Preston Sturges
Encyclopedia
Preston Sturges originally Edmund Preston Biden, was a celebrated playwright, screenwriter
and film director
born in Chicago
, Illinois. In 1941 he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film The Great McGinty
.
Sturges took the screwball comedy
format of the 1930s to another level, writing dialogue that, heard today, is often surprisingly naturalistic, mature, and ahead of its time, despite the farcical situations.
In recent years, film scholars such as Alessandro Pirolini have also argued that Sturges' cinema anticipated more experimental narratives by contemporary directors such as Joel and Ethan Coen, Robert Zemeckis
, and Woody Allen
, along with prolific The Simpsons
writer John Swartzwelder
: "Many of [Sturges'] movies and screenplays reveal a restless and impatient attempt to escape codified rules and narrative schemata, and to push the mechanisms and conventions of their genre to the extent of unveiling them to the spectator. [See for example] the disruption of standardized timelines in films such as The Power and the Glory and The Great McGinty
[or the way] an apparently classical comedy such as Unfaithfully Yours
(1948) shifts into the realm of multiple and hypothetical narratives.
Prior to Sturges, other figures in Hollywood (such as Charlie Chaplin
, D.W. Griffith, and Frank Capra
) had directed films from their own scripts. However, Sturges is often regarded as the first Hollywood figure to be initially mainly successfully established as a screenwriter and then to subsequently move into directing his own scripts, at a time when those roles were mostly entrenched and separate. Famously, Sturges sold the story for The Great McGinty
to Paramount Pictures
for $1, in return for being allowed to direct the film; the sum was quietly raised to $10 by the studio for legal reasons.
When Sturges was three years old, his eccentric mother left America to pursue a singing career in Paris, where she annulled her marriage with Preston's father. Returning to America, Dempsey met her third husband, the wealthy stockbroker
Solomon Sturges, who adopted Preston in 1902. According to biographers, Solomon Sturges was "diametrically opposite to Mary and her bohemianism".
His mother, ultimately known as "Mary Desti" through her fourth marriage, was famous for her friendship with Isadora Duncan
, even giving her the scarf that led to Duncan's freakish death. The young Sturges would sometimes travel from country to country with Duncan's dance company. Mary Desti also carried on a romantic affair with Aleister Crowley
and collaborated with him on his magnum opus Magick (Book 4)
.
As a young man, Preston Sturges bounced back and forth between Europe and the States. In 1916 he worked as a runner for New York stock brokers, a position he obtained through Solomon Sturges. The next year Preston enlisted in the United States Army Air Service
, and graduated as a lieutenant from Camp Dick in Texas
without seeing action. While at camp Sturges wrote an essay titled Three Hundred Words of Humor which was printed in the camp newspaper, becoming his first published work. Returning from camp, Sturges picked up a managing position at the Desti Emporium in New York, a store owned by his mother's fourth husband. He spent eight years (1919–1927) there, until he married the first of his four wives, Estelle De Wolfe.
in Hotbed, a short-lived play by Paul Osborn
, and Sturges' first produced play, The Guinea Pig
, opened in Massachusetts. A success, Sturges moved it to Broadway the following year, a turning point in his career. That same year also saw the opening of Sturges' second play, the hit Strictly Dishonorable
. Written in just six days, the play ran for sixteen months and earned Sturges over $300,000, a staggering amount at the time. It attracted interest from Hollywood, and Sturges was writing for Paramount
by the end of the year.
Three other Sturges stage plays were produced from 1930 to 1932, one of them a musical, but none of them were hits. By the end of the year, he was working more in Hollywood as a writer-for-hire, operating on short contracts, for studios Universal
, MGM, and Columbia
. He also sold his original screenplay for The Power and the Glory (1933) to Fox, where it was filmed as a vehicle for Spencer Tracy
. The film told the story of a self-involved financier via a series of flashbacks and flashforwards, and was an acknowledged source of inspiration for the screenwriters of Citizen Kane
. Fox producer Jesse Lasky paid Sturges $17,500 plus a percentage of the profits, a then-unprecedented deal for a screenwriter, which instantly elevated Sturges' reputation in Hollywood – although the lucrative deal irritated as many as it impressed. Sturges later recalled, "The film made a lot of enemies. Writers at that time worked in teams, like piano movers. And my first solo script was considered a distinct menace to the profession."
For the remainder of the 1930s, Sturges operated under the strict auspices of the studio system, working on a string of scripts, some of which were shelved, sometimes with screen credit and sometimes not. While he was highly paid, earning $2,500 a week, he was unhappy with the way directors were handling his dialogue, and he resolved to take creative control of his own projects. He accomplished this goal in 1939 by offering to sell his screenplay for The Great McGinty
(written six years earlier) to Paramount for a dollar in exchange for the chance to direct it. Paramount's legal department subsequently upped the fee to $10. Sturges' success quickly paved the way for similar deals for such writer-directors as Billy Wilder
and John Huston
. Sturges said, "It's taken me eight years to reach what I wanted. But now, if I don't run out of ideas — and I won't — we'll have some fun. There are some wonderful pictures to be made, and God willing, I will make some of them."
ever given for Writing Original Screenplay for the McGinty script. Perhaps more impressively, Sturges received two screenwriting Oscar nominations in the same year, for 1944's Hail the Conquering Hero
and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
. Critic Andrew Dickos wrote that "the touchstone of Preston Sturges' screenwriting lies in the respect paid to the play and density of verbal language" and "establishes the standard of eloquence as one of poetry, of a cacophony of Euro-American vernacularisms and utterances, peculiarly--and appropriately--spoken with scandalous indifference."
Though he had a 30-year Hollywood career, Sturges' greatest comedies were filmed in a furious 5-year burst of activity from 1939 to 1943, during which he turned out The Great McGinty, Christmas in July
, The Lady Eve
, Sullivan's Travels
, The Palm Beach Story
, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero. Half a century later, four of these films – The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek – were chosen by the American Film Institute
as being among the American Film Institute
's 100 funniest American films
. Their inimitable combination of sentiment and cynicism has kept them fresh for today's audiences.
One of the sources of conflict was that Sturges liked to reuse many of the same character actors in his films, thus creating what amounted to a regular troupe he could call upon within the studio system. Paramount didn't especially appreciate this, fearing that the audience would tire of repeatedly seeing the same faces in Sturges productions. But the director was adamant: "[T]hese little players who had contributed so much to my first hits had a moral right to work in my subsequent pictures."
