Amazon.com
What could top the charm, the outlandishness, the wit, the loveliness of classic Hollywood romantic comedy? The triumph of James Harvey's book is its ability to convey the delights of the genre when it was at its best, during the 1930s and '40s. Though he devotes chapters to major filmmakers such as Frank Capra and Howard Hawks, and stars like Cary Grant, Claudette Colbert, Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers, Harvey's focus is on two of the finest directors of the period: Ernst Lubitsch and Preston Sturges. Harvey describes the joys of watching their movies as he offers many intriguing insights into their cinematic styles and comic techniques. One of the best things about this book is its author's willingness to discuss obscure, hard-to-find films. Of course, he covers popular entertainments such as Lubitsch's Ninotchka, Capra's It Happened One Night, and Sturges's The Lady Eve, but he also devotes equal time to little-known, fascinating works like Sturges's The Great Moment and Lubitsch's Angel. This is an invaluable companion for anyone interested in learning more about two of Hollywood's most wonderful auteurs or about romantic comedy in general. --Raphael Shargel
Customer Reviews:
Harvey's sharp wit meets comedies' humor.......2006-05-29
A natural wit and storyteller himself, Harvey can mine the field for twists and turns that you might miss without his helpful guide. This is the best film criticism book ever. If you never saw the films, you could easily imagine them by reading this book. I wish he had time to write more books on film. Nobody writes with such a masterful voice, perfectly suited to this subject.
A brainy, articulate romp through Hollywood's golden age ..........2005-05-22
... Harvey's book brims with the kind of keen, enthusiastic observations that lovers of the screwball genre will embrace with glee. He casts a thoroughly knowing and intelligent eye on the films, the actors, the directors and the millieu that define what, for many film buffs, was Hollywood's real golden age.
For my money, this is THE de facto handbook to that great twenty years' worth of cinematic Americana. I have loved these old movies for a long time, but Harvey deconstructs why it is that these movies worked well and continue to entertain and draw admirers some seventy and eighty years on. Harvey's engaging prose is steeped not only in an obvious love of these movies, but is remarkably fine in and of itself; this man can write, really write, adroitly sidestepping a swathe of cliches in favor of original thinking and insights that will get and keep you reading, hoping the chapter -- and the book -- will never end.
Reading this book is nearly as much fun as watching the films he writes about with such affection and insight. Rare is the book of film study that affords a measure of tangible pleasure anywhere near that of watching the films themselves. The best of film criticism gets readers to re-thinking films seen perhaps dozens of times; Harvey's Romantic Comedy accomplishes not only that, but provides an irresistible impetus to revisit the entire canon of films post haste. And not a moment too soon.
Justly lauded, and terrific stuff. A five star-plus recommendation for this terrific tome!!!
One of the best books on film art.......2002-11-21
Not only is this a comprehensive survey of the genre of romantic comedy (and its profound sub-genre, screwball comedy), but Harvey's digressions offer many wise comments on pre-1950 films in general. I came away convinced that comedy is more profound than tragedy. A good editor won't spoil "Hamlet" by cutting some of its dialogue, but it would be infinitely harder to cut dialogue from any of the great comedies written and directed by Preston Sturges. As a bonus, Harvey provides a glowing appreciation of the comic artistry of Irene Dunne, along with a wonderful interview with her.
A book for the lover of the screwball comedy.......2002-02-17
Sturges, Lubitsch, Hawks, all the directors of the golden age of the comedy are here. The book we are looking for. It was easy to find books about the film noir or the western but it wasn't so easy to find the same about comedy. This is the book.
A Curate's Egg.......2001-06-19
This book is interesting in spite of the theories it contains rather than because of them. Maybe those who have given this book a good rating are just happy that the author spends a lot of time talking about so many wonderful films. But, whilst much of the analysis of the films is interesting, a lot of it is rather hamfisted. In many cases the author seems to be praising the actor for doing what the writer or the director told him to do. In fact I would say that in this book the role of the scriptwriter is completely misunderstood. This severely weakens Harvey's attempts at textual analysis
In addition, Harvey's literary judgements are rather curious to say the least. For example, he completely underates the genius of Noel Coward and claims that the movies of the 30s as an American artifact whilst ignoring the obvious influence of the British comedy of manners in forming the backbone of Hollywood comedy.
