TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

pyrocitor As far as Classical Hollywood meet-cute conventions go, 'girl meets boy with the resolute intent of robbing him, then falls in love with him only for it to not work out, THEN obstinately aims to make him fall in love with her as revenge' is about as progressive as it gets. But Preston Sturges' The Lady Eve stands the test of time for more than pulling the rug out from under romantic comedy conventions and gender roles. Hilarious, razor-sharp, and enduringly sweet (disguised under a protective layer of acrid cynicism, 'natch), The Lady Eve is a raucously fun watch, befitting its status as one of the poster child comedies and romances of the screwball era. Sturges was a notorious traditionalist, and, as in his more iconic 1941 companion piece, Sullivan's Travels, committed to embellishing every story into a grandiose, larger-than-life epic of human experience. The Lady Eve, thankfully, is substantially lighter and nowhere near as maudlin, but still shows glimmers of the same dogged pursuit of human truth, lingering ever-so-slightly more on the ethics, aspirations, dreams, and regrets of our central card sharks, and the shroud of customary screwball class disparity critiques, than the average, comparable zany comedy would. This may cost the film the zippiness of a Howard Hawks (with a staunchly three-act structure lending itself to some lags in pacing), but Sturges is his own animal. He painstakingly engenders our sympathies towards his flesh-and-blood characters, allowing the emotional authenticity of each scene and sight gag to play, giving each character moments to breathe and win our hearts, knowing our investment in them will make their subsequent antics all the sillier. It pays off, as the film is as riotously funny as it is emotionally resonant. Sturges' talented ensemble inhabit their characters like gloves, making their blistering repartee and wordplay and effortless physical comedy (including a generous helping of, arguably, some of cinema's best-ever pratfalls) sparkle with joy and authenticity. Sturges also shows a remarkable knack for playing the silliness of situations to their hilt (the film's latter half, where Stanwyck hides in plain sight, disguising herself as an aristocratic version of... herself, amusingly pushes the limits of suspension of disbelief, even for Fonda's adorable nitwit), but without ever plunging into a superficial farce. The film is also surprisingly cheeky, with Stanwyck's seductive schtick, rife with double-entendres ("Are Snakes Necessary?" being the most pricelessly tongue-in-cheek sight gag), coyly nudging the boundaries of the Hayes Code, which rounds out the fun with a conspiratorial wink. As the titular card shark with a conscience, Barbara Stanwyck gives a powerhouse performance. She practically radiates snappy charisma, and, from her mischievous role-playing to her acid-tongued disparaging take-downs to her surprising emotional vulnerability, she's a scream and all too easy to love from start to finish. As her proverbial 'girl next door' target, Henry Fonda gamely plays against type to hilarious effect, and his meekly principled millionaire simpleton is so delightfully adorable that serving as the butt of almost every joke only adds to his affable presence. Finally, Charles Coburn also subverts his usual typecasting as a blustering blowhard, his shrewd card shark instead stealing scenes as nimbly as he does money, and exuding quiet menace as much as he does gentlemanly compassion. The Lady Eve's yacht may be full of snakes and simpletons, but his film is rife with delight, as boisterously funny as it is clever and emotionally heartfelt. One of the greats of Classical Hollywood, the film is nearly guaranteed to swindle laughs and feelings from you in equal, copious helpings. By now, after seeing Stanwyck and Coburn at work, you've surely learned your lesson on betting against it. -9/10

