103 The Lady Eve

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colinr0380
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103 The Lady Eve

#1 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Jan 12, 2005 7:55 am

The Lady Eve

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Barbara Stanwyck sizzles, Henry Fonda bumbles, and Preston Sturges runs riot in one of the all-time great screwballs, a pitch-perfect blend of comic zing and swoonworthy romance. Aboard a cruise liner sailing up the coast of South America, Stanwyck's conniving card sharp sets her sights on Fonda's nerdy snake researcher, who happens to be the heir to a brewery fortune. But when the con artist falls for her mark, her grift becomes a game of hearts—and she is determined to win it all. One in a string of matchless comedic marvels that Sturges wrote, directed, and produced as part of a dazzling 1940s run, this gender-flipped battle-of-wits farce is perhaps his most emotionally satisfying work, tempering its sparkling wit with a streak of tender poignancy supplied by the sensational Stanwyck at her peak.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary from 2001 featuring film professor Marian Keane
• Introduction from 2001 by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
• Interview from 2020 with writer-director Preston Sturges's biographer and son Tom Sturges and friends
• New video essay by film critic David Cairns
• Costume designs by Edith Head
Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1942 featuring Barbara Stanwyck and Ray Milland
• Audio recording of "Up the Amazon," a song from an unproduced stage musical based on the film
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien and a 1946 profile of Preston Sturges from LIFE magazine

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lord_clyde
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#2 Post by lord_clyde » Wed Jan 12, 2005 8:35 am

colinr0380 wrote:Here is a quote from Stuart Galbraith IV's review of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls on DVD Talk:
There are more great stories, such as Peter Bogdanovich in his early days so poor he was reduced to wearing ill-fitting, cast-off suits worn once by Jerry Lewis. Or screenwriter David Newman recalling a screening of The Lady Eve that Bogdanovich had arranged to prepare Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal for What's Up, Doc?. Instead of enjoying the film, the two stars became obsessed with counting the number of close-ups afforded Fonda and Stanwyck and, otherwise disinterested, stormed out halfway through.
I'm reminded of the Dorothy Parker quip when asked to use the word horticulture in a sentence: "You can take a whore to culture, but you can't make her think".

Could they not get caught up in the comedy of this brilliant film?
Well, Barbara Streisand is a whore. I don't really have a reason for hating her, I just do. It's as if she were a demon in disguise (poor disguise) and I can feel her evil aura through the television screen.

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cdnchris
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#3 Post by cdnchris » Wed Jan 12, 2005 9:30 am

Wow, the two "actors" I have the least amount of respect for.

This is a fantastic movie, very funny and quite fun. I have no idea how anyone could just up and leave halfway through. Unless they're just incredibly braindead. It should come as no surprise I don't like Streisand (I mean, who does really? There must be people that love her but I have yet to meet someone) but I really don't like O'Neal, either (I really can't enjoy Barry Lyndon because of him.) Both seem to be empty and incredibly annoying and lacking in acting skills.

Stanwyck and Fonda were great together and I was really surprised by Fonda. I saw this the same time around Once Upon a Time in the West, after getting used to him playing the same old "good reasonable serious guy" like in 12 Angry Men, Grapes of Wrath, Golden Pond and other films. So seeing him doing a villain and then comedy, two things I wasn't used to with him, around the same time was kind of a shock. He does it all rather well, too.

This reminds me, I haven't even looked at the features on this DVD yet and I've had it for a couple of years. Yea! Something to do this weekend.

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Matt
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#4 Post by Matt » Wed Jan 12, 2005 9:51 am

cdnchris wrote:Stanwyck and Fonda were great together and I was really surprised by Fonda.
If you think they're good together in this movie, you should catch The Mad Miss Manton the next time it's on TCM, if only to see Fonda deliver the immortal line, "What are ya tryin' ta do, haunt my couch?"

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cdnchris
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#5 Post by cdnchris » Wed Jan 12, 2005 10:34 am

I never even heard of that movie and I think it sounds really cool! Can I even get TCM in Canada!?

