The Lady Eve (1941)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Preston Sturges

Writers:

Monckton Hoffe (story) and
Preston Sturges (writer)

Release Date:

25 February 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Eve Sure Knows Her Apples !

Plot:

Returning from a year up the Amazon studying snakes, the rich but unsophisticated Charles Pike meets con-artist Jean Harrington on a ship...

Plot Keywords:

Love | Con Artist | Ship | Snake | Lady

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck	...	Eugenia 'Jean' Harrington
Henry Fonda	...	Charles 'Charlie' Poncefort Pike
Charles Coburn	...	'Colonel' Harry Harrington
Eugene Pallette	...	Horace Pike
William Demarest	...	Ambrose 'Muggsy' Murgatroyd
Eric Blore	...	Sir Alfred McGlennan Keith
Melville Cooper	...	Gerald
Martha O'Driscoll	...	Martha - the Maid
Janet Beecher	...	Janet Pike
Robert Greig	...	Burrows - Pike's Butler
Dora Clement	...	Gertrude
Luis Alberni	...	Emile, Pike's chef
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Abdullah Abbas	...	Man With Potted Palm (uncredited)
Norman Ainsley	...	Sir Alfred's Servant (uncredited)
Mary Akin	...	Passenger on Boat (uncredited)
Sam Ash	...	Husband on Boat (uncredited)
Harry A. Bailey	...	Lawyer (uncredited)
Bobby Barber	...	Ship's Waiter with Toupee (uncredited)
Ambrose Barker	...	Mac (uncredited)
Wilson Benge	...	First Butler at Party (uncredited)
Wilda Bennett	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Evelyn Beresford	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Al Bridge	...	First Steward (uncredited)
Jan Buckingham	...	Passenger on Boat (uncredited)
Marcelle Christopher	...	Daughter on Boat (uncredited)
Jimmy Conlin	...	Third Steward (uncredited)
Georgie Cooper	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Nell Craig	...	Boat Passenger at Railing (uncredited)
Mrs. Gardner Crane	...	Passenger on Boat (uncredited)
Eva Dennison	...	Mother on Boat (uncredited)
Harry Depp	...	Man With Glasses on Boat (uncredited)
Helen Dickson	...	Mother on Boat (uncredited)
Pauline Drake	...	Social Secretary (uncredited)
Robert Dudley	...	Husband on boat (uncredited)
Franklyn Farnum	...	Tailor in Montage (uncredited)
Betty Farrington	...	Mother on Boat (uncredited)
Bess Flowers	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Ray Flynn	...	Lawyer (uncredited)
Almeda Fowler	...	Mother on Boat (uncredited)
Kenneth Gibson	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Alfred Hall	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Eddie Hall	...	Chauffeur (uncredited)
Sam Harris	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
John Hartley	...	Young Man on Boat (uncredited)
Arthur Hoyt	...	Lawyer at Phone in Pike's Office (uncredited)
Arthur Stuart Hull	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Mitchell Ingraham	...	Passenger on Boat (uncredited)
Sheldon Jett	...	Sunbatheron Ship (uncredited)
Jack W. Johnston	...	Lawyer (uncredited)
Richard Kipling	...	Father on Boat (uncredited)
Bertram Marburgh	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Wanda McKay	...	Daughter on Boat (uncredited)
George Melford	...	Party Guest (uncredited)
Torben Meyer	...	Mr. Clink, Purser (uncredited)
Esther Michelson	...	Wife on Boat (uncredited)
Harold Miller	...	Diner on Ship (uncredited)
Frank Moran	...	Bartender at Pike's Party (uncredited)
Ella Neal	...	Daughter on Boat (uncredited)
Joseph North	...	Second Butler at Party (uncredited)
Barbara Pepper	...	Lady Wrestler Type on Ship (uncredited)
Jean Phillips	...	Sweetie (uncredited)
Victor Potel	...	Second Steward (uncredited)
Frances Raymond	...	Old Lady on Boat (uncredited)
Jack Richardson	...	Father of Girl on Board (uncredited)
Suzanne Ridgeway	...	Diner on Ship (uncredited)
Cyril Ring	...	Husband on Boat (uncredited)
Ronald R. Rondell	...	Diner on Ship (uncredited)
Harry Rosenthal	...	Piano Tuner (uncredited)
Reginald Sheffield	...	Professor Jones (uncredited)
Bert Stevens	...	Ship's Officer (uncredited)
Julius Tannen	...	Lawyer (uncredited)
Dorothy Vernon	...	One of Pike's Cooks (uncredited)
Walter Walker	...	Sparky (uncredited)
Robert Warwick	...	Passenger on Boat (uncredited)
Pat West	...	Ship's Bartender (uncredited)
Gayne Whitman	...	Party Guest (uncredited)

