DVD Review: Sturges takes a serious turn
Following on the heels of its Blu-ray of Preston Sturges’ “Palm Beach Story,” Criterion has released an excellent edition of what many consider Sturges’s greatest film, “Sullivan’s Travels.” Joel McCrea plays John L. Sullivan — boy wonder director of movies like “Hey, Hey in the Hayloft” and “Ants in Your Plants of 1939” — who wants to make a “serious” film of real social value, based on Sinclair Beckstein’s epic of agony “O, Brother, Where Art Thou?” (Yes, this is where the Coen brothers got the title.) But, having led a pampered life, he decides to go out on the road for research, with 10 cents and pauper’s clothing.
This was the fourth of eight features Sturges turned out in a remarkable four-year period between 1939 and 1943. It’s also his most serious, the only one with a simple message: given most people’s lives, maybe “serious” isn’t such a great thing. It is, in a sense, an argument against itself... or at least against its third act, when what had been witty comedy changes tone completely, throwing Sullivan into the pit of despair and helplessness.
The print is at least as pristine as “Palm Beach Story,” and the disc has a much fuller set of extras, starting with all the significant material from Criterion’s 2001 DVD. There is an informative (though surprisingly laugh-free) audio commentary by filmmakers Noah Baumbach, Kenneth Bowser, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean; a 15-minute 2001 interview with Sturges’s widow; and three short audio clips — Sturges reading a poem (and muffing it twice before getting it right), singing a song he wrote, and chatting with Hedda Hopper.
The most substantial supplement is “Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer,” an excellent 76-minute documentary made by Bowser in 1990 for PBS (which showed it in a shorter form). It intercuts excerpts from the movies with interviews of friends and collaborators.
To the above, Criterion adds a new video essay, featuring film critic David Cairns and Bill Forsyth, director of “Local Hero,” who explains the impact the film had on him.
Sullivan’s Travels (Criterion, Blu-ray, $39.95; DVD, $29.95)
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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).