The Lady Eve
(1941)
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When Jean Harrington meets Charles Pike on a ship, a misunderstanding leaves them parting on bad terms. In order to win back his love, Jean disguises herself as an English lady and sets off to pursue him... |
A wonderfully witty masterpiece, written and directed by the inimitable Preston Sturges. The plot gives a couple of near career-best roles to two of Hollywood's finest players, who are perfectly cast here. Henry Fonda, a wealthy young man obsessed by snakes, lays himself wide open to the schemes of professional con artist Charles Coburn and his daughter, Barbara Stanwyck. Fonda's buddy William Demarest intervenes, but Stanwyck, undeterred, later reappears in disguise at his palatial manse and tries again. Naturally, the slick, assured sexual opportunist falls for the gauche brewer's son who has spent a year up the Amazon, resulting in a witty, sparkling combination of romance and screwball comedy that is still unequalled. There was a 1956 remake with Mitzi Gaynor called The Birds and the Bees, but it didn't come within spitting distance of this great original.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Hectic romantic farce, the first to show its director's penchant for mixing up sexual innuendo, funny men and pratfalls. There are moments when the pace drops, but in general it's scintillating entertainment, especially after viewing its weak remake Th