Directed by
Preston Sturges

Writing credits
Monckton Hoffe		(story)
Preston Sturges		writer

Produced by
Paul Jones	....	producer
Buddy G. DeSylva	....	producer (uncredited)
Albert Lewin	....	associate producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Phil Boutelje		(uncredited)
Charles Bradshaw		(uncredited)
Gil Grau		(uncredited)
Sigmund Krumgold		(uncredited)
John Leipold		(uncredited)
Leo Shuken		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Victor Milner

Film Editing by
Stuart Gilmore

Art Direction by
Hans Dreier
Ernst Fegté

Costume Design by
Edith Head

Makeup Department
Wally Westmore	....	makeup artist

Sound Department
Don Johnson	....	sound
Harry Lindgren	....	sound

Animation Department
Leon Schlesinger	....	producer: title sequence (uncredited)

Music Department
Sigmund Krumgold	....	musical director

Other crew
Edwin Gillette	....	secretary: Mr. Sturges (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Paramount Pictures

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1941) (USA) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures (1949) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• MCA/Universal Pictures (1958) (USA) (TV)
• Criterion Collection, The (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• 4 Front Video (2005) (UK) (DVD)
• Universal Home Entertainment (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• M.P.E.A. (1949) (West Germany) (theatrical)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Sweden:15 | South Korea:12 (2004) | West Germany:16 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Unrated | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden - 301 N. Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by MCA ever since.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Eve is presented by her Uncle at the party, she is referred to as "Lady Sidwich", but her actual title is "the Lady Eve Sidwich".

Quotes:

Jean Harrington: What were you doing up the Amazon?
Charles Pike: Looking for snakes. I'm an ophiologist.
Jean Harrington: I thought you were in the beer business.
Charles Pike: Beer? *Ale!*
Jean Harrington: What's the difference?
Charles Pike: Between beer and ale?
Jean Harrington: Yes.
Charles Pike: My father'd burst a blood vessel if he heard you say that. There's a big difference. Ale's sort of fermented on the top or something, and beer's fermented on the bottom, or maybe it's the other way around. There's no similarity at all. You see, the trouble with being descended from a brewer, no matter how long ago he brewered, or whatever you call it, you're supposed to know all about something you don't give a hoot about.

Movie Connections:

Featured in 100 Years of Comedy (1997) (V)

Soundtrack:

Pilgrims Chorus

Hell Hath No Fury As The Lady Scorned...

On the surface of it, THE LADY EVE is a delightfully shallow evening's entertainment. It's a clever little film, filled with great dialogue ("Don't be vulgar, Jean. Let us be crooked, but never common.") and eccentric characters, from the leading lady Jean (a marvellous Barbara Stanwyck) and her much-beleaguered main man Charlie Pike (Henry Fonda) down to the other con artists that make up Jean's circle, including her dad Harry (Charles Coburn), sidekick Gerald (Melville Cooper) and Sir Alfred McGlennan Keith (Eric Blore)... or just Pearlie for short. Charlie is heir to the Pike Ale fortune, and while on a cruise home from South America, Harrington father and daughter decide to take the hapless lad to the metaphorical drycleaners. What neither of them gambles on is a romance that was always in the cards for Jean and Charlie. But just as Jean is about to go 'straight' for Charlie, he discovers that his girlfriend is part of a con racket, and unceremoniously dumps her. Hurt and determined to get revenge for his cruel parting words, Jean initiates a farce as the Lady Eve Sidwich of the film's title and infiltrates Charlie's home and heart again. She quickly teaches him a lesson he'll never forget, just as she realises how much she really still loves Charlie.

