Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Nice tenderness; too much camp
If you can get to the first scene with Veronica Lake--which isn't easy to do--this movie will take you in. (But can you sit through a ridiculous car chase, a hobo with a bag on a stick, a Negro cook who dips his face into pancake batter. . ? Some stuff from the 1940's cinema seems so campy, so silly, so sentimental. Imagine how absurd films made today will look in about 50 years. Everything will be hatred and explosion and outdated coolness.)
But when Veronica Lake appears and friendship and romance and danger and trouble happen (all still pretty stylized), the film becomes likeable and effective.
And, of course, as the saying went: Veronica Lake is easy on the eyes.

Great Mix of Comedy and Pathos
Ill add my applause to that of the other reviewers. This was my first viewing of a film by Preston Sturges and I'm so impressed that I'll surely look for more.

There is the usual high energy, and crackling dialogue of the screwball comedies of the era. But midway through the film, it darkens and a whole other level of human experience is touched. That's what makes this so remarkable. There is a scene towards the end in a poor Black church where the pastor leads the congregation in singing "Let my People Go" while the men from the nearby prison shuffle in, in chains, to be allowed to watch a "motion picture." I found it amazingly touching. And then, when they all join together, the poor and the wretched, in hearty laughter...wow that was really a transcendent moment.

Joel McRea is winning as the handsome, rich, Hollywood director who want to suffer a little to make his next movie, "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?"
Veronica Lake is a perfect match for him,as the down and out wanna be actress who accompanies him on his trek through the dark side. She hides her famous over-one-eye blond hairdo under a boy's cap as his fellow hobo.

Incidentally, the wondeful Coen brothers' film, "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" must have gotten its title from this movie. Does anyone know? The Coen film is based on Homer's Odyssey and this is another form of an Odyssey....very smart idea!

All in all, a really enjoyable film! This DVD set has an excellent PBS program on the life of Preston Sturges, which features interviews with old friends and his last wife, Sandy. There's also an extended interview with Sandy.

Sullivan's Travels
Widely considered the greatest of Sturges's classic 1940s films, "Sullivan's Travels" is a stunning hybrid, blending giddy slapstick and razor-sharp humor with grim, unblinking social realism. McCrea and Lake make a fun pair, comically and romantically, while Robert Greig is a hoot as Sullivan's droll butler. It's hard to imagine anyone but Sturges concocting this incisively scripted, beautifully directed Hollywood satire, which ultimately has a lot to say about the restorative power of laughter.