Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Comedy Is Not Pretty

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Sullivan's Travels on DVD.

Forgotten for years along with its maker, writer/director Preston Sturges, Sullivan's Travels has only recently enjoyed a comeback and induction into classic status. It actually describes the same conundrum that's still going on in real life; that comedy doesn't get the same respect drama does. In the film, Joel McCrea plays a comic filmmaker who feels guilty about his lightweight pictures and wants to make a serious drama (called O Brother, Where Art Thou?) to capture the hearts of men. He dresses as a hobo and hits the road to find out what real life is like. But along the way he meets lovely Veronica Lake, gets sidetracked, catches a cold, gets mistaken for dead, and winds up in jail. Only with things at their very lowest does the filmmaker realize the healing power of comedy.

DVD Details: Criterion's black and white transfer, is of course, top notch, but the real treasure here is the commentary track by four other filmmakers, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest from This Is Spinal Tap and Best in Show, Noah Baumbach, the director of Kicking and Screaming and Mr. Jealousy, and Kenneth Bowser, director of Frank Capra's American Dream. Though their tracks are recorded separately from one another, only four comedians and filmmakers who understand the film from within could come up with such welcome insights. (The dull, scholarly commentary track on the My Man Godfrey disc shows the opposite side of the coin.) The DVD also includes a wonderful, well-made feature-length documentary on Sturges, as well as a print interview with Hedda Hopper, and tons more.

Starring: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick, William Demarest, Margaret Hayes, Porter Hall, Franklin Pangborn, Eric Blore
Written by: Preston Sturges
Directed by: Preston Sturges
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 90 minutes
Date: September 6, 2001