Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges was one of America's great filmmakers. He was the first Hollywood writer to direct his own script, and thus the credit "written and directed by" first appeared before his name in The Great McGinty. Compared to his writer-director contemporaries, like Billy Wilder, John Huston and Joseph Mankiewicz, Sturges had a relatively short career. But in an incredible creative burst between 1940 and 1943, Sturges made the seven films which constitute his legacy: The Great McGinty, Christmas in July, The Lady Eve, SuIlivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero. Between 1944 and his death 15 years later, he only made three films and never regained his momentum in Hollywood. Of his work in film, he wrote, The only amazing thing about my career in Hollywood is that I ever had one at all.

At various times in his career, Sturges was a Broadway playwright, the inventor of "kiss-proof' lipstick, a restaurant proprietor and the owner of the Sturges Engineering Company, but he enjoyed transitory success in his endeavours. His eccentric, flee-spirited mother had dragged young Preston around Europe, following the trail of her idol, Isadore Duncan. Freedom (in dress, lifestyle and economy) and living for the moment were the fruits of this education, not common sense and a respect for authority. If his upbringing failed to give Sturges the head for business that would make him a successful entrepreneur, it did provide an invaluable background for making him a remarkable filmmaker.

During his lifetime Sturges made and lost several fortunes, was continually behind in his taxes, married four times and alienated much of the Hollywood hierarchy. He loved eating, drinking, curious hats, entertaining, writing, sailing, travelling, talking and being in love. By the end, he was shuttling between Paris and New York, scrambling to make a living by writing for television and theatre. He died of a heart attack on August 6, 1959 in New York at the Algonquin Hotel two weeks before his 61st birthday. Shortly before his death he wrote, I know that my life, even in these disagreeably trying times, is complete, although I don't know exactly why.

In 2004 we screened The Lady Eve and Sullivan's Travels.