The Lady Eve [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Preston Sturges Preston Sturges

Overview

(Preston Sturges) wrote and directed this classic romantic comedy starring Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck, who are involved in a scintillating battle of the sexes, as Sturges points up the terrors of sexual passion and the unattainability of the romantic ideal. Henry Fonda plays Charles Pike, the heir to the Pike Ale fortune ("The Ale That Won for Yale"). An ophiologist (a snake expert), he just spent a year "up the Amazon" looking for rare snakes with his cynical and protective guardian/valet Muggsy (William Demarest). He arrives to board the S.S. Southern Queen bound for New York, and immediately becomes the main order of business for a collection of single women looking to nab the eligible bachelor. Amongst those watching Charles board are a trio of con men and cardsharps -- Colonel Handsome Harry Harrington (Charles Coburn), his partner Gerald (Melville Cooper), and the Colonel's daughter Jean (Barbara Stanwyck). All three see Charles as a pushover and at dinner, while all the women are ogling Charles, Jean wins the day by sticking out her foot and tripping him. Complaining to Charles that he should watch where he is going, she gets him to escort her to her cabin so that she can replace her broken heel. Charles is sexually attracted to Jean, but when Charles is about to make a pass at her, she pulls back, telling him, "You ought to be put in a cage." Back in the dining room, Charles is introduced to the Colonel and the three play cards, Charles winning $500 from the Colonel and $100 from Jean. But Charles is merely being set-up for the next game when the Colonel will come in for the kill. Back at Jean's cabin, Charles and Jean sit close and something happens she hadn't planned -- she becomes attracted to Charles too. The next morning, Muggsy warns Charles that the Colonel and Jean are cardsharks, but Charles won't hear of it. Meanwhile, the Colonel is looking forward to fleecing Charles, but Jean doesn't want any part of it. Jean participates in the card game between Charles and the Colonel, making sure than the Colonel doesn't cheat. But while Jean waits on deck for Charles after the game, the Colonel plays Charles a game of double-or-nothing, with Charles losing $32,000. Jean, angry with her father, makes the Colonel tears up Charles' check. The next morning, Muggsy proves to Charles the three are con artists. Devastated, Charles shows Jean the photograph, claiming he knew she was a criminal the morning after he met her. Jean is determined to get even with Charles ("I hate that mug!"). Docking in New York, the Colonel reveals he merely palmed the $32,000 check. But that's not enough revenge for Jean. Impersonating an aristocratic English woman, Lady Eve Sidwich, Jean has herself introduced to Charles. Planning to make Charles to fall in love with her again, she intends to break his heart like he broke her own. As she explains, "I've got some unfinished business with him -- I need him like the axe needs the turkey."

Product Details

Release Date:	07/14/2020
UPC:	0715515249010
Original Release:	1941
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:34:00
Sales rank:	3,853

Special Features

New, restored 4k digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; Audio Commentary from 2001 featuring film scholar Marian Keane; Introduction from 2001 by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich; New conversation among Writer-Director Preston Sturges's biographer and son Tom Sturges; Bogdanovich; filmmakers James L. Brooks and Ron Shelton; and critics Susan King, Leonard Maltin, and Kenneth Turan; New video essay by film critic David Cairns; Costume Designs by Edith Head; Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1942 featuring Barbara Stanwyck and Ray Milland; Audio recording from 2013 of "Up the Amazon," a song from an unproduced stage musical based on the film; Trailer; English Subtitles for a deaf and hard of hearing; Plus: An essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien and a 1946 profile of Preston Sturges from Life magazine

