The Lady Eve Reviews

Stanwyck In Excelsis

I'm really not sure if there is a better Hollywood comedy extant than The Lady Eve. Unencumbered by all the low level businness that usually clutters up Sturges' films, The Lady Eve provides Barbara Stanwyck's finest moment. Her routine of a card sharp masquerading as an English duchess is textbook screwball comedy. Rent this and only give it back under duress.

Preposterous Ending

This starts off really well...whilst they remain on the ship, but once they come ashore, the plot runs aground too. The second half is based on Henry Fonda's deception, but it's so ludicrous as to become a bit tiresome.

A comedic treasure

From one of the first great writer-directors of comedy this is one of Preston Sturges masterpieces. The 'card cheating' scene alone is worth watching this film for but there are many moments of brilliant dialogue and situational comedy. A young Henry Fonda excells at physical comedy but, for me, Stanwyck steels the film. Watch it, laugh and afterwards lament that dialogue just doesn't come like this anymore.

Fantastic Froth... for the 1940s

Lots of Fun and sassy and I love Barbara Stanwyck and it has some great one-liners - 'They say a moonlit deck's a woman's business office.' - and some great pratfalls, but it is too good at being complicit with a 1940s audience and hence doesn't travel well to year 2005. Other members of the audience loved it, but I thought it was a bit silly - not much there, unless you are prepared to watch it again and analyse.

These crowd-pleasing films seem just corny 60 years on - I like it better when they are trying to be important and monumental - that's when they are really hilarious.

Basically i was entertained but hardly engrossed by the action.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Slightly better than OK

Worth watching, and very slightly amusing because of Henry Fonda and Barbra Stanwyck's star qualities. But not really successful as a comedy because neither the direction nor these two have the lightness of touch (as demonstrated by Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn in their collaborations)required to make this really funny.

Spectacular

Few movies can be more enjoyable than THE LADY EVE - it is Stanwyck's finest hour with ever line delivered with a sort of immaculate zaniness ('A moonlit deck is a woman's office' and so on) - but also its the ensemble of players around her - the rest of the card sharpers, the wonderful idiots in Connecticut, some tiny roles on board the ship (the bar keep, the girls trying to catch millionaire Fonda's eye) and Fonda's own role as sacrificial victim - his absolute refusal to be anything other than a total blank against which Stanwyck can shine. It's tricky overpraising a film - but just listen to what they say and how they do the countless bits of 'business' and it's as fun as Twelfth Night. The ending, incidentally, is EXACTLY right.

[Highly rated reviewer]

the lady eve

very good romantic story line

Good stuff

All because the actors in the main roles are so good. Barbara Stanwyck was exceptional.

Garden Of Eden

Not Preston Sturges' best film (possibly Palm Beach Story) but at least this one doesn't have the annoying Eddie Bracken. The plot is rather ludicrous and all the male characters are idiots but it is a likeable film with good dialogue. Anything Eugene Palette says is always entertaining.

[Highly rated reviewer]

One of the best

This is a comedy from the golden age of Hollywood, before the invention of the TV box in the corner changed our viewing habits forever. It would be difficult to fault this film. It’s witty, well designed and acted and, for once, director Preston Sturges keeps his penchant for frantic ‘business’ in check. Somehow, this film has a timeless quality that means that it delights in spite of being dated.