Story-wise, then, it's no doubt that THE LADY EVE provides fine frothy entertainment. Pair that with the surreal touches added into the film by Preston Sturges (take for example the supposedly climactic scene in which Charlie repeats his words of love to Eve--Fonda never gets to play the scene straight, even though he has to maintain a stony face as his horse keeps butting into his speech... presumably to try to get him to stop talking!), and there's certainly plenty to keep one occupied as is. The film is, of course, a screwball comedy absolutely bent on throwing every possible obstacle it can into the path of its intended couple, coming up with more twists than you expect...

However, thanks largely to the brilliant writing and direction provided by Sturges, it actually also plays very close and very insightfully to the theme of what Stanley Cavell calls 'remarriage comedy'. The idea behind this is that legal or religious marriages, the 'first' marriages of the couple concerned in such comedies, are actually sham marriages. It isn't saying 'I do' or signing a piece of paper that makes a marriage a marriage; it's the behaviour of the couple, their own endorsement, that makes it a true marriage. This theme is reflected in, for example, THE AWFUL TRUTH, which sees Lucy and Jerry Warriner divorcing (their first, sham marriage didn't work out) but getting back together again for a true, albeit not yet legalised, union. The same theme pervades THE PHILADELPHIA STORY. Preston Sturges very skilfully and effectively--but subtly!--brings this theme to his film as well. Eve and Charlie are married, but it is only when Charlie asks Jean for forgiveness and vice versa is it possible for the fact that they are married (to each other, as poor Charlie does not know!) to become significant and actually positively affirmed.

This isn't the only interesting point the film makes while appearing to be little more than a fluffy piece of entertainment--when Charlie breaks Jean's heart, she tells him, "The best [girls] aren't as good as you think they are and the bad ones aren't as bad. Not nearly as bad." She sets out to prove this, both in her fabricated 'good-girl' persona as Eve (later revealed to have had many MANY suitors) and her real 'bad-girl' con-artist self Jean (who has a soft heart and a love for Charlie that proves to be one of her virtues). Practically everyone in the film has (at least) two names by which they're known: Jean/Eve, Charlie/Hopsie, Muggsy/Murgatroyd/Ambrose, Harry/Colonel Harrington, Pearlie/Sir Alfred and so on. This suggests, quite rightly, that people are complicated complex beings, and that appearances often have nothing to do with reality. It also brings the film's story to a head--Jean and Charlie can never be happy together until Charlie can accept Jean as she is, and this he presumably will have learnt through his short, disastrous 'marriage' to Eve.

Stanwyck and Fonda are really outstanding in this film. Stanwyck's job is to persuasively depict two characters, and then effect a blend of the two of them in the final minutes of the story, and she pulls off both the sassy, confident Jean and the elegant, British Eve perfectly. It's not hard to imagine Charlie falling hard for Jean, even with her hard-headed casing of the joint and her prospective competition (appropriately deemed second-rate) for his affections... a very memorable scene involving her make-up mirror and a narrative voice-over, the latter of which is used to great effect in the lead-up to the 'romantic scene and horse' bit which follows later in the film. Fonda has the apparently easier job of appearing mostly colourless and stodgy as he spends most of his screen time reacting to situations created by both Jean and Eve, but I contend that it must really take quite a lot of true acting ability to execute the pratfalls that he does without making Charlie such a wimp that you can't imagine Jean still wanting him at the very end. Though not quite as effective as Cary Grant, who has to do the same thing in the face of Katharine Hepburn's breathlessly effusive Susan Vance in BRINGING UP BABY, Fonda still brings a sweet charm to his role as the not-at-all-slick, often befuddled Charlie Pike. Add these two classy performances to that given by the able supporting cast, and THE LADY EVE is not just well-scripted and directed, but also very very well-acted indeed.

So, watch this film the first time just for fun--be charmed by the characters, by the dialogue, by the actors, by everything. Then watch it again to realise just how subtly and effectively THE LADY EVE actually makes several comments on marriage and on love. I highly recommend getting your hands on the Criterion Collection DVD, which has (aside from a tremendous photo gallery and interview with Peter Bogdanavich and other special features) a fantastic, thought-provoking commentary by film critic Marian Keane--it most certainly got *me* thinking!

Great film, great entertainment, great message!