Film Forum

As a child, he cavorted in toga and sandals with Isadora Duncan and her troupe. Later, he invented kiss-proof lipstick and introduced the club sandwich to Germany. He was once the toast of Broadway and his elopement with a famous heiress made the front page of The New York Times. But Preston Sturges (1898-1959) will forever be remembered for a dizzying, golden run of comedies in the early 1940s. Starting as a screenwriter in the early 1930s (his writing work including some of the greatest screwball comedies of the era), Sturges would become a member of the directing elite (along with DeMille, Hitchcock, Ford, and few others), whose names meant something at the box office. But Sturges was one of the first to direct his own scripts, and his example inspired other writers, like John Huston and especially Billy Wilder, to follow in his footsteps.

Programmed by Bruce Goldstein.

Presented with support of The Robert Jolin Osborne Fund for American Classic Cinema of the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s.

Special thanks to Jason Jackowski (Universal Pictures), Todd Wiener, Steven K. Hill (UCLA Film & Television Archive), Wyatt and Lisa McCrea, Suzanne Lloyd (Harold Lloyd Trust), Stuart Klawans, and Tom Sturges.

Reviews

“THE MOST BRILLIANT AND BIZARRE BURSTS OF CREATION IN CINEMA HISTORY!”
– Andrew Sarris

“Arguably the funniest writer-director ever to come out of Tinseltown, Preston Sturges made textbook examples of screwball-comedy perfection.”
– Time Out New York

Films in this Series