The Lady Eve (1941)

The Lady Eve
Written and Directed by Preston Sturges
1941/USA
Paramount Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#152 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Jean Harrington: You see, Hopsi, you don’t know very much about girls. The best ones aren’t as good as you probably think they are and the bad ones aren’t as bad. Not nearly as bad.[/box]

And Preston Sturges knocks a romantic comedy out of the park!

Charles Pike (Henry Fonda), known to his friends as Hopsi, is the heir to a vast ale fortune but it more interested in snakes than in beer.  He has been on a scientific expedition up the Amazon for a year.  When he boards the ship for home, he meets Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck).  She is one of a trio of card sharks preying on rubes and immediately spots the naive Hopsi as one of them.  She seduces him to soften him up but is surprised to find herself falling in love.  The feeling is mutual.

When Hopsi gets evidence that Jean is a con artist he immediately dumps her without giving her a chance to explain.  She gets her revenge by showing up at Hopsi’s house disguised as Lady Eve Sidwich and seducing him all over again.  With the great Eugene Pallette as Hopsi’s father, Charles Coburn as Jean’s father, and William Demerest as Hopsi’s bodyguard/nanny.

I have watched this movie so many times that it is hard to talk about it.  What I know is that each time when the credits roll I get a warm feeling and spend the entire rest of the film grinning.  Barbara Stanwyck is at the absolute height of her beauty at age 34 and very funny.  And who knew Henry Fonda would be such a master at pratfalls!  He really was very multi-faceted for a “movie star.”  Needless to say, the dialogue kills me.

Trailer