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Lady Eve, the

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As a lifelong Preston Sturges fan, I find the problem with submitting reviews of his films to be twofold. The first is where to begin; the second how to stop. A third problem (growing out of the first two) manifests itself immediately upon watching a flawless jewel like THE LADY EVE: why even bother to praise it? No matter how accurate or elegant a rave you write, they'd still be merely words, and words can't do Sturges justice...not after hearing and seeing his own words spinning like a thousand plates over the 90-odd minutes this film is utterly captivating you. Unlike many black-and-white products of the studio era, which generate condescension or apathy in the current version of the Pepsi generation, the Sturges cult grows with every passing year. Young audiences fall under his spell, drawn initially to his work for the still-startling energy of the stream of raspberries he blew at the Production Code. (In this sense, EVE marks a high point; it's all about sexual gamesmanship, and its tone, both matter-of-fact and dizzyingly playful at the same time, is a decided departure from the typical 1940s studio approach.) But hopefully, they're coming for the sizzle and staying for the steak. Like all Sturges' Paramount films, EVE is an embarrassment of riches - a boudoir farce, a slapstick clinic, a cynical dialogue comedy AND a love story of great, soulful heart. It's especially recommended to anyone beset by misery and tribulation as a guaranteed restorative and all-around black cloud lifter. When a movie from any era can so completely and pleasurably take you out of yourself without resorting to any cheapjack plot-gimmicks or trite manipulation of an audience's emotions, all you can do is be grateful. Though the unfailingly superb Sturges Players are on hand, in fine form (including of course his human rabbit's foot, Wm Demarest) EVE features a number of actors making their first and only appearances in a Sturges-directed film: Stanwyck, Fonda, Chas Coburn, Eric Blore, Melville Cooper and perennial Fonda cohort Eugene Pallette. All of them take to the material like catnip, making one long for an alternate reality in which Preston Sturges could have remained unmolested at Paramount for 20 years and a dozen more films than he actually made - not just to see this cast reunited, but to discover what might have resulted from any number of actors new to Sturges being exposed to the hothouse atmosphere of his screenplays. That it never worked out that way is one more reason to treasure what he DID leave us, foremost among them THE LADY EVE.

The gist of THE LADY EVE is ably summed up by Barbara Stanwyck's character in the first half of the film: "The good girls are never as good as they seem to be, and the bad ones never as bad." In this movie, Barbara plays Jean Harrington, a "bad girl" who is not as bad as she seems to be, who later pretends to be Eve Sidgwick, a "good girl" who isn't as good.

In my opinion, this is the greatest romantic comedy ever made. Other films may be more romantic, others funnier, but not a single one combines both elements so perfectly. Everything about this film sparkles. Preston Sturges, one of the finest screenwriters in the history of cinema, turned out one of his most perfect scripts.. The details, the transitions between scenes, the wit, the lightning pace, the superb oneliners, the cascading dialog, absolutely everything marks this as a Preston Sturges production. The cast is utterly beyond reproach. Absolutely no one in the history of film could have been more perfect in the central role as Barbara Stanwyck. Other men could have played the Henry Fonda part, but he was nonetheless excellent in his role, one of the very few comedic parts he managed in his career. Charles Coburn sparkles as "Handsome" Harry Harrington, just as he excelled in a dozen or so other great films from the thirties, forties, and fifties. Eugene Palette, the finest Friar Tuck there ever was or ever could be, is delightful as Henry Fonda's beleaguered father. William Demarest is a fixture in nearly all of Preston Sturges's films, and while his role is not as large here as in some of the others (like HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO, SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS, or THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK), he nonetheless manages to steal nearly every scene he is in.

THE LADY EVE is easily one of the most sexual films of the Hays era. There is a great deal of barely concealed sexual innuendo, beginning with the title ("Eve", the temptress), to the moment when Henry Fonda first climbs up the ladder onto the ocean liner that picks him up at the beginning of the movie (Barbara Stanwyck drops an apple that hits him on the head), to the extraordinary seduction scene (no sex, but at the end of the scene you know Henry Fonda goes back to his cabin for a long, cold shower). I am not sure that the forties ever pictured a man filled with greater sexual desire than when Henry was holding Barbara's leg while putting on her shoes, lost in her perfume. Indeed, the entire segment extending from the second when Barbara Stanwyck initiates meeting Henry by tripping him (one of six pratfalls he will take in the film, if one includes his falling in the mud upon disembarking from his "honeymoon" train) to her sending him out of her cabin in a state of intensely heightened sexual awareness, is utterly astonishing. As someone who grew up watching Barbara Stanwyck on THE BIG VALLEY, seeing that sequence for the first time was a revelation. I had no conception that the woman was that sexy.

