Sullivan's Travels

After a string of B-movies, icy cool and slick Veronica Lake graduated to the big time with ¿Sullivan¿s Travels¿ the Preston Sturges¿ screwball message picture in which she costars with Joel McCrea. McCrea is film wunderkind, John L. Sullivan, a director of frothy comedies who desires to make a truly gritty motion picture about the 'suffering of humanity'. One problem - Sullivan doesn't know the first thing about suffrage, having been born with a silver spoon and thrust into a lucrative career in an industry ripened on escapism. So what's a desperate rich guy to do? Well, if you¿re Sullivan you decide to impersonate a hobo and ride the rails in search of the ¿suffering of humanity.¿ On one such fact finding journey, Sullivan finds ¿the girl¿ (Veronica Lake). At first believing Sullivan to be a hobo, ¿the girl¿ buys him breakfast. Despite being down and out herself, she falls for Sullivan¿s floppy eared good nature and, upon learning that she¿s now ¿the girl¿ of one of the richest directors in the business she becomes a complicit participant in Sullivan¿s research for the forgotten men and women of the Great Depression. Sturges ¿ considered by many to be one of the truly great all time directors - delivers what is probably his greatest film in his canon with this sobering concoction of merriment and mire, celebrating the wacky-tacky nature of the film industry and exposing the grim harsh reality of poverty on a grand scale. Truly, this is an outstanding accomplishment amongst screwball comedies. For once, ¿Sullivan¿s Travels¿ is a Criterion DVD I can actually recommend on every level. First, the picture quality of this classic film is bar none the most outstanding effort from Criterion. The gray scale is superbly balanced. Blacks are black. Contrast and shadow levels are amazing. Fine details are well represented. There are NO digital anomalies. The audio is mono but cleaned up in such a way that one hardly notices its dated shortcomings. AT LAST - as an extra, Criterion gives us 'Preston Sturges: A Life' a thoroughly engrossing, in-depth, full fledged documentary on the man, the making of this movie and his entire career. The documentary is so good in fact that you will surely want to watch it more than once. Yes, there's also an audio commentary and the usual Lux Radio junket that accompanies most Criterion classic titles, but the documentary is what counts here.

Not much of a review actually... A thouroughly enjoyable film in true satire. Did you notice the name of the book that Sullivan wrote to chronicle his adventure? It was ''Oh Brother, Where art Thou?''

Criterion has done an expert job on Sullivan's Travels. The clarity of the picture is outstanding.The sound has been cleaned up and the great script is easy to hear and understand. The "extras" on the disc are first rate. The documentary about Preston Sturges is informative and a lot of fun to watch. The radio interview of Sturges with Hopper is a lost gem. This DVD is worth the extra money.