Members of Sturges' unofficial "stock company"
included George Anderson
, Al Bridge
, Georgia Caine
, Chester Conklin
, Jimmy Conlin
, William Demarest
, Robert Dudley
, Byron Foulger, Robert Greig
, Harry Hayden, Esther Howard
, Arthur Hoyt
, J. Farrell MacDonald
, George Melford
, Torben Meyer
, Charles R. Moore
, Frank Moran
, Jack Norton
, Franklin Pangborn
, Emory Parnell
, Victor Potel
, Dewey Robinson, Harry Rosenthal
, Julius Tannen
, Max Wagner
and Robert Warwick. In addition, Sturges re-used other actors, such as Sig Arno
, Luis Alberni, Eric Blore
, Porter Hall
and Raymond Walburn
, and even stars such as Joel McCrea
and Rudy Vallee
, who both did three films with Sturges, and Eddie Bracken
, who did two.
The prolonged clashes between Sturges and Paramount came to a head as the end of his contract approached. He had filmed The Great Moment
and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek in 1942 and Hail the Conquering Hero in 1943, but Paramount was suffering from a surfeit of films, too many to release at one time. Indeed, some of the studio's finished movies were sold off to United Artists
, who needed product to distribute. The studio held onto Sturges' three films, since he was their star filmmaker at the time, but did not immediately release them. Internally, studio heads expressed serious reservations about them, as did the censors at the Breen Office. Sturges managed to get The Miracle of Morgan's Creek released with only minor changes, but the other two films were taken out of his control and tinkered with by DeSylva. When the revamped Hail the Conquering Hero had a disastrous preview, Paramount allowed Sturges – who by that time had left the studio – to come back and fix the film. Sturges did some rewriting, shot some new scenes, and re-edited the film back to his original vision, all without pay.
Although he was able to rescue Hail the Conquering Hero from studio interference, Sturges was unable to do the same for The Great Moment. The historical biography about the dentist who discovered the use of ether for anesthesia ended up being Sturges' only flop during this period. More significantly, it marked the onset of a downturn from which Sturges did not fully recover.
Millionaire Howard Hughes
, who had formed a friendship with Sturges, offered to bankroll him as an independent filmmaker. In early 1944, Sturges and Hughes formed a partnership called California Pictures. The deal represented a major pay cut for Sturges, but it established him as a writer-producer-director, the only one in Hollywood and one of only three in the world along with England's Noel Coward
and France's René Clair
. The status led, again, to widespread admiration and envy among his Hollywood peers.
However, this career peak also marked the beginning of Sturges' professional decline. While the startup California Pictures was being created and structured, it was three years until Sturges' next release. That film, a Harold Lloyd
vehicle entitled The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
(1947), for which Sturges had coaxed the silent film icon out of retirement, went over budget and far over schedule, and was poorly received when it was released. Hughes, who had promised not to interfere in the film's production, stepped in and pulled the movie from distribution in order to re-edit it, taking almost four years to do so. Released in 1950 by RKO, which was by that time owned by Hughes, the retitled Mad Wednesday was no more successful than Sturges' original version had been.
In the meantime, California Pictures had put another film into production, Vendetta
. At Hughes' behest, Sturges had written the script as a vehicle for Hughes' protegé, Faith Domergue
. Max Ophüls
was hired to direct, but after only a few days of filming, Hughes demanded that Sturges fire Ophüls and take over direction of the film. Seven weeks later, Sturges himself was fired, or quit (accounts differ). The partnership between the two iconoclasts was dissolved, having fallen apart after just one completed picture. As Sturges later recalled, "When Mr. Hughes made suggestions with which I disagreed, as he had a perfect right to do, I rejected them. When I rejected the last one, he remembered he had an option to take control of the company and he took over. So I left."
Coming on the heels of the failure of The Great Moment, these further flops, disappointments and setbacks served to tarnish the once stellar reputation of the golden boy of Hollywood.
Sturges was left professionally adrift. Accepting an offer from Darryl Zanuck, he landed at Fox where he wrote, directed, and produced two films. The first of these, Unfaithfully Yours
(1948), was not well received upon release by either reviewers or the public, though its critical reputation has since improved. However, his second Fox film, The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949), was the first serious flop in star Betty Grable
's career, and Sturges was again on his own. He built a theater at his Players restaurant, but the project did not pan out.
Over the next several years, Sturges continued to write, but many of the projects were underfunded or stillborn, and those that emerged did not approach the same success as his earlier triumphs. His 1951 Broadway musical, Make a Wish
, underwent extensive rewriting by Abe Burrows
and ran for only a few months. His next Broadway project, Carnival in Flanders
, a musical which Sturges wrote and directed in 1953, closed after six performances.
Sturges was having no better luck in Hollywood, where his clout was gone. Katharine Hepburn
, who had starred in the 1952 Broadway production of the George Bernard Shaw
play, The Millionairess
got Sturges to agree to adapt the script and direct. But she could not get a single Hollywood studio to back the project.
A 1953 lien by the Internal Revenue Service
, with whom he'd been having tax problems, cost Sturges the Players and other assets. Sturges put a brave public face on the situation, writing, "I had so very much for so very long, it is quite natural for the pendulum to swing the other way for a while, and I really cannot and will not complain." However, his drinking became heavy, and his marriage and many of his relationships continued to deteriorate.
Sturges began spending more time in Europe, as he had as a young man. His last directorial effort took place there when he wrote and directed Les Carnets du Major Thompson, an adaptation of a popular French novel. The film was released in France in 1955 and two years later in the U.S., under the title The French, They Are a Funny Race
. It failed to register with critics or the audience.
Sturges made four brief onscreen appearances during his career: in two of his own films (Christmas in July
and Sullivan's Travels
), in the Paramount all-star extravaganza Star Spangled Rhythm
, and, in the years of his decline, in the Bob Hope
comedy Paris Holiday
, which was filmed in France and would be the last film he worked on. Two decades earlier, Sturges had been a writer on one of Hope's earliest film successes, Never Say Die
.
Sturges died of a heart attack
at the Algonquin Hotel
while writing his autobiography (which, ironically, he'd intended to title The Events Leading Up to My Death), and was interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery
in Hartsdale, New York
. His book Preston Sturges by Preston Sturges: His Life in His Words was published in 1990 by Simon & Schuster
. In 1975, he became the first writer to be given the Screen Writers Guild's Laurel Award posthumously. He has a star on the Walk of Fame at 1601 Vine Street, Hollywood, California.