The greatest thing about THE LADY EVE is that it gets better with each viewing. I have to strongly disagreee with the editorial review of this film, when he says that it is hard to say whether BALL OF FIRE or THE LADY EVE is funnier: I have seen BALL OF FIRE and THE LADY EVE approximately four times and nine times respectively. The mark of a really great film is how it stands up to reviewing. BALL OF FIRE is great the first time but lessens somewhat upon reviewing (Howard Hawks is marvelous, but it is not one of his stronger films), but THE LADY EVE improves each time in every way. Like I said, in my opinion, one of the best romantic comedies ever made.

Plot reviews are elsewhere below - Here's some background...Stanwyck and Fonda did a film prior to this, THE MAD MISS MANTON, but absolutely nothing happened between the stars. She was too involved with Robert Taylor and he was in his third year of films and still being miscast. By the time Sturges coupled them for EVE, they were ready to work together as a team and their chemistry was incredibly right. Once the premise is established and Stanwyck has him in her sights, the ball is rolling and it never stops. Fonda has stated more than once that he fell in love with Stanwyck at the time, and had he not been married, would've tried his best to win her away from Bob Taylor. Barbara was thrilled that someone was willing to cast her in a role that required more of her in the way of an accent, having been pidgeon-holed with tough talking Brooklyn gals(previous attempts at an accent had failed until she passed with flying colors in 1939 as Irish Molly in Cecil B DeMille's UNION PACIFIC). Fonda was fresh from heavy dramas after GRAPES OF WRATH and was looking for something light. Stanwyck had been cast in a holiday comedy penned by Sturges, REMEMBER THE NIGHT with Fred MacMurray(years before DOUBLE INDEMNITY) so Sturges knew she'd be perfect in his first A picture directing project. The stars liked everything about the script, the shoot was a joy and she was nominated for a Best Actress award. She should've won(I think DeHavilland did) - Some brilliant scenes include over two minutes of narrative about Fonda in her compact mirror, her snaring and baiting him on a chaise lounge without anything really happening but the heat being turned WAY way up, Eugene Palette trying to get fed by someone in his staff, William Demarest as Fonda's nosy valet, Fonda's pratfalls and a hilarious sequence involving a horse getting in on the action. In that case, a horse began inching up on Fonda in one of the takes and the acting pros kept on going with the scene until crew laughter stopped it. Then Sturges wrote it into the script, causing someone to deliberately inch up the horse on the Fonda thruout the scene. It's truly funny to watch and a truly brilliant film. This is the one I show to people who think Stanwyck was only in Big Valley or noir pieces and think of Fonda as a Western star. I HIGHLY RECCOMMEND THIS FILM!!! It's one of my all time favorites and woe to the fool who thinks they can do a remake. (It's so special for so many reasons, no one's been fool enough to try!) - MDM

I saw bits and pieces of The Lady Eve on Turner occasionally and never watched long enough to have an opinion one way or the other. I enjoyed Preston Sturges, Sullivan's Travels and realize he's one of the greats of American film comedy, so I rented The Lady Eve on a friend's recommendation. I enjoyed young handsome Henry Fonda and particularly Barbara Stanwyck. Barbara Stanwyck is not a favorite actress of mine. Maybe it's her brassy delivery and non-leading lady face, but I've changed my mind. Barbara is without a doubt the equal of Claudette Colbert or Carole Lombard in screwball comedy. She might be better. There is a burning intensity, a wistfulness in her delivery of: "Sometimes a good girl can be bad and a bad girl can be good." Fonda has been in the Amazon for a year and on a ship home he runs into a family of card sharks. Barbara traps him, he trips, falls, lands on his ass, and holds her stocking foot. Then they fall in love in some of the most romantic photography of a beautiful couple ever shot. The farce goes on to its final brilliance. There is one pratfall that made me laugh out loud for five minutes. Preston Sturgis is one of the best five directors in all of film.

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

This movie starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda remains a classic to this day.

In this film, a woman and her father meet the heir to a brewery company on a cruise ship and attempt to sucker him at a card table. The daughter soon falls in love with their would-be victim. He later learns of her plan and she tries to win his heart. The movie has much slapstick humor in it and is comparable to the kind seen in the Three Stooges shorts.

The film was also selected by the Library of Congress for the highly coveted National Film Registry and Preservation Board.

