DVD details for
Christmas in July (1940) More at IMDbPro »

Seven classic comedies by wily American comedy master Preston Sturges. After a decade of writing plays and Hollywood scripts, he made his directorial debut with The Great McGinty (1940), a knock-about farce of political corruption complicated by the pesky conscience of a blithely amoral opportunist Dan McGinty (Brian Donlevy). It won Sturges an Oscar for screenwriting. Dick Powell stars in Christmas in July (1940) and the confident, bold Barbara Stanwyck is a smooth, sexy con-woman who falls in love with her socially awkward stiff of a mark, Henry Fonda (perfectly cast as a millionaire scion with a love of snakes) in The Lady Eve (1941), and then exacts her romantic revenge when he dumps her. Sturges simultaneously lampoons and embraces Hollywood in Sullivan's Travels (1941), a comic road movie through depression era America through the eyes of a well-meaning director (Joel McCrea) determined to make the great American movie. McCrea co-stars with Claudette Colbert (as a flirtatious pragmatist) in The Palm Beach Story (1942), the funniest, sexiest, and most grown-up romantic comedy of its day. Eddie Bracken is a 4-F small town schlub talked up to war hero proportions by a squad of lively Marines in Hail the Conquering Hero (1944), a cockeyed comedy of patriotism and pride. Also includes The Great Moment (1944), an offbeat comic drama about the scientific discovery of laughing gas, starring Joel McCrea. The Great McGinty, Christmas in July, The Great Moment, and Hail the Conquering Hero all make their DVD debut exclusively on this set.