chaos-rampant Here we have another film about the flustering of identity, the storytelling we weave as we try to pursuit our desire, the turbulence of that pursuit. The same thing in a screwball context that underpins so many musicals of the era and of course the early steps that film noir was taking.Here's what transpires here. She's trying to seduce him, initially for just money on board a cruiser returning from South America. He's a bookish loner, aloof to the advances of other women, preferring his book, which is a way of hinting that here's someone who prefers the world with the clarity that stories provide it rather than as it is, a bit disheveled.So she trips him, quite literally, and he falls over. On a moonlit deck he professes deep love. Now it's her turn to be swept up. Having perhaps been so guileless to her tricks but so earnest in feeling at the same time, she falls for him. She shields him from her card-cheating companions.We are as vulnerable, as susceptible to the clarity that cuts through the stories we tell about ourselves, revealing us to be not quite who we thought, as our best attempts to avoid that clarity. Having done her utmost to seduce him, to weave fiction, real feelings pour through.But now look. He's handed a manila envelope containing a captioned photograph announcing her as a well known crook; another story, complete with images this time, that trips him and destroys that clarity. She protests that people will sometimes do things. Flustered by the betrayal he goes away.A third story brings them together, again spinning fiction. She has gotten herself invited to his fathers' home in Connecticut, in disguise supposedly as the niece of a neighbor (himself a crook in disguise). She shows up there in resplendent beauty, immediately he's taken aback. In a part you'll simply have to swallow, he becomes convinced that she's not really the same person. The filmmaker juggles this bit well though; another story is dished out to him about twins separated at birth.As well mannered, bright visitor from England he falls for her all over again, whom he had just spurned as a crook, although she is the same person. It's fun to watch with a lot of slapstick shenanigans and really a lot of the film is. Trying to get close to her over dinner, now the world conspires to make a fool of him.And then we shift again. Her payback is another story she innocently begins to blurt, about a dozen different sex partners before him. He is indignant, so easily flummoxed again by life that is not quite as he thought it should play out. We have quite clearly the foolishness of this narrator taking shape as the film around him.The film does not look to make a big deal about how, being so susceptible to stories we have in our heads about how life should be, so rigidly fixated on the idea that self is this solid, immutable, once-for-all thing, which of course goes against everything our senses report to us, that we miss out on the marvelously transient romp of persisting with the ride. But using this bookish, naively romantic guy who keeps moving away from his heart's desire only to find himself chasing her in another guise, it may be this very romp. It's not quite a masterpiece but come to it for a bit of funny clarity some day.

Antonius Block Barbara Stanwyck sizzles in this movie, which has a bit of everything – sex, intrigue, and comedy. She plays a card sharp who travels with her father and his associate, bilking rich people out of their money. Henry Fonda plays her mark, a bumbling herpetologist and heir to a brewery business, but his naïve innocence makes her fall for him. The scenes where she is seducing him are absolutely electric. Later, she begins to be protective of him, and the gambling scene with her father (played by Charles Coburn) is wonderful. Frankly, Stanwyck's eyes and face are so alive that she steals every scene she's in.Director Preston Sturges paces the movie very well, there is never a dull moment or anything wasted. At the midway point it's hard to say what will happen, but I won't give anything away, except to say the first half of the movie is a bit better than the second. Released in 1941, it's got a couple of topical references, including William Demarest doing a Hitler impression, which was an interesting reminder of the darkness looming in the world. Overall, a very enjoyable movie, and a memorable Stanwyck performance.

Sergeant_Tibbs The first half of The Lady Eve is one of my new favourite things. Film noir mixed with screwball romance, it blends them both magnificently, utilising Barbara Stanwyck's smooth femme fatale and Henry Fonda's clear lack of comfort zone in any of this. Taking place over the course of a boat trip, the dialogue is sharp and witty, lying through their teeth but grounding it in compelling and whole-heartedly engaging truth. It has a feel that Preston Sturges had a very inspired weekend and wrote this on a productive bender and that kind of thing rubs off on you in the best way. It's a truly wonderful 50 minutes or so. Unfortunately, the plot thickens and life gets complicated after the boat. The film keeps its wit but gets very messy. It becomes difficult to keep track of what's going on, what the motive is and why the characters can't plainly see the problem. An overuse of Fonda falling down proves that the second half just isn't on the same level as the first. However, it doesn't drag the film down too far for me, it only drags it off a potential spot on my all-time favourites list.8/10