(1940), and was subsequently nominated two more times, for The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
and for Hail the Conquering Hero
, both in 1945. The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
(1947) was nominated for the Grand Prize of the 1951 Cannes Film Festival
after it rereleased as Mad Wednesday.
Posthumously, Sturges received the Laurel Award for "Screen Writing Achievement" from the Writers Guild of America
in 1975. He has a star dedicated to him on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
, at 1601 Vine Street.
Films:
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
born in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois. In 1941 he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film The Great McGinty
The Great McGinty
The Great McGinty is a 1940 political satire comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff and featuring William Demarest and Muriel Angelus. It was Sturges's first film as a director; he sold the story to Paramount Pictures for just $10 on condition...
.
Sturges took the screwball comedy
Screwball Comedy
Screwball Comedy is an album by the Japanese band Soul Flower Union. The album found the band going into a simpler, harder-rocking direction, after several heavily world-music influenced albums.-Track listing:...
format of the 1930s to another level, writing dialogue that, heard today, is often surprisingly naturalistic, mature, and ahead of its time, despite the farcical situations.
In recent years, film scholars such as Alessandro Pirolini have also argued that Sturges' cinema anticipated more experimental narratives by contemporary directors such as Joel and Ethan Coen, Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit ,...
, and Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
, along with prolific The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
writer John Swartzwelder
John Swartzwelder
John Swartzwelder is an American comedy writer and novelist, best known for his work on the animated television series The Simpsons, as well as a number of novels. He is credited with writing the largest number of Simpsons episodes by a large margin...
: "Many of [Sturges'] movies and screenplays reveal a restless and impatient attempt to escape codified rules and narrative schemata, and to push the mechanisms and conventions of their genre to the extent of unveiling them to the spectator. [See for example] the disruption of standardized timelines in films such as The Power and the Glory and The Great McGinty
The Great McGinty
The Great McGinty is a 1940 political satire comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff and featuring William Demarest and Muriel Angelus. It was Sturges's first film as a director; he sold the story to Paramount Pictures for just $10 on condition...
[or the way] an apparently classical comedy such as Unfaithfully Yours
Unfaithfully Yours
Unfaithfully Yours is a 1948 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges and starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee and Barbara Lawrence. The film is a black comedy about a man's failed attempt to murder his wife, who he believes has been unfaithful to him...
(1948) shifts into the realm of multiple and hypothetical narratives.
Prior to Sturges, other figures in Hollywood (such as Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
, D.W. Griffith, and Frank Capra
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
) had directed films from their own scripts. However, Sturges is often regarded as the first Hollywood figure to be initially mainly successfully established as a screenwriter and then to subsequently move into directing his own scripts, at a time when those roles were mostly entrenched and separate. Famously, Sturges sold the story for The Great McGinty
The Great McGinty
The Great McGinty is a 1940 political satire comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff and featuring William Demarest and Muriel Angelus. It was Sturges's first film as a director; he sold the story to Paramount Pictures for just $10 on condition...
to Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
for $1, in return for being allowed to direct the film; the sum was quietly raised to $10 by the studio for legal reasons.
Early life
Sturges' parents were Mary Estelle Dempsey and travelling salesman Edmund C. Biden; his maternal grandparents, Catherine Campbell Smyth and Dominick d'Este Dempsey, were immigrants from Ireland.When Sturges was three years old, his eccentric mother left America to pursue a singing career in Paris, where she annulled her marriage with Preston's father. Returning to America, Dempsey met her third husband, the wealthy stockbroker
Stock broker
A stock broker or stockbroker is a regulated professional broker who buys and sells shares and other securities through market makers or Agency Only Firms on behalf of investors...
Solomon Sturges, who adopted Preston in 1902. According to biographers, Solomon Sturges was "diametrically opposite to Mary and her bohemianism".
His mother, ultimately known as "Mary Desti" through her fourth marriage, was famous for her friendship with Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan was a dancer, considered by many to be the creator of modern dance. Born in the United States, she lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. In the United States she was popular only in New York, and only later in her life...
, even giving her the scarf that led to Duncan's freakish death. The young Sturges would sometimes travel from country to country with Duncan's dance company. Mary Desti also carried on a romantic affair with Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...
and collaborated with him on his magnum opus Magick (Book 4)
Magick (Book 4)
Magick, Liber ABA, Book 4 is widely considered to be the magnum opus of 20th century occultist Aleister Crowley, the founder of Thelema...
.
As a young man, Preston Sturges bounced back and forth between Europe and the States. In 1916 he worked as a runner for New York stock brokers, a position he obtained through Solomon Sturges. The next year Preston enlisted in the United States Army Air Service
United States Army Air Service
The Air Service, United States Army was a forerunner of the United States Air Force during and after World War I. It was established as an independent but temporary wartime branch of the War Department by two executive orders of President Woodrow Wilson: on May 24, 1918, replacing the Aviation...
, and graduated as a lieutenant from Camp Dick in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
without seeing action. While at camp Sturges wrote an essay titled Three Hundred Words of Humor which was printed in the camp newspaper, becoming his first published work. Returning from camp, Sturges picked up a managing position at the Desti Emporium in New York, a store owned by his mother's fourth husband. He spent eight years (1919–1927) there, until he married the first of his four wives, Estelle De Wolfe.
From Broadway to Hollywood
In 1928, Sturges performed on BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in Hotbed, a short-lived play by Paul Osborn
Paul Osborn
Paul Osborn was an American playwright and screenwriter best known for writing the screen adaptation of East of Eden as well as South Pacific, The Yearling, The World of Suzie Wong and Sayonara....
, and Sturges' first produced play, The Guinea Pig
The Guinea Pig (play)
The Guinea Pig is a 1929 comedy in three acts by Preston Sturges, his first play to appear on Broadway.The Broadway production was directed by Walter Greenough and produced by Sturges. It opened on 17 January 1929 at the President Theatre, and ran for 64 performances, closing in March of that year....
, opened in Massachusetts. A success, Sturges moved it to Broadway the following year, a turning point in his career. That same year also saw the opening of Sturges' second play, the hit Strictly Dishonorable
Strictly Dishonorable (play)
Strictly Dishonorable is a romantic comedy play written by Preston Sturges and first produced on Broadway in 1929. It has been adapted for the screen twice, first in 1931, then again in 1951...