The silly left wing social theories expressed in this book are laughable, as is the author's hankering for 'subversion' in comedy films, at the expense of just plain laughter. This book is far too long and repetitious. The services of a good editor would have been worthwhile.
Book Description
Here are five comic masterpieces by Preston Struges, who has been called "Hollywood's greatest writer-director, with emphasis on the former." The scripts are drawn from the great period between 1939 and 1944, which Andrew Sarris called "one of the most brilliant and most bizarre bursts of creation in the history of cinema."
They are astonishingly readable and deliciously funny. Brian Henderson's introduction provides an overview of Sturges criticism and brief biographical material. Each script is preceded by a prefatory essay discussing its evolution. The insights provided by this volume will be useful to film students and aspiring screenwriters, and fascinating to anyone interested in screen comedy. Virtually all the illustrations, showing Sturges at work, are published here for the first time.
The collection includes The Great McGinty, Christmas in July, The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, and Hail the Conquering Hero.
Customer Reviews:
The Titles.......2005-11-25
Preston Sturges stands out among the writer/directors of the 30's and 40's (how many others were there? I can think only of John Huston) for his wittily jaded takes on politics, the battle of the sexes, art and patriotism. But if you're looking at this review, you're a fan already, so I'll just tell you the titles in this volume:
* The Great McGinty
* Christmas in July
* The Lady Eve
* Sullivan's Travels
* Hail the Conquering Hero
Good films all, and the last two classics.
The master of witty dialogue.......2001-11-23
These screenplays contain some of the wittiest lines ever written. To my taste, Preston Sturges wrote better dialogue than Shakespeare. This volume contains the screenplay to one of my favorite films, "Christmas in July" -- one of the warmest and funniest fims ever made. Puts Shakespeare back with the shipping news.
brilliant.......1999-04-28
Sturges was brilliantly funny, and these scripts are beautifully constructed. Make a point to see HAIL, THE CONQUERING HERO; it's his best film, and includes arguably his funniest scene (the mayor dictates a speech to his son then his secretary).
Book Description
Includes The Palm Beach Story, Triumph over Pain/The Great Moment, The Miracle at Morgan's Creek, and Unfaithfully Yours.
Humorous, sophisticated, and superbly crafted, the cinema of Preston Sturges maintains an enduring presence in the small canon of films that enjoy critical acclaim, scholarly attention, and popular admiration. Following the enthusiastic reception of Five Screenplays by Preston Sturges, the University of California Press returns with Four More.
This volume contains three scripts widely regarded as among the filmmaker's best: The Palm Beach Story, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, and Unfaithfully Yours. Based on the actual shooting scripts rather than the final screen versions, these screenplays contain scenes that were not filmed or that disappeared on the cutting room floor.
In the fourth script, Triumph over Pain/The Great Moment, Sturges dramatizes the career of W.T.G. Morton, the doctor who first demonstrated the use of ether and thus revolutionized surgery. Arguably the most important biographical film project of the 1940s, this film was recut and rearranged by Paramount before it was released. By reprinting Sturges's original script and explaining its transformation, Brian Henderson has, in effect, discovered a new work by Sturges.
In the introductions that precede each screenplay, Henderson examines every important aspect of the screenplay's composition. He analyzes Sturges's process of constant revision, discusses variant drafts and fragments of drafts, and describes the writer/director's relations with Paramount executives, the Church, the Hayes Office, and Darryl Zanuck.
Alone or as a companion to the earlier volume, this work will be welcomed by scholars, film buffs, screenplay writers, and admirers of Preston Sturges.
Customer Reviews:
Preston Sturges' Screenplays.......2006-12-05
This book is a wonderful compilation of Preston Sturges' screenplays.
It's very good for all who love the great director.
