and torment him.

In 1940, Preston Sturges was a fresh face in Hollywood, graduating from accomplished writer to celebrated director virtually overnight. The press was fascinated by him, claiming that he was a bona fide genius. Indeed he was a great writer. Loosely basing his screenplay for the Lady Eve on Monckton Hoffe's original short story. he kept only a few ideas established in that text. What he brought to the table was intelligent high brow dialogue that not only managed to get the scene across, but also built up a considerable laugh. Sturges never underestimated the intelligence of his audience. 

Unfortunately Sturges  avoided heavy commentaries or social observations, and rather relying on the richness of his writing to tell the story. He was happy to be purely an escapist filmmaker (as seen in Sullivan's Travels) and make the studios millions in doing so. The genius of his stories, particularly with The Lady Eve, is his ability to make incredibly complex characters without resorting to a standard melodrama. The relationship between Jean and Charles resonates much deeper than your standard rom-com couple. 

While The Lady Eve offers no great questions or lessons about love, the story is amusing enough to be satisfying based on entertainment value alone. The lame ducks of modern romantic comedy ought to study this film and draw a more sophisticated approach to familiar turf. The old saying "they don't make em like they used to" rings most true with this picture.