. Written in just six days, the play ran for sixteen months and earned Sturges over $300,000, a staggering amount at the time. It attracted interest from Hollywood, and Sturges was writing for Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
by the end of the year.
Three other Sturges stage plays were produced from 1930 to 1932, one of them a musical, but none of them were hits. By the end of the year, he was working more in Hollywood as a writer-for-hire, operating on short contracts, for studios Universal
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
, MGM, and Columbia
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
. He also sold his original screenplay for The Power and the Glory (1933) to Fox, where it was filmed as a vehicle for Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...
. The film told the story of a self-involved financier via a series of flashbacks and flashforwards, and was an acknowledged source of inspiration for the screenwriters of Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
. Fox producer Jesse Lasky paid Sturges $17,500 plus a percentage of the profits, a then-unprecedented deal for a screenwriter, which instantly elevated Sturges' reputation in Hollywood – although the lucrative deal irritated as many as it impressed. Sturges later recalled, "The film made a lot of enemies. Writers at that time worked in teams, like piano movers. And my first solo script was considered a distinct menace to the profession."
The Great McGinty
The Great McGinty is a 1940 political satire comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff and featuring William Demarest and Muriel Angelus. It was Sturges's first film as a director; he sold the story to Paramount Pictures for just $10 on condition...
(written six years earlier) to Paramount for a dollar in exchange for the chance to direct it. Paramount's legal department subsequently upped the fee to $10. Sturges' success quickly paved the way for similar deals for such writer-directors as Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
and John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
. Sturges said, "It's taken me eight years to reach what I wanted. But now, if I don't run out of ideas — and I won't — we'll have some fun. There are some wonderful pictures to be made, and God willing, I will make some of them."
Screenwriting heights
Sturges won the first Academy AwardAcademy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
ever given for Writing Original Screenplay for the McGinty script. Perhaps more impressively, Sturges received two screenwriting Oscar nominations in the same year, for 1944's Hail the Conquering Hero
Hail the Conquering Hero
Hail the Conquering Hero is a satirical comedy/drama written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines and William Demarest, and featuring Raymond Walburn, Franklin Pangborn, Elizabeth Patterson and Bill Edwards....
and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek is a 1944 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton, and featuring Diana Lynn, William Demarest and Porter Hall...
. Critic Andrew Dickos wrote that "the touchstone of Preston Sturges' screenwriting lies in the respect paid to the play and density of verbal language" and "establishes the standard of eloquence as one of poetry, of a cacophony of Euro-American vernacularisms and utterances, peculiarly--and appropriately--spoken with scandalous indifference."
Though he had a 30-year Hollywood career, Sturges' greatest comedies were filmed in a furious 5-year burst of activity from 1939 to 1943, during which he turned out The Great McGinty, Christmas in July
Christmas in July
Christmas in July refers to Christmas-themed celebrations held in July.In the northern hemisphere some people throw parties during July that mimic Christmas celebrations, bringing the atmosphere of Christmas but with warmer temperatures. Parties may include Santa Claus, ice cream and other cold...
, The Lady Eve
The Lady Eve
The Lady Eve is a 1941 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. The film is based on a story by Monckton Hoffe about a mismatched couple who meet on board a luxury liner...
, Sullivan's Travels
Sullivan's Travels
Sullivan's Travels is a 1941 American comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges. It is a satire about a movie director, played by Joel McCrea, who longs to make a socially relevant drama, but eventually learns that comedies are his more valuable contribution to society. The film features...
, The Palm Beach Story
The Palm Beach Story
The Palm Beach Story is a 1942 romantic screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallée. Victor Young contributed the lively musical score, including a fast-paced variation of William Tell Overture for the...
, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero. Half a century later, four of these films – The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek – were chosen by the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
as being among the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
's 100 funniest American films
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs
Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs is a list of the top 100 funniest movies in American cinema. A wide variety of comedies were nominated for the distinction that included slapstick comedy, screwball comedy, romantic comedy, satire, black comedy, musical comedy, comedy of...
. Their inimitable combination of sentiment and cynicism has kept them fresh for today's audiences.
Studio battles
Production on these films did not always go smoothly. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek was literally being written by Sturges at night even as the production was being filmed in the daytime, and Sturges the screenwriter was rarely more than 10 pages ahead of the cast and crew. Despite box office success for The Lady Eve and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, conflict with Paramount's studio bosses increased. In particular, executive producer Buddy DeSylva never really trusted his star writer-director and was wary (and arguably, jealous) of the independence Sturges enjoyed on his projects.One of the sources of conflict was that Sturges liked to reuse many of the same character actors in his films, thus creating what amounted to a regular troupe he could call upon within the studio system. Paramount didn't especially appreciate this, fearing that the audience would tire of repeatedly seeing the same faces in Sturges productions. But the director was adamant: "[T]hese little players who had contributed so much to my first hits had a moral right to work in my subsequent pictures."
Preston Sturges Unofficial Stock Company Actors
Actors who frequently worked with film director Preston Sturges: !! Christmas in July !! The Lady Eve !! Sullivan's Travels !! The Palm Beach Story !! The Miracle of Morgan's Creek !! Hail the Conquering Hero !! The Great Moment !! The Sin of Harold Diddlebock !! Unfaithfully Yours !! The...
included George Anderson
George Anderson (actor)
George Anderson was an American stage and film actor who appeared in 74 films and 25 Broadway productions in his 34 year career.-Career:...
, Al Bridge
Al Bridge
Al Bridge was an American character actor who played mostly small roles in over 270 films between 1931 and 1954...
, Georgia Caine
Georgia Caine
Georgia Caine was an American actress who performed both on Broadway and in over 80 films in her 51 year career.-Early career:...
, Chester Conklin
Chester Conklin
Chester Cooper Conklin was an American comedian and actor. He appeared in over 280 films, about half of them in the silent era.-Early life:...
, Jimmy Conlin
Jimmy Conlin
Jimmy Conlin was an American character actor who appeared in almost 150 films in his 32 year career.-Career:...
, William Demarest
William Demarest
Carl William Demarest was an American character actor. He frequently played crusty but good-hearted roles.-Early life and career:...
, Robert Dudley
Robert Dudley (actor)
Robert Dudley , born Robert Y. Dudley in Cincinnati, Ohio, was a dentist turned film character actor who, in his 35-year career, appeared in over 115 films.-Career:...
