Sullivan's Travels Reviews

A Blast From The Past

If you've never heard or seen any of the director Preston Sturge's films you'll be pleasantly surprised by this film: it's up there with the great romantic comedies like 'The Apartment'. Coen Bros. homage to it- 'O Brother Where Art Thou' is shallow and humourless in comparison. There's a real chemistry between Sullivan and the girl(Virginia Lake- known as the one with the weird hairdo)Don't miss it! It's the kind of film that sticks in the mind. Still fresh after 60 years!

[Highly rated reviewer]

Superior intelligent comedy

Perhaps not quite as funny as I thought it would be this film delivered very well though on the clever comedy stakes. A director wants to make O Brother, Where Art Thou? but he's from a privileged background and feels that he needs to live the hobo life before he can present art about it. A simple idea with constant twists and turns that throw you away from where you think it's going. Full of lots of great little characters, different styles of comedy and more importantly a plot that is very clever. Loved it and tempted to buy it.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Sullivan's Travels

Now well known as the source of the title of the Coen Brothers title O Brother Where Art Thou this story of a comedy director who wants to make a tragedy but feels he has to do some research and ends up doing rather more than he bargained for is a delight. Preston Sturges screenplay and direction are fast, funny and original (Though it's a shame he has to include a black character so insultingly stereotyped as the cook who crops up from time to time) Joel McCrea underplays all the way, getting lots of funny lines and moments but never playing for the joke. It's a terrific performance. Veronica Lake isn't, on this evidence, a great actress but she's radiant in the role of The unnamed Girl who accompanies McCrea on his travels and gets plenty of laughs, notably in her first scene, the best in the film. A clever, early, satire on Hollywood Sullivan's Travels is recommended viewing for any film fan

[Highly rated reviewer]

Great Stuff!

This is a superb film that deserves all the good things written about it. In some respects it feels very contemporary, especially the story, which has a rich film director radically changing his lifestyle so that he can see how the poor live. Joel McCrea throws everything in to the part and is ably assisted by Veronica 'Peek-a-boo' Lake. They make a very dissimilar couple with their 14inch height difference. Full of humorous touches whilst at the same time having a pretty serious message, the film is essential viewing for anyone interested in the history of American cinema.

Good but not that good...

I've heard a lot about this film - not least from a certain film magazine. And I have to say that it does not live up to the hype. It is a pleasant enough rom-com about an idealistic film director experiencing the harsher side of life as a hobo. But ultimately it feels a bit twee and patronising. Veronica Lake was certainly prettier and probably a better actress than this film ever suggested.

Great and impressing movie

Sullivan's Travels is one of the important movies from the Hollywood era of public spirited movies (compare Frank Capras 'Isn't live wonderful'). The story of a moviemaker that tries to create a film about real live ('O brother where are thou') and in the end finds the real live in a chain gang. After his rescue he decides to work only on comedies because this is the type of film that helps ordinary people the most to bear there life.

superb film

biting satire which feels modern and fresh despite its age. See it. See it. See it.

Travel on

I saw a TV film critic rave about this ' Great piece of American film history' Promptly ordered it but-- sorry its lost on me ,just another glib smart talk talk dated hollywood fake life... Still most of your other reviewers rave about it so what do I know --Great film Nooo!

Now Jimmie Stewarts 'Its a wonderful life' is another matter.

Travel on

I saw a TV film critic rave about this ' Great piece of American film history' Promptly ordered it but-- sorry its lost on me ,just another glib smart talk talk dated hollywood fake life... Still most of your other reviewers rave about it so what do I know --Great film Nooo!

Now Jimmie Stewarts 'Its a wonderful life' is another matter.

'coen' get it!

Surfing the restrictive studio system with glee Preston Sturges made this multi-layered satire in 1941 but its issues remain important and relevant.

The break-neck speed dialogue both conceals and allows the raising of much of what was, and to some extent still is, contentious in mainstream film; Unemployment, Recession, Wealth, Fame, Law, Greed, Love and Destiny, all topics that get a dose of Sturges's acerbic wit.

Yes the portrayal of the 'colored cook' is shameful (see review below) but I also wonder whether this was Sturges pointing out the rotten racism of the system. Certainly the cook's only line of dialogue ('Yas suh!') spoken in the office of the studio bosses makes all the (white) characters, who have been portrayed in a less than sympathetic light throughout, turn and stare in a way that focuses our attention on his situation. Add to this the segment set in the all black church where the minister preaches 'we is all equal in the eyes of the Lord' and tells his congregation to be kind to the 'poor folk less fortunate than ourselves' (in this case an all white prison gang in chains). The screen is then filled with what, for the time, must have been nigh on seditious: a tracking shot of black faces singing 'Let My People Go'. Altogether it looks more like a critique of segregation rather than an endorsement of it. How it got past the censors at the time is a mystery.

The Coen Brothers clearly love this film as they continue to plunder it. Look out for the portrait of 'Dear Joseph' that changes its expression from scene to scene to superb effect, wilfully ripped out and put into their version of The Ladykillers.

The brevity of the movie is a shame and you are left wondering what else might have made it in were it not for a sequence of montages among the down and outs. Still, I'd rather have a short masterpiece than an epic with moments of greatness any day.

The final message that 'laughter is all some people have' is far from a happy ending; the more you think about it the less right it seems. By extension it could be Sturges's final critique of the world, a way of saying that his comedies depend upon other people's misery. A pretty radical statement for a mainstream Hollywood film!