Intrepid Laughter: Preston Sturges and the Movies

Preface

PREFACE When a Hollywood phenomenon like Preston sturges occurs, the desire to analyze it, to uncover the intrinsic meaning lying at its core, may kill the brilliance that makes it unique. The fact is, Preston Sturges is so much more than the sum of his parts- -screenwriter, slapstick artist, cynic, wit, satirist , sentimentalist--that explicating his style offers insight into his sensibility, but cannot deliver that total, full-bodied, savor of Sturges' universe that watching his films does. I think the sensitive viewer realizes this dilemma and understands that it arises less from a critical inability to discuss his work than from an awareness that Sturges' films contain a magic that originates in the peculiar experience of watching a movie. This is hardly an attempt to undermine the art of criticism, but simply a realization that a vital difference exists between watching a Sturges movie and writing about it. Other screenwriters have inherited the director's chair in the course of their careers, but none has conquered it the way Preston Sturges did. John Huston and Billy Wilder revealed a fusion of their visual and literary styles; however, more intermittently than consistently in view of their total outputs . But with a filmography consisting of a dozen works, half of which are among the most memorable comedies in the history of American sound film, Sturges proved without question that the writer-auteur can become a greater auteur when placed behind the camera. In Sturges' case, it relied less on the ability to parallel the script with a visual style than a thrustful effort to meld camera movement, kinetic compositions , sharply defined character parts, witty dialogue, and carefully crafted plots. The synthesis of every aspect of narrative cinema propels his films, and ultimately they are special because we appreciate each element operating separately in full gear yet in unison with the others. Sturges perfected this synthesis in T he Miracle of Morgan 's Creek: but even in his first film, The Great McGinty, the engagement between the formal and thematic elements of his style clearly establishes his alternative vision of America as a land where, as Andrew Sarris notes, "the lowliest boob could rise to the top with the right degree of luck, bluff, and fraud. ,,1 And from McGinty on, the sheer frantic energy expended in Sturges' world illustrates our American spirit--our need always to be moving somewhere- -and his characters, pushing and shoving their way across the screen, become part of the uncontrollable momentum gathered by this spirit. In fact, Sturges' characters emerge as still greater functions in this setting: they become demons of invigorating originality and self-aggrandizement, of the hope that with self-assertion will come at least a brief moment of screen immortality. The biographical sketch of Preston Sturges aims to inform the reader of a remarkably rich life. This brief account is not intended as a background for psychological speculation ; it was written to show the vast number of influences-people , places, and events- -that shaped Sturges' life and affected his creative activity. It has been said that a chronicle of Preston Sturges' life would have made an incredible and highly unsalable scenario, so improbable and ironic are many moments of it. It is, therefore, as an illustration of this unique life lived and the references, attitudes, and motifs extracted from it and apparent in Sturges' screen work that this section is included. In the screenwriting section, I discuss the structure and style of Sturges' screenwriting, particularly of his comedies , and draw some connections to the dramatic heritage behind them. Most all of the screenplay references are from the latest typescript versions in the Department of Special Collections or the Theatre Arts Library of the University Research Library at the University of California, Los Angeles. And the section on the twelve films written and directed by Sturges is my commentary, useful, I hope, as much for what it contains as for the omissions that any caring reader would be provoked to find. A. D. New York 1983 viii ...