Preston Sturges’ “The Lady Eve” is considered, “A frivolous masterpiece. Like “Bringing Up Baby,” “The Lady Eve” is a mixture of visual and verbal slapstick, and of high artifice and pratfalls. Barbara Stanwyck keeps sticking out a sensational leg and Henry Fonda keeps tripping over it,” as Pauline Kael wrote in her book in 1992.
It isn’t often I disagree with the experts, and “The Lady Eve” is on a number of best movies of all time lists, including the Village Voice poll and AFI’s 100 Laughs (#55) and AFI’s 100 Passions (#26), but I didn’t think the film had the speed of a number of other screwball comedies like “Bringing Up Baby” or “His Girl Friday,” nor did I find it to have the wit of Sturges’ own “Sullivan’s Travels,” a film so self aware of the film industry around it that it seems an early example of shattering the fourth wall.
“The Lady Eve” does have some of those elements no doubt. It’s plot is rightfully ridiculous, with Barbara Stanwyck playing Jean, a con artist hoping to scam the wealthy heir to a brewery fortune as played by Henry Fonda, but then falling in love with him and putting on a British accent to convince him she is actually The Lady Eve. One instance I found hilarious was in Sturges creating a picturesque Hollywood moment in front of a sunset only to have it broken by a horse constantly getting in Fonda’s way.
One thing I didn’t strictly care for about the film was Fonda, an excellent dramatic actor of the time period, but incapable of doing comedy, and here playing the infinitely dry straight man forced into a series of pratfalls that fell flat for me. He becomes a tool for Stanwyck, who does give one of her best performances, having every moment both ways and in a way playing a dual role with the utmost enthusiasm and charm. Some of the early scenes of the film that allow her to just shine are one where she spies on Fonda in a personal mirror and narrates the thoughts of the other girls as they bat their eyes in his direction to no avail.
The other is a sexy, unbroken take where Stanwyck plays with Fonda’s hair and earlobe as he lies on the floor entranced by her perfume. A scene like this does convey a strong romance, and it actually is a very good film in that respect. I just expected the rest of the film to have the quickness of the dialogue in those early scenes that are so pitch perfect.
If you’ve seen the film and think differently, let me know in the comments!
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