, Byron Foulger, Robert Greig
Robert Greig (actor)
Robert Greig was an Australian-American actor who appeared in over 100 films between 1930 and 1949, usually as the dutiful butler.-Career:...
, Harry Hayden, Esther Howard
Esther Howard
Esther Howard was a film character actress who played a wide range of supporting roles, from man-hungry spinsters to amoral criminals, appearing in over 100 movies in her 23-year film career.-Career:...
, Arthur Hoyt
Arthur Hoyt
Arthur Hoyt was an American film character actor who appeared in more than 275 films in his 34 year film career, about a third of them silent films. He was a brother of Harry O...
, J. Farrell MacDonald
J. Farrell MacDonald
Joseph Farrell MacDonald was an American character actor and director. He played supporting roles and occasional leads. MacDonald, who was sometimes billed as "John Farrell Macdonald", "J.F...
, George Melford
George Melford
George H. Melford was an American stage and film actor, director, producer, and screenwriter.-Career:...
, Torben Meyer
Torben Meyer
Torben Emil Meyer was a Danish character actor who appeared in over 190 films in a 55-year career.-Early career:...
, Charles R. Moore
Charles R. Moore
Charles R. Moore was an African-American actor who appeared in over 100 films in his acting career, and was sometimes credited as Charles Moore or Charlie Moore Moore played small parts such as servants, bootblacks, elevator operators, menial laborers, and, especially, railroad porters and Red Caps...
, Frank Moran
Frank Moran
Charles Francis "Frank" Moran was an American boxer and film actor who fought twice for the Heavyweight Championship of the World, and appeared in over 135 movies in a 25 year film career.-Sports career:...
, Jack Norton
Jack Norton
Jack Norton , was a mustachio'd American stage and film character actor who appeared in 184 films between 1934 and 1948, often playing drunks, although in real life he was a teetotaler.-Career:...
, Franklin Pangborn
Franklin Pangborn
Franklin Pangborn was an American comedic character actor. Pangborn was famous for small, but memorable roles, with a comic flair. He appeared in many Preston Sturges movies as well as the W.C. Fields films International House, The Bank Dick, and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break...
, Emory Parnell
Emory Parnell
Emory Parnell was an American vaudevillian and actor who appeared in over 250 films in his 36 year career...
, Victor Potel
Victor Potel
Victor Potel was an American film character actor who began in the silent era and appeared in over 430 films in his 38 year career.-Career:...
, Dewey Robinson, Harry Rosenthal
Harry Rosenthal
Harry Rosenthal was an orchestra leader, composer, pianist and actor.- Biography :Rosenthal was born in Belfast in 1893, and by the 1920s he was in London where he had a thriving musical career as a composer, bandleader and pianist, including composing five operettas which met with great success...
, Julius Tannen
Julius Tannen
Julius Tannen was a comedian – or monologist, as those of his era were known – who had a long and successful career in vaudeville. He was known to stage audiences for his witty improvisations and creative word games...
, Max Wagner
Max Wagner
Max Wagner was a Mexican-born American film actor who specialized in playing small parts such as thugs, gangsters, sailors, henchmen, bodyguards, cab drivers and moving men, appearing in over 300 films in his career, most without receiving screen credit...
and Robert Warwick. In addition, Sturges re-used other actors, such as Sig Arno
Sig Arno
Sig Arno was a German-Jewish film actor who appeared in such films as Pardon My Sarong, and The Mummy's Tomb...
, Luis Alberni, Eric Blore
Eric Blore
Eric Blore was an English comic actor. Blore was born in Finchley , England.Aged eighteeen, he worked as an insurance agent for two years. He gained theatre experience while touring Australia. Originally enlisting into the Artists Rifles he was commissioned in the South Wales Borderers in World...
, Porter Hall
Porter Hall
Porter Hall was an American character actor known for appearing in a number of films in the 1930s and 1940s...
and Raymond Walburn
Raymond Walburn
Raymond Walburn was an American character actor who appeared in dozens of Hollywood comedies and an occasional dramatic role during the 1930s and 1940s.-Life and career:...
, and even stars such as Joel McCrea
Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
and Rudy Vallee
Rudy Vallée
Rudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
, who both did three films with Sturges, and Eddie Bracken
Eddie Bracken
Edward Vincent "Eddie" Bracken was an American actor.-Life and career:Bracken was born in Astoria, New York, the son of Catherine and Joseph L. Bracken. Bracken performed in vaudeville at the age of nine and gained fame with the Broadway musical Too Many Girls in a role he reprised for the 1940...
, who did two.
The prolonged clashes between Sturges and Paramount came to a head as the end of his contract approached. He had filmed The Great Moment
The Great Moment (1944 film)
The Great Moment is a 1944 biographical film written and directed by Preston Sturges. Based on the book The Triumph Over Pain by René Fülöp-Miller, it tells the story of Dr. William Thomas Green Morton, a 19th century Boston dentist who discovered the use of ether as an anesthetic...
and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek in 1942 and Hail the Conquering Hero in 1943, but Paramount was suffering from a surfeit of films, too many to release at one time. Indeed, some of the studio's finished movies were sold off to United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
, who needed product to distribute. The studio held onto Sturges' three films, since he was their star filmmaker at the time, but did not immediately release them. Internally, studio heads expressed serious reservations about them, as did the censors at the Breen Office. Sturges managed to get The Miracle of Morgan's Creek released with only minor changes, but the other two films were taken out of his control and tinkered with by DeSylva. When the revamped Hail the Conquering Hero had a disastrous preview, Paramount allowed Sturges – who by that time had left the studio – to come back and fix the film. Sturges did some rewriting, shot some new scenes, and re-edited the film back to his original vision, all without pay.
Although he was able to rescue Hail the Conquering Hero from studio interference, Sturges was unable to do the same for The Great Moment. The historical biography about the dentist who discovered the use of ether for anesthesia ended up being Sturges' only flop during this period. More significantly, it marked the onset of a downturn from which Sturges did not fully recover.
Independence and decline
Sturges was a temperamental talent who fully recognized his own worth. He had invested in entrepreneurial projects such as an engineering company and The Players, a popular restaurant and nightclub, which were both net losses. At one point the third highest paid man in America - for writing, directing, producing, and numerous other Hollywood projects - he was often known to borrow money (from his stepfather and studio, amongst others).Millionaire Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
, who had formed a friendship with Sturges, offered to bankroll him as an independent filmmaker. In early 1944, Sturges and Hughes formed a partnership called California Pictures. The deal represented a major pay cut for Sturges, but it established him as a writer-producer-director, the only one in Hollywood and one of only three in the world along with England's Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
and France's René Clair
René Clair
René Clair born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker.-Biography:He was born in Paris and grew up in the Les Halles quarter. He attended the Lycée Montaigne and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. During World War I, he served as an ambulance driver. After the war, he started a career as a journalist...
