Sullivan's Travels
| Sullivan's Travels | |
|---|---|
| Sullivan's Travels DVD Cover from The Criterion Collection. | |
| Directed by | Preston Sturges |
| Written by | Preston Sturges |
| Produced by | Paul Jones Buddy DeSylva (uncredited) Preston Sturges (uncredited) |
| Starring | Joel McCrea Veronica Lake |
| Music by | Charles Bradshaw Leo Shuken |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Running time | 90 min. |
| Budget | $689,665 |
Sullivan's Travels is an American 1941 film written and directed by Preston Sturges in. This satire follows a movie director, John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea), as he learns that making comedies is a more valuable contribution to society than making the socially relevant drama that he would like to. The film is a satire of the conflict between art and commerce as well as the gap between the priveleged and the impoverished. At the same time that Sturges skewers the naiveté of wealthy entertainers trying to appease their class guilt by making "socially relevant drama", he suggests that measurable good can come from anyone willing to take a road less travelled. Veronica Lake's turn as the love interest was one of her first as the leading lady.
The film was not as immediately successful at the box-office as other Sturges films such as The Great McGinty and The Lady Eve, and was met with a mixed critical reception. It has proven, however, to have an enduring quality and has since become one of Sturges' and Lake's most beloved films.
Plot
Template:Spoiler John L. Sullivan, a wealthy, young Hollywood film director, fresh off a string of successful pictures, wants to direct a new and different kind of film entitled O Brother, Where Art Thou? that will depict the plight of the downtrodden in modern American society's lower depths. However, he is being forced by his producers to direct another, less topical film instead. To avoid the studio pressure and to get a greater degree of authenticity in his work, Sullivan attempts to run away, live on the streets, and learn how the destitute really live. He repeatedly says he wants to "know trouble" so that he can return and make a film that will truly demonstrate the sorrows of humanity. His flight isn't very successful, as through various hijinks he keeps ending up back in Hollywood. Along his journeys, he meets and falls in love with a failed young actress (Veronica Lake)) who decides she has nothing to lose and becomes his travelling companion.
By the end of the film, as Sullivan, having finally experienced real hard-luck, and having learned the importance of laughter, realizes he would rather make a comedy than his didactic and somber O Brother, Where Art Thou?. The film ends with a montage of various characters from the film laughing.
Production
- Veronica Lake was six months pregnant at the beginning of production. After two months of shooting, Hollywood's most renowned costume designer Edith Head was working creatively to conceal Ms. Lake's condition.
Notes
- The title of the film is a reference to Gulliver's Travels, the novel by perhaps the greatest of all English-language satirists, Jonathan Swift.
- Sullivan's Travels has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
- Veronica Lake was six months pregnant at the beginning of production. After two months of shooting, Hollywood's most renowned costume designer Edith Head was working creatively to conceal Ms. Lake's condition.
- The Coen Brothers' 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou? takes its name from and shares many similar plot details with Sullivan's Travels.