And looking it up on the Bell site, apparently not, at least through them, unless I live on the West coast. I guess I'll have to wait for the DVD or move to BC. And I made a mistake. Bell doesn't offer TCM on the west coast. But I found a rumour of a "Turner Classic Movies Canada" coming at some point Whoo hoo!!
Last edited by cdnchris on Wed Jan 12, 2005 4:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Gordon
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#6 Post by Gordon » Wed Jan 12, 2005 11:26 am

I think it's a beautiful little movie; very funny. Great comic performances.

It's a fine package from Criterion, as is the Sullivan's Travels disc.

The Palm Beach Story is out on 1st Feb, of course. There is a wonderful edition of Unfaithfully Yours available in the UK; great transfer and interviews with Terry Jones and Sturges' wife, Sandy. Will we be seeing this or any other Sturges films from Criterion this year? I hope so.

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ben d banana
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#7 Post by ben d banana » Wed Jan 12, 2005 4:30 pm

cdnchris wrote:Can I even get TCM in Canada!?

And looking it up on the Bell site, apparently not, at least through them, unless I live on the West coast. I guess I'll have to wait for the DVD or move to BC.
argh, i just got digital cable instead of satellite, and now i find i could have had tcm... curses!

back to topic...

BWilson
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#8 Post by BWilson » Wed Jan 12, 2005 6:06 pm

As far as Streisand and O'Neil go; from all reports they are two of the most brain-dead fools in Hollywood. Particularly O"Neil who must be the prototype of the California him-bo.

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GringoTex
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#9 Post by GringoTex » Wed Jan 12, 2005 6:40 pm

Does anybody else think that Sturges was a much better writer than director? Too bad he didn't let Hawks, Lubitsch, or McCarey direct some of those scripts.

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Gregory
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#10 Post by Gregory » Wed Jan 12, 2005 7:11 pm

I never thought so. What do you find wrong with his direction?

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GringoTex
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#11 Post by GringoTex » Thu Jan 13, 2005 11:56 am

Gregory wrote:I never thought so. What do you find wrong with his direction?
It's fairly pedestarian- not much visually interesting. And he's lacking in the way of comedic timing and rhythmn. He just let's the dialogue hang in the air.
flixyflox wrote:Langlois - Flixyflox can't pass an opportunity to beat the drum for Mitchell Leisen. Sturges' screenplays for Easy Living and Remember the Night are transformed by Leisen into (a) glorious immersions into luxe (Paramount 30s style) that Sturges couldn't have come near in detail or affection and (b) genuinely romantic melodrama that Sturges would have curdled.
Thanks- I'll have to check them out.

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#12 Post by Brian Oblivious » Thu Jan 13, 2005 4:32 pm

Langlois68 wrote: not much visually interesting.

I disagree vehemently- do you not find people to be visually interesting? Take a look at Hail the Conquering Hero and see all the faces and bodies he crams into each frame- nobody else I've seen does that quite like he does.
That said, I'd like to see more of the films others made out of his scripts. Including the Leisen pictures and especially the Power and the Glory.
Last edited by Brian Oblivious on Sun Jan 16, 2005 12:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Gregory
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#13 Post by Gregory » Thu Jan 13, 2005 7:45 pm

langlois68 wrote:It's fairly pedestarian- not much visually interesting. And he's lacking in the way of comedic timing and rhythmn. He just let's the dialogue hang in the air.
As a general criticism, I find that so extreme and so far from my own viewings of Stuges' films that I cannot understand it, let alone refute it. Specific examples might provide some purchase in critiquing his directorial style.

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Miguel
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#14 Post by Miguel » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:20 pm

Matt's review from the old board.
baileyhouse wrote:The film:

