From Screenwriter to Director: Establishing His Directing Style in Early Films
Preston Sturges (1898–1959) entered film history as one of the earliest writer-directors of Hollywood's golden age. Already successful as a playwright and screenwriter on Broadway and in Hollywood, he moved into directing to gain control over the direction of his own scripts.
His directorial debut, 'The Great McGinty' (1940), was released with the famous story that he sold his screenplay for only ten dollars in return for the opportunity to direct. Structured as a satire about an unknown man rising through corrupt politics during the Great Depression, the low-budget film became a surprising hit.
In his debut, Sturges already revealed his ability to expose ironically the deception and corruption behind American success stories. A flashback framed by recollection in a bar wrapped criticism of political corruption in humor and anticipated themes shared by later films. McGinty rises through a fraudulent election to become governor, but one act of honesty destroys him, and by the end he has fled abroad and fallen to working as a bartender. This structure of ascent and fall became important throughout Sturges's work.
His second film, 'Christmas in July' (1940), further refined social satire and witty dialogue. Its story of an ordinary office worker who dreams of winning a contest and is celebrated overnight after a prank falsely says he has won offers a cutting irony about the American worship of success. Jimmy is 'an impostor who becomes successful without knowing he is false,' and adults judge him by the result of 'winning' rather than ability. These early films established Sturges's style by weaving criticism of ordinary values and the myth of success into light comedy.
Golden-Age Accomplishment: Refined Comic Direction in the Middle Period
Sturges's middle period from 1941 to 1944 truly deserved to be called a golden age. He released a succession of comic masterpieces—'The Lady Eve,' 'Sullivan's Travels,' 'The Palm Beach Story,' 'The Miracle of Morgan's Creek,' and 'Hail the Conquering Hero'—each inscribed in film history for originality and brilliance.
The greatest feature of these films was the speed of their dialogue and scene development. Sturges's dialogue had a 'breathless, furious pace' that pulled audiences into a whirl of laughter. Unlike isolated gags from contemporaries such as the Marx Brothers and W. C. Fields, he created realistic dialogue that became funny because characters simply said what they truly wanted to say.
'The Lady Eve' (1941) is a romantic-comedy masterpiece concentrating the essence of Sturges's comedy. Its skillful writing and direction follow the deceptive romance between female con artist Jean and innocent snake researcher Charles. In a shipboard sequence, Jean looks at a cabin reflected in her hand mirror and narrates privately what other young women are doing. The frame-within-a-frame through the mirror visually expresses the heroine's wit and advantage.
In 'Sullivan's Travels' (1941), Sturges satirized his own Hollywood industry while giving the film depth as human drama. A successful director resolves to make a socially conscious film, disguises himself as a vagrant, and journeys to experience hardship. The eccentric premise satirizes the populist message films then in fashion. In prison, the protagonist watches a Mickey Mouse cartoon with inmates and awakens to the truth that 'laughter is what people need,' conveying Sturges's own renewed recognition of laughter's value.
Setbacks and Searching: Transformation and Experiment in Later Work
After reaching a peak through 1944, Sturges faced continuing trials. Given unusual freedom at Paramount, he moved into independent production after his contract ended following 'Hail the Conquering Hero' (1944). The failure of his first subsequent film, the biographical 'The Great Moment' (1944), cast a dark shadow.
An ambitious work based on the true story of the invention of nitrous-oxide anesthesia, its serious approach was not understood by studio executives. The released version was recut as comedy and failed both artistically and commercially. The setback badly damaged his career. After Paramount, Sturges formed an independent company with eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes and engaged legendary silent comedian Harold Lloyd as star.
The result was 'The Sin of Harold Diddlebock' (1947), an unusual work showing Lloyd's popular silent-era character twenty years later and attempting to fuse silent comedy with Sturges's sound-era style. After youthful glory and a drab middle age, the protagonist is fired, goes on a drunken rampage, and after surreal twists becomes an animal trainer and gains a fortune. Some brisk dialogue and satire remained, but production was difficult. The capricious Hughes shelved the completed film, delayed release, and ultimately issued a recut version quietly three years later.
Sturges then briefly regained prominence at 20th Century Fox. 'Unfaithfully Yours' (1948) attracted attention as an unusual black comedy by the singular director. While conducting classical music, the protagonist imagines elaborate plans to murder the wife he suspects of infidelity. Three fantasy sequences correspond to music by Rossini, Wagner, and others, with images developing alongside the musical crescendo. This fusion was a distinctive visual technique of Sturges's period, but contemporary audiences rejected its black humor and it underperformed.
A Legacy in Film History: Contemporary Influence and Reassessment
Sturges's contribution extended beyond his own films into the work of many later directors. Formally, the path he pioneered of screenwriters directing their own work anticipated auteurist directors in Hollywood. His success helped create a basis for the rise of directors from screenwriting such as Billy Wilder and John Huston.
Among contemporary filmmakers, the Coen brothers mention Sturges particularly often as a beloved influence. Their 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' (2000) pays direct homage to 'Sullivan's Travels' in its title. The Coens' early comic masterpieces also feature disturbances caused by eccentric supporting figures and blackly humorous social satire of the kind Sturges favored.
Wes Anderson too is often described as 'a comic filmmaker with originality not seen since Preston Sturges.' Although their styles initially appear different, Anderson's ensembles of eccentric characters, urbane dialogue, and coexistence of humor and pathos share Sturges's essence. Anderson's characters come from varied occupations and personalities and live as they please, portrayed as comic yet lovable.
Sturges was misunderstood in his day as a 'one-hit wonder' and lost standing during his later decline, but reassessment has secured his position as a leading author of Hollywood's golden age. His little more than a dozen directorial films remain a treasury for later filmmakers; their sharp dialogue, skillful structure, and criticism within humor have not faded. The comic DNA of Preston Sturges continues on contemporary screens in changing forms.
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