Three Fine Comedies and One Odd Misfire.......2005-11-26
This volume contains some of Sturges' best work, including the immortal comedy The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, together with The Palm Beach Story and Unfaithfully Yours. Five stars for The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, perhaps the funniest, most subversive movie of the 1940's.
The biggest curiosity here, though, is Sturges' script for his odd dental-anesthesia biopic The Great Moment. This film was heavily altered by the studio prior to its release. Sturges' original script would probably have been a better picture, but it's hard to imagine this project succeeding in any case.
Great comedy films.......2001-11-23
Contains the screenplay for "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" (to my taste, the most hilarious film of all time). When I worked as a cataloger at Newport Public Library, I constantly told my co-workers that I thought Preston Sturges wrote better dialogue than Shakespeare. I could prune lines from "Hamlet," but I couldn't cut a single line from "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek."
Book Description
In this first critical biography of Preston Sturges, Diane Jacobs brings to life the great comic filmmaker whose career Andrew Sarris described as "one of the most brilliant and bizarre bursts of creation in the history of the American cinema." Jacobs uses letters and manuscripts never before revealed, as well as interviews with people who knew Sturges--including three of his wives--to portray this fascinating, contradictory man. In addition to discussing his major films, she also examines heretofore unknown work and shows that Sturges was highly creative even near the end of his life, a time when many believed he had lost his touch.
Sturges secured his place in film history as the creator of such classic films as The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, and The Palm Beach Story. In 1939 he became the first screenwriter to win the right to direct his own script--the result was the Oscar-winning The Great McGinty. Creator of Unfaithfully Yours, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, and Hail the Conquering Hero, he was the third highest-paid man in the United States by the late 1940s. He owned a swank Hollywood restaurant and was known as an ebullient raconteur as well as a world-famous filmmaker. A little over a decade later, Sturges died in New York, impoverished and rejected by Hollywood.
The euphoria of success, the fitfulness of luck, the promise and poignancy of the American Dream--the themes of Sturges's work also marked the man. Diane Jacobs achieves a singular success in illuminating his extraordinary life.
Book Description
Preston Sturges was the great writer and director of Hollywood screwball comedies of the thirties and forties. Sullivan's Travels, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, and The Great McGinty have become film classics, demonstrating brilliant, inventive writing and directing. At the height of his career, Sturges had not only won an Academy Award but was also one of the most highly paid executives in the country.
The only account of his life in his own words, Preston Sturges by Preston Sturges unveils the source of his extraordinary creativity: a life that was every bit as antic and unconventional as his movies. From growing up in Europe with a mother whose best friend was Isadora Duncan to making his way among the beau monde of New York -- including a marriage to Barbara Hutton's cousin Eleanor -- Sturges drew on a wealth of madcap experiences to create films of unprecedented comic originality. Working with her husband's wonderfully descriptive journals, Sandy Sturges has woven a captivating narrative that reveals a man of remarkable intellect, energy, and warmth.
Customer Reviews:
Learn about the man, not about the work.......2002-12-18
The strange title and author attribution of this (auto)biography of movie writer/director Sturges is revealed in the last paragraph, and I won't give it away here. Trust me to say that this is a fascinating look into Preston Sturges' life as it is revealed by the man himself. Revealing? For example, the time spent by Sturges working on his six Hollywood classics (starting with "The Great McGinty" and ending with "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek") are briefly covered in approximately 50 pages. Instead of concentrating his life into the three years that made him famous, Sturges spreads his story out equally to all years of his life, spending an equal amount of time on his toddlership. Fortunately, Sturges' life is interesting and by the time you arrive with him in Hollywood, you may agree with him that it's not necessarily as high a pinnacle as it may seem.
What you discover here is that Sturges, while a gifted writer and director, was something of a strange chap. His early life, while providing him many of the anecdotes that he would later incorporate into his movies, weren't necessarily guiding him to the silver screen. By tricks of simple fate, Sturges avoided a career as a perfumer, a broker, and an inventor. And, before Hollywood, there was a chance that he would have stayed a playwright on Broadway. For a man with the drive for success and money, though, no place but Hollywood in those years had quite the means to deliver the goods.