. The status led, again, to widespread admiration and envy among his Hollywood peers.
However, this career peak also marked the beginning of Sturges' professional decline. While the startup California Pictures was being created and structured, it was three years until Sturges' next release. That film, a Harold Lloyd
Harold Lloyd
Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies....
vehicle entitled The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock is a 1947 comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring the silent film comic icon Harold Lloyd, and featuring Jimmy Conlin, Raymond Walburn, Rudy Vallee, Arline Judge, Edgar Kennedy, Franklin Pangborn and Lionel Stander...
(1947), for which Sturges had coaxed the silent film icon out of retirement, went over budget and far over schedule, and was poorly received when it was released. Hughes, who had promised not to interfere in the film's production, stepped in and pulled the movie from distribution in order to re-edit it, taking almost four years to do so. Released in 1950 by RKO, which was by that time owned by Hughes, the retitled Mad Wednesday was no more successful than Sturges' original version had been.
In the meantime, California Pictures had put another film into production, Vendetta
Vendetta (1950 film)
Vendetta is a 1950 film based on the 1840 novella Colomba by Prosper Mérimée, about a young Corsican girl who pushes her brother to kill to avenge their father's murder....
. At Hughes' behest, Sturges had written the script as a vehicle for Hughes' protegé, Faith Domergue
Faith Domergue
-Early life and career:Born in New Orleans, Domergue was adopted by Adabelle Wemet when she was six weeks old . Adabelle married Leo Domergue in 1926, when Faith was 18 months old. The family moved to California in 1928 where Domergue attended Beverly Hills Catholic School and St...
. Max Ophüls
Max Ophüls
Maximillian Oppenheimer — known as Max Ophüls — was an influential German-born film director who worked in Germany , France , the United States , and France again...
was hired to direct, but after only a few days of filming, Hughes demanded that Sturges fire Ophüls and take over direction of the film. Seven weeks later, Sturges himself was fired, or quit (accounts differ). The partnership between the two iconoclasts was dissolved, having fallen apart after just one completed picture. As Sturges later recalled, "When Mr. Hughes made suggestions with which I disagreed, as he had a perfect right to do, I rejected them. When I rejected the last one, he remembered he had an option to take control of the company and he took over. So I left."
Coming on the heels of the failure of The Great Moment, these further flops, disappointments and setbacks served to tarnish the once stellar reputation of the golden boy of Hollywood.
Sturges was left professionally adrift. Accepting an offer from Darryl Zanuck, he landed at Fox where he wrote, directed, and produced two films. The first of these, Unfaithfully Yours
Unfaithfully Yours
Unfaithfully Yours is a 1948 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges and starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee and Barbara Lawrence. The film is a black comedy about a man's failed attempt to murder his wife, who he believes has been unfaithful to him...
(1948), was not well received upon release by either reviewers or the public, though its critical reputation has since improved. However, his second Fox film, The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949), was the first serious flop in star Betty Grable
Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
's career, and Sturges was again on his own. He built a theater at his Players restaurant, but the project did not pan out.
Over the next several years, Sturges continued to write, but many of the projects were underfunded or stillborn, and those that emerged did not approach the same success as his earlier triumphs. His 1951 Broadway musical, Make a Wish
Make a Wish (musical)
Make a Wish is a musical with a book by Preston Sturges and Abe Burrows, who was not credited, and music and lyrics by Hugh Martin.Based on Sturges' screenplay for the 1935 film The Good Fairy, which in turn is based on the play of the same name by Ferenc Molnár as translated by Jane Hinton, the...
, underwent extensive rewriting by Abe Burrows
Abe Burrows
Abe Burrows was a Tony and Pulitzer-winning American humorist, author, and director for radio and the stage.-Early years:...
and ran for only a few months. His next Broadway project, Carnival in Flanders
Carnival in Flanders (musical)
Carnival in Flanders is a 1953 musical with a book by Preston Sturges, lyrics by Johnny Burke, and music by Jimmy Van Heusen.Based on the 1934 French comedy film La Kermesse Héroïque, it is set in 1616 in the small Flemish village of Flackenburg, where a Spanish duke and his entourage descend upon...
, a musical which Sturges wrote and directed in 1953, closed after six performances.
Sturges was having no better luck in Hollywood, where his clout was gone. Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
, who had starred in the 1952 Broadway production of the George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
play, The Millionairess
The Millionairess
The Millionairess is a 1960 British romantic comedy film set in London, directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers...
got Sturges to agree to adapt the script and direct. But she could not get a single Hollywood studio to back the project.
A 1953 lien by the Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
, with whom he'd been having tax problems, cost Sturges the Players and other assets. Sturges put a brave public face on the situation, writing, "I had so very much for so very long, it is quite natural for the pendulum to swing the other way for a while, and I really cannot and will not complain." However, his drinking became heavy, and his marriage and many of his relationships continued to deteriorate.
Sturges began spending more time in Europe, as he had as a young man. His last directorial effort took place there when he wrote and directed Les Carnets du Major Thompson, an adaptation of a popular French novel. The film was released in France in 1955 and two years later in the U.S., under the title The French, They Are a Funny Race
The French, They Are a Funny Race
The French, They Are a Funny Race, known in France as Les Carnets du Major Thompson and in the U.K. as The Diary of Major Thompson, is a 1955 comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, based on the novel by Pierre Daninos...
. It failed to register with critics or the audience.
Sturges made four brief onscreen appearances during his career: in two of his own films (Christmas in July
Christmas in July
Christmas in July refers to Christmas-themed celebrations held in July.In the northern hemisphere some people throw parties during July that mimic Christmas celebrations, bringing the atmosphere of Christmas but with warmer temperatures. Parties may include Santa Claus, ice cream and other cold...
and Sullivan's Travels
Sullivan's Travels
Sullivan's Travels is a 1941 American comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges. It is a satire about a movie director, played by Joel McCrea, who longs to make a socially relevant drama, but eventually learns that comedies are his more valuable contribution to society. The film features...