I have kind of a hard time thinking of The Lady Eve as a screwball comedy, because nobody really seems all that screwy. At least not in comparison to the characters in, say, Hawks' screwball comedies like Twentieth Century, Bringing Up Baby, or His Girl Friday. Sturges films always seem to have an element of screwball, or moments of screwball, but they're never screwy all the way through. But that's a good thing. Sturges' comedies have a lot of heart and the romance really rings true, especially in this film. Henry Fonda has always seemed a little pretty and feminized to me, but that's the way I like him - he has an innocence and tenderness about him that's believable, however nasty or cold he apparently was in his real life. And Barbara Stanwyck has always seemed a little, well, butch (Watch Fuller's Forty Guns if you don't believe me. The two of them, however, make for a great combination especially in this film. Stanwyck (okay, "Jean") knows what she wants and she goes after it - twice. I won't go on and on about the rest of the film - just take my word for it that it's good, it's sweet, it's funny, and it's perfectly cast. If you caught the short article on the Criterion website when this disc and Sullivan's Travels were released, then you know how important Sturges' supporting players were to him and to his films. This film, his second, is a perfect example of that. Not only does the film feature two perfectly cast leads, but also four of the best character actors working in the business at the time: Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, Eric Blore, and Sturges stalwart William Demarest. Sturges gives each actor at least one short scene in which to shine and usually the best lines in the film as well (though it's pretty hard to top the laughs you get out of me when Stanwyck delivers the line, "Holy smoke! The dropped kerchief - that hasn't been used since Lily Langtry!"). My point, essentially, is that if you like good writing and you like good comedic acting, then I can't understand why you're sitting here reading this instead of watching this movie. But you want to know about the disc, right? Okay…

The disc:

The transfer is good, the print was in very good condition, and the sound is clean. What more could you want? Supplements, you say? Well…

Peter Bogdanovich's introduction, like most in the Criterion Director Introduction series, is short and sweet. In eight minutes, he gives us a brief report on the film's production, the importance of Sturges as one of the first writer-directors, and the film's stature as one of the greatest romantic comedies ever made.

Marian Keane's commentary, however, is exactly the sort of cod-academic, overly analytical, fun-sucking chatter that DVDs could well do without. I have to confess that I could only stand to listen to about twenty minutes of it. I appreciate Criterion's attempt to educate their viewers by asking noted critics and scholars to provide commentaries, but I can't imagine that anyone would play this commentary and think, "gee, I'm glad I listened to that." Most of the time, Keane's observations and "insights" are simply verbose and florid descriptions of what the viewer can plainly see is happening on the screen. At other times, they are cringe-inducing assertions of sexual metaphors that Keane finds in the simplest and most conventional of images. There are, thankfully, moments of silence in Keane's harangue, but they only make you realize how much you'd rather switch her off and hear those great Sturges one-liners and witty rejoinders. I haven't listened to Keane's other commentaries on the Hitchcock discs, but now I know not to waste my time. Anything interesting she notes about the film is covered much more thoughtfully in James Harvey's liner notes. Though few and far between, the good points she does make are poached from Stanley Cavell's 1981 book, "Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage," which, while a daunting and philosophical read, is vastly preferable to 90 minutes of Marian Keane biting her consonants. Indeed, Ms. Keane's only published book is a condensation and overview of Cavell's own theories of film. The kicker is that Stanley Cavell is still alive and probably could have provided a very interesting commentary for this disc. Listen to this one at your own risk.

Moving on, the "Scrapbook" section at first seems to be just what you might expect. Lots and lots of publicity stills, on-set photos, and ads, but if you're patient, you'll come across some amusing memos regarding suggested changes from the Hays Office (the enforcers of the Motion Picture Production Code) and notes from a test screening indicating the total number of laughs by the audience and what they laughed at. Usually I can only click through so many photos of the director looking thorough a viewfinder and the cast wearing funny hats before my thumb starts to ache and I get bored, but this feature was pretty good. I only wished they had put the more interesting stuff at the beginning and left the photos for last.

The costume sketches by Edith Head could have just as easily ended up in the disc's "Scrapbook" section, but having them set aside and annotated with excerpts regarding the film's production from Edith Head's autobiography makes them uniquely pleasurable. I had found out years ago that Barbara Stanwyck had what might be called a low-slung caboose. To overcome this "impairment," Edith Head devised a way of dressing Stanwyck with specially shaped belts on all her garments or with coats with lengthened hems. These garments gave Stanwyck the desired Hollywood figure and detracted attention from her, uh, caboose. However, since I found this out I end up staring at Stanwyck's butt in every picture I see her in. At least for a few seconds. Anyhow, this feature allows you to see the magic that Head worked on Stanwyck to turn her from a plain Jane into a glamourpuss.

The Lux Radio Theater program is a nice addition, but I can't imagine many families sitting around the warm glow of the television set to listen to it. For those who don't know, it was common practice in the thirties and forties for studios to publicize their films by having the actors go on the radio and act them out as radio drama. Naturally, these were shortened versions of the film script and had to be altered for the limitations of radio, but they were very popular nonetheless. This particular program has Barbara Stanwyck and Charles Coburn recreating their roles and Ray Milland standing in for Henry Fonda. It's a nice listen and a good inclusion for fans of radio, but again, why would you just listen when you can watch the real thing?