There's a few pictures to round out the book and a nice bibliography. As a starting point to discovering more about Sturges' work, this is a great book. About that work, though, one must look elsewhere.
Excellent companion volume to Curtis's bio.......2002-11-21
The best biography (to date) of Preston Sturges is "Between Flops" by James Curtis, but this well-edited edition of Preston's own unfinished autobiography makes a wonderful companion volume to that vivid bio.
Sleeping Beauty.......2001-09-15
A great autobiography that anyone who is a Sturges fan will love. He writes extremely well, and the life he tells about is a fascinating one. Why this book is not more widely known and discussed is a mystery. Had Sturges never made a movie (and he devotes little space to that aspect of his life), or if anyone reading the book would happen to not know who Sturges is, the book would hold up just as well. His wife Sandy did an excellent job of editing Sturges' journals and writings to come up with what will one day become known as literary classic that will stand alongside his film masterpieces.
A Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous........2001-03-29
Preston Sturges was one of the greatest comedy directors of all time, but most people have no idea who he was. This book is basically Sturges' autobiography. Ironically, he died before he ever had a chance to finish and publish his life story. However, using what he had written, various letters, and notes, his daughter Sandy collected his writings and edited them into this delightful book. I was fascinated and extremely amused reading about the exploits of the gifted (and wealthy) young Preston. His childhood was anything but usual, what with globetrotting and famous dinner guests and all; and the story of how he became a movie director is most interesting and entertaining. Full of wit and charm, this book is sure to entertain; not unlike a Preston Sturges' film.
Book Description
Writer-director Preston Sturges set a new standard for creativity in Hollywood. Three volumes of his screenplays have been published, and he is acknowledged as one of the grand masters of screen comedy. Between Flops was the first full-length biography of this great American humorist.
"One of the most entertaining and engrossing film biographies I've encountered, doing justice not only to that truly eccentric genius at the core, but also to his time and place in both Hollywood and our culture."
—Judith Crist
"A sobering picture of the sweat and disappointment that lie beneath the Hollywood hoopla."
—Newsweek
Customer Reviews:
Some interesting anecdotes, but leaves you hanging........2003-04-16
The first part of this book was mildly interesting for the anecdotes relating to Preston Sturges' fascinating early life & career(s). But as it proceeeds through his Hollywood period & beyond it gets thinner & vaguer. When it ended, I wasn't even sure what happened to Mr. Sturges, he just seemed to disappear & the book just stopped. Or was my edition missing a chapter?
Best bio of Preston Sturges.......2002-11-21
An outstanding biography. Though concise, this is much better written than longer biographies of Preston Sturges. Curtis provides all the essentials, and does so in a well-structured and well-written style. Takes less time to read than the bios by Spoto and Jacobs, but the reader comes away with a much more vivid portrait of Sturges.
Book Description
The publication by the University of California Press of Five Screenplays by Preston Sturges and Four More Screenplays by Preston Sturges has been applauded by cinephiles and admirers of the director's work, and recognized as a major contribution to the history of American cinema. In this third volume of scripts by one of Hollywood's wisest and wittiest filmmakers, the focus turns to those screenplays written but not directed by Sturges.
Included in the new collection are The Power and the Glory, which greatly influenced Orson Welles in the conception of Citizen Kane, and the romantic comedies Remember the Night and Easy Living. The scripts reveal Sturges in top form as a writer of dialogue and prove beyond any possible doubt his authorship of the films, which frequently appear indistinguishable on-screen from those he himself directed.
Full of surprises and delights, these Three More Screenplays are essential reading for students of American cinema and admirers of Sturges. They cast new light on his collaborations with directors Mitchell Leisen and William K. Howard, and provide a rousing conclusion to the writings of this Hollywood master. In his substantial introduction to the volume, film historian and screenplay writer Andrew Horton analyzes the contributions of Sturges to the film comedy genre and to Hollywood film history.
Customer Reviews:
Essential.......2003-09-17
If you want to see what great screenwriting looks like on the printed page you should read Preston Sturges.
Average customer rating:
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Madcap: The Life of Preston Sturges
Donald Spoto
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