The Criterion DVD has many special features including a theatrical trailer, a large number of publicity photos and stills, costume design sketches and other ephemera generously shared by director Preston Sturges' family . There is also a video introduction by writer Peter Bogdanovich and audio commentary by scholar Marion Keane. As a bonus there is the unabridged Lux Radio Theater audio drama adaptation of the film presented by Cecil B. De Mille.

This is truly a classic of American cinema.

Preston Sturges' "The Lady Eve" is a romantic battle of the sexes done screwball style. Yet, to classify it solely as a romantic or screwball comedy would be a mistake. For "The Lady Eve" was a transition film set between the pure screwball comedies that preceded it and the more conventional romantic comedies that followed. It relied on pratfalls and misunderstandings like its predecessors but also added an additional level of wit and sophistication that downplayed the more juvenile aspects of the screwball genre.

"The Lady Eve" is about the complicated boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl-boy-meets-another-girl-who-turns-out-to-be-the-same-girl relationship between beer company heir Charles Pike (Henry Fonda) and crafty con artist Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck). They first meet on a cruise ship where Jean pegs Charles as just another victim. However, she soon falls in love with him only to be tossed aside when Charles finds out about her true vocation. Jean bides her time, patiently waiting for an opportunity to exact revenge on the man who jilted her. The opportunity soon presents itself but Jean's romantic feelings get the best of her once more. After deciding to leave behind her fake Eve personage, she chooses true love over the con game and hooks up with Charles again.

Fonda is superb at playing the sincere but easily victimized Charles. Those familiar with him only through his dramatic roles will find that he can be just as home in a comedic part. Yet, it is Stanwyck who steals the show. At different points of the film, she is called upon to be vile, sweet, clever, or heartbroken, and she pulls off each new demand placed upon her effortlessly. Stanwyck remarkably manages to create a multi-dimensional character that you loathe and love at the same time. The supporting cast is also strong with Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, William Demarest all contributing winning performances. There's much to enjoy about "The Lady Eve" but perhaps the most important message to take away from it is that it is never good to have five aces in your hand.

For those who already know that this is a delightful film: the print quality isn't awful, but it isn't as flawless as some of Criterion's other transfers. The transfer of Hitchcock's "Rebecca", for instance, looks much richer because there seem to be more shades of gray. Also, I was much more impressed with 20th Century Fox's restoration of "How Green Was My Valley" (same year as "The Lady Eve") than with this particular work. On the other hand, it doesn't look nearly as grainy as Criterion's transfer of "Trouble in Paradise" (1932), an older film.

"The Lady Eve" is one of director, Preston Sturges' sinful, guilty pleasures. The plot involves a man-eater, played to perfection by Barbara Stanwyck, who sets her sights on dim-witted millionaire, Henry Fonda. After nearly wooing him into signing over his fortune, Fonda discovers the truth about "Eve" and retreats to his country home to convelesce. But Eve's scheming doesn't end there.
Criterion has redefined what is meant by their tag line on the back slip of this DVD packaging when they state "Sparkling new digital transfer". There is nothing new or sparkling about the print used in the mastering of this DVD. It is faded, worn and exhibits nearly every ravage of time, including tears, chips, scratches and water damage worthy of a complete restoration effort.
Worse, the DVD mastering is shoddy, with an excessive amount of edge enhancement, aliasing and fine detail shimmering that completely distracts one from enjoying the performances. Film and digital grain is excessive and distracting. Tiling in the background information is also glaringly obvious and present throughout. The gray scale of this disc reads more like a muddy haze of undistinguished tones in which all of the fine details get buried under and lost. The audio is mono and strident, scratchy and worn.
Extras: A Lux Radio Broadcast of the movie for those who want to turn off their television and just listen to the movie and an audio commentary that is really bare bones.
BOTTOM LINE: Criterion's penny pinching is not reflected in their price. This is a DVD you shouldn't even consider, much less buy.

I actually have nothing to add to all of the praise being heaped on both the classic comedy itself and the nearly perfect transfer to DVD. I would, however, like to correct a bit of misinformation contained in some of the commentary: this is not Fonda's "only" screwball comedy. In fact, 1938's "Mad Miss Manton" headlined BOTH the lanky actor and the luminous Barbara Stanwyck herself. That's all.

Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck? In a comedy? Yes, my friend. And a darned good one, too. Both Fonda and Stanwyck have a surprising flair for comedy. The plot is clever, especially in the hands of writer/director Preston Sturges, but let's face it, we are not here for plot. We are here to see a hilarious cast reading some of the wittiest lines ever written for the screen. And they do a marvelous job of it, too.