‘Sullivan’s Travels’: Stranger than ‘Citizen Kane’ and Much Funnier
“Sullivan’s Travels” is easily the strangest film I’ve seen that came out in 1941. I wish I could have seen what audiences made of it back in the day. It is a movie that would probably never be made today: John Sullivan (Joel McCrea) is a film director who decides to pretend being poor in order to make a film about suffering. It is strange because it takes you to places you did not expect it to go. It is strange because it contains an extraordinary amount of violence (or at least references to it) for its day. And it is strange because it does not succumb to the condescending sentimentality you think it will for most of the film.
Written and directed by Preston Sturges, what starts out as a predictably preachy adventure film turns into a heartfelt movie with a conscious. The message is as clear as day, but it’s an important one, and Sturges delivers it with finesse. The end of this movie may be one of the best endings to this kind of film ever made.
And I don’t quite know what “this kind of film” even is. It’s a comedy in the first half, with terribly hilarious quips that put the “Avengers” movies to shame. “How does the girl fit into the picture?” “There’s always a girl in the picture. What’s the matter, don’t you go to the movies?” The best part about this exchange is that it isn’t a throwaway line, it’s a sly commentary on the movie itself. Sturges broke the fourth wall in 1941!
The “girl” in this case is Veronica Lake, and her character is affectionately known as “The Girl”. Seriously, I’m not making this up, check the IMDb page. Or, better yet, watch the movie! As the line implies, she has no reason for being in this movie, other than to be “the girl”. And what a girl she is. Lake is honestly better than McCrea, in a much less endearing role. She plays her role with deft humor and smooth smarts.
“Sullivan’s Travels” is guaranteed to subvert your expectations at one point or another. It almost never goes where you think it will, and even when it does, it is filmed with such striking imagery and edited so seamlessly that it isn’t sappy.
There are, inevitably with a movie of this nature, a few problems in the script. The dialogue is fantastic, but there are many plot contrivances, inexplicable occurrences, and ridiculous scenes of intended slapstick comedy that don’t hold up (that pool scene in particular).
Not a PC movie, for sure, but a worthy one with valuable lessons.
{★★★☆}