The trailer is not an original release trailer but is instead from a re-release. It's pretty beat-up, but the opening shot, which is not in the film, is worth seeing it for.

I didn't realize when I picked this up to watch it just how loaded it was. Usually I'm just happy to get a good transfer and a trailer, but Criterion has a knack for including just the right supplements and just enough of them. Any more and you could get sick of it all, especially if it's the kind of fluff that passes for features on big studio releases. Sometimes you look at Criterion's release schedule and curse them for putting you in the poor house, but then you see a disc like this and you remember - it's all worth it.

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HistoryProf
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Re: 103 The Lady Eve

#15 Post by HistoryProf » Sun Dec 05, 2010 7:54 pm

Caught a holiday program screening of this today and it was absolutely wonderful seeing it on the big screen. The print wasn't exactly flawless though, and only had the Paramount logo at the opening - wasn't this being mentioned as a possible blu candidate along with Sullivan's Travels or am I imagining this? I've put off picking this up for years because it's on TCM often enough, but after seeing it again today the magic of Stanwyck/Fonda/Sturges just overwhelmed me. It's quite nearly a perfect film.

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Re: 103 The Lady Eve

#16 Post by wllm995 » Sun Dec 05, 2010 7:59 pm

HistoryProf wrote:- wasn't this being mentioned as a possible blu candidate along with Sullivan's Travels or am I imagining this?
One can always dream!! :D

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Minkin
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Re: 103 The Lady Eve

#17 Post by Minkin » Mon Jan 03, 2011 5:22 am


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filmyfan
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Re: 103 The Lady Eve

#18 Post by filmyfan » Sun Feb 07, 2016 7:36 am

Having just seen The Lady Eve again at the BFI (Sturges season)...the first time on the big screen....what a great film it is...probably will go again-while it is on a long run.

Any chance of an upgrade by someone do we know ?

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domino harvey
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Re: 103 The Lady Eve

#19 Post by domino harvey » Sun Feb 07, 2016 8:18 am

A great chance since they shared a photo of the original film elements last year

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filmyfan
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Re: 103 The Lady Eve

#20 Post by filmyfan » Sun Feb 07, 2016 8:47 am

domino harvey wrote:A great chance since they shared a photo of the original film elements last year
Ripping news...Thanks :)

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Jun-Dai
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Re: 103 The Lady Eve

#21 Post by Jun-Dai » Wed Feb 10, 2016 7:22 pm

filmyfan wrote:Having just seen The Lady Eve again at the BFI (Sturges season)...the first time on the big screen....what a great film it is...probably will go again-while it is on a long run.
Hey, I just saw that at the BFI tonight! It is interesting to compare it to Remember the Night, which I saw on Sunday.

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filmyfan
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Re: 103 The Lady Eve

#22 Post by filmyfan » Fri Feb 12, 2016 2:25 pm

Jun-Dai wrote:Hey, I just saw that at the BFI tonight! It is interesting to compare it to Remember the Night, which I saw on Sunday.
I love them both!

I would have liked to have seen Remember on the big screen but I think of it as such an xmas film-and had just seen it at home on my annual viewing a few weeks back !

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Re: 103 The Lady Eve

#23 Post by Robespierre » Thu Jan 31, 2019 11:17 pm

According to Bluray.com, BFI is rereleasing this movie in UK theatres from the 14th to the 23rd. Perhaps the long-gestating CC upgrade is finally imminent?

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domino harvey
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Re: 103 The Lady Eve

#24 Post by domino harvey » Tue Apr 14, 2020 10:05 pm

The Criterion page for this has been updated with HD trailer and new pix— could we finally be getting this upgraded? Maybe new projects getting put on hold means long in development upgrades like this are going to be on the docket? Wonder what other long awaited upgrades or reissues we might see (assuming we ever see this!)

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yoloswegmaster
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Re: 103 The Lady Eve

#25 Post by yoloswegmaster » Tue Apr 14, 2020 10:12 pm

Didn't Lee Kline say in a podcast last year that this wasn't going to happen for a while due to poor material source?

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