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Barbara Stanwyck	Jean Harrington
Henry Fonda	Charles Pike
Charles Coburn	Colonel
Eugene Pallette	Pike
Eric Blore	Keith
William Demarest	Muggsy
Melville Cooper	Gerald,Party Guest
Martha O'Driscoll	Martha
Janet Beecher	Mrs. Pike
Robert Greig	Burrows
Dora Clement	Gertrude
Luis Alberni	Pike's Chef
Frank Moran	Party Bartender
Wilda Bennett	Party Guest
Evelyn Beresford	Party Guest
Sam Ash	Husband on Boat
Ambrose Barker	Mac
Gayne Whitman	Party Guest
Alfred Hall	Party Guest
Wilson Benge	Butlers at Party
Bertram Marburgh	Party Guest
George Melford	Party Guest
Al Bridge	Steward,Steward
Arthur Stuart Hull	Party Guest
Kenneth Gibson	Party Guest
Eva Dennison	Mother on Boat
Pauline Drake	Social Secretary
Harry Rosenthal	Piano Tuner
Abdullah Abbas	Man with Potted Palm
Helen Dickson	Mother on Boat
John Hartley	Young Man on Boat
Robert Warwick	Bank Manager
Betty Farrington	Mother on Boat
Torben Meyer	Purser
Jack Richardson	Father of Girl on Boat
Ray Flynn	Lawyer
Harry Depp	Man with Glasses on Boat
Esther Michelson	Wife on Boat
Robert Dudley	Husband on Boat
Norman Ainsley	Sir Alfred's Manservant
Jimmy Conlin	Steward
Victor Potel	Steward
Reginald Sheffield	Prof. Jones
Wanda McKay	Daughter on Boat
Arthur Hoyt	Lawyer at Telephone in Pike's Office
Frances Raymond	Old Lady on Boat
Ella Neal	Daughter on Boat
Joe North	Butler at Party
Jean Phillips	Sweetie
Cyril Ring	Husband on Boat
J.W. Johnston	Lawyer
Julius Tannen	Lawyer
Walter Walker	Sparky
Pat West	Bartender
Harry Bailey	Lawyer in Pike's Office
Almeda Fowler	Mother on Boat

Technical Credits

Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges	Director,Screenwriter
Paul Jones	Producer

Editorial Reviews

For all his taste, education, and worldliness, legendary writer-director Preston Sturges loved nothing more than a good, old-fashioned pratfall, and in The Lady Eve he mixed raucous slapstick with clever, biting dialogue and urbane situations. The butt of his jokes is Henry Fonda, playing the socially maladroit scion of beer baron Eugene Pallette. While traveling via ocean liner, he's targeted by seductive con artist Barbara Stanwyck -- who, among other things, impersonates a cultured English lady in an attempt to worm her way into his heart...and checkbook. Sturges polished his scripts repeatedly before he began shooting, and his performers deviated from them at the risk of incurring his wrath; but the end product invariably seemed spontaneous, and The Lady Eve is no exception. Fonda and Stanwyck are nothing short of remarkable, and her stateroom seduction of him is a hysterically funny scene that skirted the restrictive Production Code governing movie morality and delighted 1941 moviegoers with its suggestiveness. William Demarest tears through the film as Fonda's blustery, dyspeptic pal, and Charles Coburn, as Stanwyck's equally larcenous father, gets off a goodly share of wry one-liners. For unadulterated zaniness, Sturges can't be beat, and The Lady Eve ranks among this innovative director's very best films.

Barnes & Noble - Gregory Baird

The Lady Eve is among the funniest films of the World War II era, and one of the few comedies whose humor has survived both cultural changes and shifting audience demographics. Directed by Preston Sturges with his usual efficiency, the battle-of-the-sexes story allows star performers Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck to shine, though supporting performer William Demarest often steals the show. As was common in the censorship-laden war era, Sturges resorted to several clever sexual symbols. Fonda's character is an expert on snakes, and there is a funny moment when the audience catches the phallically suggestive book title, Are Snakes Necessary?. The dialogue is consistently bright and peppy. As Roger Ebert has pointed out, Fonda's steady, down-to-earth performance is necessary to allow Stanwyck's screwball character to shine.

All Movie Guide - Richard Gilliam