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Posted: |
Mar 26, 2017 - 4:04 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS opens with the following dedication: "To the memory of those who made us laugh: the motley mountebanks, the clowns, the buffoons, in all times and in all nations, whose efforts have lightened our burden a little, this picture is affectionately dedicated." Scripts in the Preston Sturges Collection at the UCLA Special Collections Library reveal that the above dedication, with the inclusion of the underlined phrase, "whose efforts lightened our burden a little in this cock-eyed caravan ...", was initially the epilogue to the film, to be spoken by "Sully" (Joel McCrea) as if it were the prologue of the comedy he plans to make. Sturges originally intended for the film to open with the following prologue: "This is the story of a man who wanted to wash an elephant. The elephant darn near ruined him."
Reportedly, Preston Sturges got the idea for the movie from stories of John Garfield living the life of a hobo, riding freight trains and hitchhiking his way cross-country for a short period in the 1930s. Paramount purchased Sturges's original story for $10,000. Sturges wrote the film with Joel McCrea in mind for the lead. McCrea credited Sturges with instilling confidence and treating him as if he were a bigger star than Clark Gable. "I have to say the money I got for it was unnecessary," McCrea said later in life. "I don't know any other director where I had so much fun. I really felt like I'd do it for nothing."
Barbara Stanwyck was originally considered to co-star with Joel McCrea, and Frances Farmer was tested for the role of "The Girl." But the part ultimately went to Veronica Lake. Lake was six months pregnant when shooting began on the film, and, according to her autobiography, refrained from telling director Sturges until after filming commenced. Sturges consulted with Lake's physician regarding the strenuous nature of the part. Former Rose Bowl queen Cheryl Walker performed as Lake's double. The only other people involved in the production who knew of Lake’s condition were the costume designer, Edith Head, and Louise Sturges, wife of Preston. Miss Head designed costumes to hide the pregnancy.
Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake did not get along during filming. McCrea subsequently turned down the lead role in I MARRIED A WITCH (1942) because he did not want to work with Lake again. They did, however, appear together again in RAMROD (1947). (At the time of filming, Veronica Lake and RAMROD’s director André De Toth were married.)
The U.S. government's World War II Office of Censorship in New York formally disapproved exporting this 1941 film during wartime because of the "long sequence showing life in a prison chain gang which is most objectionable because of the brutality and inhumanity with which the prisoners are treated." This disapproval conformed with the department's policy of not exporting any film that could be turned into enemy propaganda. The department suggested deletions which would have made the picture acceptable under their guidelines; however, the producers declined this opportunity.
A letter from Walter White, Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to Sturges, is included in the Sturges Collection and reads as follows: "I want to congratulate and thank you for the church sequence in SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS. This is one of the most moving scenes I have seen in a moving picture for a long time. But I am particularly grateful to you, as are a number of my friends, both white and colored, for the dignified and decent treatment of Negroes in this scene. I was in Hollywood recently and am to return there soon for conferences with production heads, writers, directors, and actors and actresses in an effort to induce broader and more decent picturization of the Negro instead of limiting him to menial or comic roles. The sequence in SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS is a step in that direction and I want you to know how grateful we are."
In his autobiography, Preston Sturges noted that he wrote SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS as a reaction to the "preaching" he found in other comedy films "which seemed to have abandoned the fun in favor of the message." The New York Times called the film "the most brilliant picture yet this year" and noted that while most of Hollywood seemed to be calling for purely escapist fare because of World War II, Sturges managed to combine escapist fun with an underlying significance. However, SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS did not escape harsher criticism. The Hollywood Reporter noted that the film lacked the "down to earth quality and sincerity which made [Sturges's] other three pictures a joy to behold" and that "Sturges...fails to heed the message that writer Sturges proves in his script. Laughter is the thing people want--not social studies." The New Yorker simply stated that "anyone can make a mistake, Preston Sturges, even. The mistake in question is a pretentious number called SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS."
The National Board of Review included SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS on its top ten list for 1942. In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS as the 61st Greatest Movie of All Time. It was the first inclusion of the film on the AFI’s list. The film placed 31st on the AFI’s list of top comedies. The film was also selected for the National Film Registry by the National Film Preservation Board in 1990.
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