The Lady Eve (1941)
Wickedly clever and heartwarming screwball...not the very best, but who cares?
I'm not sure either Fonda or Stanwyck make the best comedic actors (compare to Grant and Hepburn or, for something more apples to apples, Gable and Colbert), but Preston Sturges makes this silly and smart enough to work anyway. You might say Fonda's deadpan role, surely intentional, is what makes him so funny, but he does sometimes seem wooden (and I love Fonda in general). Stanwyck is wicked and wickedly sharp, so she pulls off her role as a conflicted card shark, with her father-figure humorously (and with good nature) always in the background to back her up.
I found Eric Blore absolutely hilarious, however (see him in Top Hat and The Gay Divorcée). And the story is really funny and fast, depending on everyone being a little confused about what's really happening, not just us. The very end is a kind of raspberry to the Hays Code because it is as close to all out adultery as you can get (Fonda thinks so, at least), and yet it's all okay due to the trick of the plot.
Oh, the key trick of the plot is inconceivable in real life, at least to me. I say no more, but that you have to go with the farce and picture Fonda's character (a befuddled, young naturalist) as really daft. Which is part of the point in the end.
Preston Sturges? Witty and a little effete (I've been waiting for a chance to use that word). Another director might have milked the romance differently, and drawn out the comedy with more snap (it often pauses for Fonda's delayed reactions). But his own madcapness is at work, and the movie is fun if nothing else. Lots of fun.
Wickedly clever and heartwarming screwball...not the very best, but who cares?
I'm not sure either Fonda or Stanwyck make the best comedic actors (compare to Grant and Hepburn or, for something more apples to apples, Gable and Colbert), but Preston Sturges makes this silly and smart enough to work anyway. You might say Fonda's deadpan role, surely intentional, is what makes him so funny, but he does sometimes seem wooden (and I love Fonda in general). Stanwyck is wicked and wickedly sharp, so she pulls off her role as a conflicted card shark, with her father-figure humorously (and with good nature) always in the background to back her up.
I found Eric Blore absolutely hilarious, however (see him in Top Hat and The Gay Divorcée). And the story is really funny and fast, depending on everyone being a little confused about what's really happening, not just us. The very end is a kind of raspberry to the Hays Code because it is as close to all out adultery as you can get (Fonda thinks so, at least), and yet it's all okay due to the trick of the plot.
Oh, the key trick of the plot is inconceivable in real life, at least to me. I say no more, but that you have to go with the farce and picture Fonda's character (a befuddled, young naturalist) as really daft. Which is part of the point in the end.
Preston Sturges? Witty and a little effete (I've been waiting for a chance to use that word). Another director might have milked the romance differently, and drawn out the comedy with more snap (it often pauses for Fonda's delayed reactions). But his own madcapness is at work, and the movie is fun if nothing else. Lots of fun.