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

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:

At the beginning Henry Fonda makes references to the help of a "Professor Marsdit". Raymond L. Ditmars of the AMNH at the time was the best-known reptile expert in the country, the kind of popularizer that Carl Sagan later became.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Charles and Jean are standing on the deck talking, the ambient, background sounds - of people talking and birds singing - can be heard running on a loop. The scene lasts several minutes, but the ambient sounds repeat every several seconds.

Quotes:

Jean Harrington: You see Hopsi, you don't know very much about girls. The best ones aren't as good as you think they are and the bad ones aren't as bad. Not nearly as bad.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Holiday (2006)

Soundtrack:

Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl

Clever Sturges comedy and very, very funny...

I don't know how I missed seeing this until now, but tonight I watched THE LADY EVE unfurl on TCM and took notice of how great the chemistry was between BARBARA STANWYCK and HENRY FONDA. And even more so, how fantastic their ability with screwball comedy had to be in order to make their characters as believable as they are.

Fonda, especially, impressed me with his honestly naive interpretation of a man without guile. He seemed totally hoodwinked by Stanwyck's con artist, even in those relentless close-ups that captured every expression on his Honest Abe face. Stanwyck, of course, had a role tailored to her abilities and was at the top of her form as an actress.

I would have liked a better role for Melville Cooper who is somewhat wasted in his rather thankless supporting role but Charles Coburn, William Demarest and Eric Blore have no such trouble with full-bodied character parts.

Sturgess obviously is a master of long takes--and proves it again in his seduction scene where Stanwyck toys with Fonda's hair as she drapes herself across him, a spider spinning her web. Her best moment is the scene in the dining room where she uses her make-up mirror to make a running commentary on all the women who are ogling the rich catch (Fonda) while he becomes aware of the female attention. Although Fonda's pratfalls are painfully real, Sturges lets them occur a little too frequently. Demarest too has his share of falls--as he did in that other Sturges masterpiece, THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK.

Fonda's performance ranks with his mild professor in THE MALE ANIMAL. As for Stanwyck, her professionalism has never been more solid. She was nominated in 1941 for Best Actress in BALL OF FIRE but she is equally impressive in her dual role assignment here.