US 90m Dir: Preston Sturges Key Cast: John McCrea and Veronica Lake
Sullivan's Travels is probably best described as a comedy and elements of it certainly feel similar to writer/director Preston Sturges' screwball comedy films. But sometimes it edges into something a little more like satire and has plenty of social commentary and the final act is more like a serious drama.
In the film John McCrea plays famous Hollywood director John L. Sullivan who makes comedies like Ants in Your Plants but dreams of making a serious film called O, Brother Where Art Thou?. He concludes that he needs to have some tough experiences and dresses as a hobo to go out into America. Lots of hi-jinks and encounter ensue including meeting an unnamed girl (Veronica Lake) before things really go wrong and he ends up incarcerated in a chain gang.
I didn't get a great deal out of the first part of the film. It really does feel like a screwball comedy, a genre I continue to find difficult to enjoy. There's lots of quick one-liners and plenty of slapstick and once again it over does it. One person falling into a swimming pool is vaguely amusing but by the time the fifth person has fallen in the joke has run it's course.
There is quite a bit of meta-stuff in the film with Sturges clearly lampooning film directors who take themselves too seriously and the wider film industry. Lots of real life people and films are mentioned and even towards the end a snippet from a Mickey Mouse short appears (and plays a crucial part in the plot). I have often enjoyed Hollywood films which are set in Hollywood and this is an early example.
Things pick up a little when Sullivan meets 'the girl', played by Veronica Lake. It gives McCrea someone to bounce off rather than cracking jokes more inwardly. Lake is extremely beautiful but I didn't think a whole lot of her performance. I'm not sure how much that is to do with her or to do with the fact her character is so thinly characterized they don't even bother to name her. The film doesn't really need her character and is a classic example of the Hollywood film feeling like it has to have a romance plotline.
The final act of the film sees Sullivan arrested and sentenced to spend time in a chain gang. Suddenly things are a whole lot bleaker and it almost feels like an entirely different film, the atmosphere not to dissimilar to I am a Fugitive in a Chain Gang. I utterly adore the ending where Sullivan sees the joy that the Mickey Mouse cartoon brings to people and comes to the revelation that there is huge value in making comedies. The message frankly seems hugely relevant today what with many serious director criticising Marvel- they are exactly what this film is critiquing.
I really loved the final act but for me it wasn't enough to make me feel more positive to the earlier parts of the film. I enjoyed it more than some of the pure screwball comedies but it won't go down as an all-time favourite.
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