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Post by snsurone on Dec 30, 2017 23:20:29 GMT
Both directors specialized in sentimental comedies, but, IMHO, Sturges had the sharpest wit.
I really like MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK and HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO, both starring the underrated Eddie Bracken.
Has anyone else seen his final film, THE FRENCH, THEY ARE A FUNNY RACE, which was also the last film of the great English comic actor Jack Buchanan?
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Post by kijii on Dec 31, 2017 16:33:52 GMT
Both directors specialized in sentimental comedies, but, IMHO, Sturges had the sharpest wit. I really like MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK and HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO, both starring the underrated Eddie Bracken. Has anyone else seen his final film, THE FRENCH, THEY ARE A FUNNY RACE, which was also the last film of the great English comic actor Jack Buchanan? I haven't seen The French, They Are a Funny Race, but I have seen all the other Sturges movies, even The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949) which is really an outrageous madcap movie-- even for Sturges. It is even a madcap Western. Sturges and Capra were both geniuses, but there were differences: Sturges (who wrote most of his own movies from beginning to end) had a more madcap style of presentation. Capra--most of his screenplays were written by Robert Riskin--was more "corn with a heart." I don't think I am expressing it very well, but there is a difference between the two: in form, substance, and style. Maybe Capra was going more for the heart and Sturges was going more for the funny bone. I don't know how else to say it.....because I am only speaking generally and there were exceptions to this rule...... Yesterday, I watched a triple feature of Capra movies (2 of which I had seen several times before): I watched Meet John Doe (1941) and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) back-to-back just to refresh my memory as to how these movies were the same and how they were different. (There were some similarities between the two movies--two women newspaper reporters, each using Gary Cooper to either save their job or get a promotion.) Both movies featured James Gleason and both appealed to the common decency of the common man. But, the stories and tones were totally different. The third movie of my "Capra triple feature" was my first viewing for me: Riding High (1950). Personally, I didn't like it. This is the Bing Crosby that I don't like..always talking in some sort of strange jive that goes over my head. It was loaded--maybe too loaded--with great comic actors of the day. Then I don't understand all this love of horses, horse races, and betting. The language is strange to me: "odds" "sure winner" ----who cares? For me. the best part of that movie was the new songs by Jimmy Van Heusen. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmYllTsYy6QThey were oddly placed in the movie, but they were entertaining. |
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Post by teleadm on Dec 31, 2017 18:17:35 GMT
 Preston Sturges did a cameo in the Bob Hope-Fernandel-Anita Ekberg movie Paris Holiday 1957  Unexpected (at least to me) Brian Donlevy doing comedy in The Great McGinty 1940 What I've read about Preston Sturgess is that he "burnt his bridges" too quickly, and that the movies he made at Paramount was actually made in a short time space, but what I've also read, Paramount sometimes spared movies and spread them out during longer time periods, so not to compete with their own movies, it they eventually became hits. Some could even be 2 or 3 years old. |
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