), in the Paramount all-star extravaganza Star Spangled Rhythm
Star Spangled Rhythm
Star Spangled Rhythm is a 1943 all-star cast musical film made by Paramount Pictures during World War II as a morale booster. Many of the Hollywood studios produced such films during the war, generally musicals, frequently with flimsy storylines, and with the specific intent of entertaining the...
, and, in the years of his decline, in the Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
comedy Paris Holiday
Paris Holiday
Paris Holiday is a 1958 comedy film starring Bob Hope, which was directed by Gerd Oswald, and written by Edmund Beloin, who was Hope's attorney, and Dean Riesner from a story by Hope. The film also features French comedian Fernandel, Anita Ekberg and Martha Hyer, and a rare appearance by...
, which was filmed in France and would be the last film he worked on. Two decades earlier, Sturges had been a writer on one of Hope's earliest film successes, Never Say Die
Never Say Die (1939 film)
Never Say Die is a 1939 romantic comedy film starring Martha Raye and Bob Hope. Based on a play of the same title by William H. Post and William Collier, which ran on Broadway for 151 performances in 1912, the film was directed by Elliot Nugent and written for the screen by Dan Hartman, Frank...
.
Family and death
Sturges was married four times and fathered three children:- Estelle deWolfe Mudge – married in December 1923, separated in 1927, divorced in 1928
- Eleanor Close Hutton (a daughter of Marjorie Merriweather (Post) Close Hutton Davies May) – eloped on April 12, 1930, marriage annulled on April 12, 1932
- Louise Sargent Tevis – married on November 7, 1938 in Reno, NevadaReno, NevadaReno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
, separated in April 1946, divorced in November 1947- son: Solomon Sturges IV (b. June 25, 1941) - actor
- Anne Margaret "Sandy" Nagle (a lawyer and former actress) – married on April 15, 1951, marriage ended in 1959 with Sturges' death, mother of his two younger sons
- son: Preston Sturges Jr. (b. February 22, 1953) - screenwriter
- son: Thomas Preston Sturges (b. June 22, 1956) - music executive
Sturges died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
at the Algonquin Hotel
Algonquin Hotel
The Algonquin Hotel is a historic hotel located at 59 West 44th Street in Manhattan . The hotel has been designated as a New York City Historic Landmark....
while writing his autobiography (which, ironically, he'd intended to title The Events Leading Up to My Death), and was interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery
Ferncliff Cemetery
Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum is located on Secor Road in the hamlet of Hartsdale, town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, about 25 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. It was founded in 1902, and is non-sectarian...
in Hartsdale, New York
Hartsdale, New York
Hartsdale is a hamlet and a census-designated place located in the town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York. The population was 5,293 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Hartsdale is located at ....
. His book Preston Sturges by Preston Sturges: His Life in His Words was published in 1990 by Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
. In 1975, he became the first writer to be given the Screen Writers Guild's Laurel Award posthumously. He has a star on the Walk of Fame at 1601 Vine Street, Hollywood, California.
Partial filmography
- The Power and the Glory (writer only) (1933)
- The Good FairyThe Good Fairy (film)The Good Fairy is a 1935 romantic comedy film written by Preston Sturges, based on the 1930 play A jó tündér by Ferenc Molnár as translated and adapted by Jane Hinton, which was produced on Broadway in 1931...
(writer only) (1935) - Diamond JimDiamond JimDiamond Jim is a 1935 biographical film based on the published biography Diamond Jim Brady by Parker Morell. It follows the life of legendary entrepreneur James Buchanan Brady, including his romance with entertainer Lillian Russell, and stars Edward Arnold, Jean Arthur, Cesar Romero and Binnie...
(writer only) (1935) - Easy Living (writer only) (1937)
- If I Were KingIf I Were KingIf I Were King is a 1938 American biographical historical drama film starring Ronald Colman as medieval poet François Villon, and featuring Basil Rathbone and Frances Dee...
(writer only) (1938) - Remember the NightRemember the NightRemember the Night is a 1940 American romantic comedy/drama Christmas film directed by Mitchell Leisen, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray...
(writer only) (1940) - The Great McGintyThe Great McGintyThe Great McGinty is a 1940 political satire comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff and featuring William Demarest and Muriel Angelus. It was Sturges's first film as a director; he sold the story to Paramount Pictures for just $10 on condition...
(1940) - Christmas in JulyChristmas in July (film)Christmas in July is a 1940 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges based on his 1931 play A Cup of Coffee. It was Sturges' second film as writer-director, after The Great McGinty, and stars Dick Powell and Ellen Drew....
(1940) - The Lady EveThe Lady EveThe Lady Eve is a 1941 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. The film is based on a story by Monckton Hoffe about a mismatched couple who meet on board a luxury liner...
(1941) - Sullivan's TravelsSullivan's TravelsSullivan's Travels is a 1941 American comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges. It is a satire about a movie director, played by Joel McCrea, who longs to make a socially relevant drama, but eventually learns that comedies are his more valuable contribution to society. The film features...
(1941) - The Palm Beach StoryThe Palm Beach StoryThe Palm Beach Story is a 1942 romantic screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallée. Victor Young contributed the lively musical score, including a fast-paced variation of William Tell Overture for the...
(1942) - The Miracle of Morgan's CreekThe Miracle of Morgan's CreekThe Miracle of Morgan's Creek is a 1944 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton, and featuring Diana Lynn, William Demarest and Porter Hall...
(filmed 1942, released 1944) - Hail the Conquering HeroHail the Conquering HeroHail the Conquering Hero is a satirical comedy/drama written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines and William Demarest, and featuring Raymond Walburn, Franklin Pangborn, Elizabeth Patterson and Bill Edwards....
(1944) - The Great MomentThe Great Moment (1944 film)The Great Moment is a 1944 biographical film written and directed by Preston Sturges. Based on the book The Triumph Over Pain by René Fülöp-Miller, it tells the story of Dr. William Thomas Green Morton, a 19th century Boston dentist who discovered the use of ether as an anesthetic...
(filmed 1942, released 1944) - The Sin of Harold DiddlebockThe Sin of Harold DiddlebockThe Sin of Harold Diddlebock is a 1947 comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring the silent film comic icon Harold Lloyd, and featuring Jimmy Conlin, Raymond Walburn, Rudy Vallee, Arline Judge, Edgar Kennedy, Franklin Pangborn and Lionel Stander...
