“A movie like The Lady Eve is so hard to make that you can’t make it at all unless you find a way to make it seem effortless. Preston Sturges does a kind of breathless balancing act here, involving romance, deception and physical comedy.”
We’ve often started the new year with a breezy Hollywood classic and 2021 is no exception. Preston Sturges’ The Lady Eve (1941) follows the last film in the Chain, The Man Who Would be King, via the theme of ‘con artists’.
Barbara Stanwyck plays the classy card shark who sees Henry Fonda’s brewery heir as an easy mark… and then starts to fall for him. This is one of the greatest screwball comedies and guaranteed to put a smile on your face as we bid farewell to 2020. Here’s the trailer.
After the marginal success of our Christmas Zoom double act, we’ve decided to continue co-introducing all future films. Here, then, is our intro to The Lady Eve. It’s not exactly brief, and we’re still getting used to the new format (bear with us), but! you do get a cameo from Peter Bogdanovich towards the end. And while there are no spoilers you might also enjoy watching us gab on about the film after you’ve seen it. Here’s our Zoom discussion…
We’d love to hear what you think of the film once you’ve seen it. Leave a comment here, send us an email, Tweet us @tpfilmclub or post on our Facebook page. We’ll then gather up some reactions and share them in our weekly email as well as here.
Where can you watch The Lady Eve?
The Lady Eve is available to rent on all the major streaming platforms: Amazon, Google, YouTube, iTunes.
Related links
Peter Bogdanovich on The Lady Eve (video)
The Scorching Sensuality and Style of the Lady Eve (The Dissolve)
The Lady Eve Criterion Collection essay
The Man Who Lent Screwball Comedy a Touch of Class - NT Times profile of Sturges
