Henry Fonda - Charles
Preston Sturges (Director)
As far as slapstick comedies go I think this is one of the better ones. That is probably because it doesn't get to slap-sticky. The few times that is does get into physical humor it kind of lost me a little. Physical comedy is an art and can be performed wonderfully, but I have generally found to fall short (pardon the pun) on film. I think it is best kept to live performances.
The Lady Eve is about a rich man returning from the Amazon. He catches the eye of every young lady / gold digger on his cruise ship. Including that of a con artist (Stanwyck) and her father. She seduces him in an attempt to lure him into a card game with her father where he will take him for everything they can get. But there is only one problem. She falls in love with him. And he with her too. That is until he is made aware that not everything is as it seems. In which place he leaves her behind.
As chance would have it she manages a way to reunite with him. This time though she plays a European socialite that happens to have a "black-sheep of the family" sister. She pretends to be a totally different woman again in an attempt of wooing him. And again it works. This time they get married and on the honeymoon she reveals to him that Eve (the socialite character she is masquerading as) has a past filled with ex-lover. This is done in a great montage. He then gets off the train at the next stop. This was supposed to be her big revenge for breaking her heart, but it has left both of them only feeling disheartened.
In a final go-at-it she finds out that Charles is going to be hopping on a boat out of the country and she reappears again as Jean. Much in the same manner she caught his attention the first time they met. This time He whisks her off her feet and into his cabin where he confesses he has always loved her and her to him.
This movie was made under the umbrella of the Hayes Code. This is the studio driven moral law that prevented movies from showing sex or nudity or cursing or undeserved violence or violence without consequence. One of the first things that I noticed about this movie is how sex charged it is. I feel like the innuendo and overt sexual references made this a much more "dirty" film than it would have been if the character were just allowed to hop into bed together. Most of the time talking about sex and playfully hinting about sex is really sexier that sex its self.
Preston Sturges's next film would be Sullivan's Travels. A movie that I adore with an actress that everyone should adore, Veronica Lake. This is not to say that Barbara Stanwyck is anything to sneeze at. She is sharp and seductive with a touch of child like innocence in the role. She would later go on to define the Hollywood femme fatale in movies like Double Indemnity and Forty Guns. Henry Fonda didn't do much after this movie except Fort Apache, 12 Angry Men, How the West was Won, Once Upon a Time in the West and nearly countless others.
The Lady Eve is a touching and engrossing movie. I found it easy to become invested in and while being clearly set in a time gone by the movie was easy to relate to. I give The Lady Eve ★★★1/2.
No comments:
Post a Comment