(Mad Wednesday) (1947/1950) - Unfaithfully YoursUnfaithfully YoursUnfaithfully Yours is a 1948 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges and starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee and Barbara Lawrence. The film is a black comedy about a man's failed attempt to murder his wife, who he believes has been unfaithful to him...
(1948) - The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful BendThe Beautiful Blonde from Bashful BendThe Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend is a 1949 romantic comedy Western film starring Betty Grable and featuring Cesar Romero and Rudy Vallee...
(1949) - The French, They Are a Funny RaceThe French, They Are a Funny RaceThe French, They Are a Funny Race, known in France as Les Carnets du Major Thompson and in the U.K. as The Diary of Major Thompson, is a 1955 comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, based on the novel by Pierre Daninos...
(Les carnets du Major Thompson) (1955)
Awards and honors
Sturges won an Academy Award for the original screenplay for The Great McGintyThe Great McGinty
The Great McGinty is a 1940 political satire comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff and featuring William Demarest and Muriel Angelus. It was Sturges's first film as a director; he sold the story to Paramount Pictures for just $10 on condition...
(1940), and was subsequently nominated two more times, for The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek is a 1944 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton, and featuring Diana Lynn, William Demarest and Porter Hall...
and for Hail the Conquering Hero
Hail the Conquering Hero
Hail the Conquering Hero is a satirical comedy/drama written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines and William Demarest, and featuring Raymond Walburn, Franklin Pangborn, Elizabeth Patterson and Bill Edwards....
, both in 1945. The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock is a 1947 comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring the silent film comic icon Harold Lloyd, and featuring Jimmy Conlin, Raymond Walburn, Rudy Vallee, Arline Judge, Edgar Kennedy, Franklin Pangborn and Lionel Stander...
(1947) was nominated for the Grand Prize of the 1951 Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
after it rereleased as Mad Wednesday.
Posthumously, Sturges received the Laurel Award for "Screen Writing Achievement" from the Writers Guild of America
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
in 1975. He has a star dedicated to him on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
, at 1601 Vine Street.
Adaptations
- Three of Sturges' films, Christmas in July, The Great McGinty and Remember the Night, were restaged for NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Lux Video Theater. - The 1956 George Gobel movie The Birds and the BeesThe Birds and the Bees (film)The Birds and the Bees is a 1956 screwball comedy film with songs, starring George Gobel, Mitzi Gaynor and David Niven. A remake of Preston Sturges' 1941 film The Lady Eve, which was based on a story by Monckton Hoffe, the film was directed by Norman Taurog and written by Sidney...
was a remake of The Lady EveThe Lady EveThe Lady Eve is a 1941 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. The film is based on a story by Monckton Hoffe about a mismatched couple who meet on board a luxury liner...
. Paul Jones produced both movies. - The 1958 Jerry LewisJerry LewisJerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
vehicle Rock-A-Bye Baby was loosely based on Sturges' The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. - The 1984 Dudley MooreDudley MooreDudley Stuart John Moore, CBE was an English actor, comedian, composer and musician.Moore first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in the ground-breaking comedy revue Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s, and then became famous as half of the highly popular television...
feature Unfaithfully YoursUnfaithfully YoursUnfaithfully Yours is a 1948 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges and starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee and Barbara Lawrence. The film is a black comedy about a man's failed attempt to murder his wife, who he believes has been unfaithful to him...
was a remake of Sturges' 1948 original.
Published screenplays
- Five Screenplays (ISBN 0-520-05564-0) collects The Great McGintyThe Great McGintyThe Great McGinty is a 1940 political satire comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff and featuring William Demarest and Muriel Angelus. It was Sturges's first film as a director; he sold the story to Paramount Pictures for just $10 on condition...
, Christmas in JulyChristmas in JulyChristmas in July refers to Christmas-themed celebrations held in July.In the northern hemisphere some people throw parties during July that mimic Christmas celebrations, bringing the atmosphere of Christmas but with warmer temperatures. Parties may include Santa Claus, ice cream and other cold...
, The Lady EveThe Lady EveThe Lady Eve is a 1941 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. The film is based on a story by Monckton Hoffe about a mismatched couple who meet on board a luxury liner...
, Sullivan's TravelsSullivan's TravelsSullivan's Travels is a 1941 American comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges. It is a satire about a movie director, played by Joel McCrea, who longs to make a socially relevant drama, but eventually learns that comedies are his more valuable contribution to society. The film features...
, and Hail the Conquering HeroHail the Conquering HeroHail the Conquering Hero is a satirical comedy/drama written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines and William Demarest, and featuring Raymond Walburn, Franklin Pangborn, Elizabeth Patterson and Bill Edwards.... - Four More Screenplays (ISBN 0-520-20365-8) collects The Miracle of Morgan's CreekThe Miracle of Morgan's CreekThe Miracle of Morgan's Creek is a 1944 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton, and featuring Diana Lynn, William Demarest and Porter Hall...
, The Palm Beach StoryThe Palm Beach StoryThe Palm Beach Story is a 1942 romantic screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallée. Victor Young contributed the lively musical score, including a fast-paced variation of William Tell Overture for the...
, Unfaithfully YoursUnfaithfully YoursUnfaithfully Yours is a 1948 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges and starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee and Barbara Lawrence. The film is a black comedy about a man's failed attempt to murder his wife, who he believes has been unfaithful to him...
, and The Great MomentThe Great Moment (1944 film)The Great Moment is a 1944 biographical film written and directed by Preston Sturges. Based on the book The Triumph Over Pain by René Fülöp-Miller, it tells the story of Dr. William Thomas Green Morton, a 19th century Boston dentist who discovered the use of ether as an anesthetic... - Three More Screenplays (ISBN 0-520-21004-2) collects The Power and the Glory, Remember the NightRemember the NightRemember the Night is a 1940 American romantic comedy/drama Christmas film directed by Mitchell Leisen, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray...
, and Easy Living
External links
- Official Preston Sturges Site
- Preston Sturges at Film Reference
- Preston Sturges at Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
- Preston Sturges at American MastersAmerican MastersAmerican Masters is a PBS television show which produces biographies on the artists, actors and writers of the United States who have left a profound impact on the nation's popular culture. It is produced by WNET in New York City...
- Preston Sturges bibliography at UC Berkeley Media Resources Center
- Preston Sturges: Film-maker
- Preston Sturges at MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
- Preston Sturges at Reel Classics
Films: