Oh, That Sturgis...

Sullivan's Travels - (B+) I can't believe I haven't seen any of Preston Sturgis' movies before now. I've really been missing out. I've known about the plot of Sullivan's Travels for some time now, and the premise (man of privilege goes amongst the poor to better understand their suffering) seemed really pedestrian to me. However, upon viewing it, I've had the pleasure of discovering Sturgis' dialogue is really top rate. Consider this monologue from Sullivan's butler:

Burrows: 'You see, sir, rich people and theorists - who are usually rich people - think of poverty in the negative, as the lack of riches - as disease might be called the lack of health. But it isn't, sir. Poverty is not the lack of anything, but a positive plague, virulent in itself, contagious as cholera, with filth, criminality, vice and despair as only a few of its symptoms. It is to be stayed away from, even for purposes of study. It is to be shunned. '

Methinks there's a hint of G.B. Shaw in Sturgis' script...

And in watching the movie, I realized that the premise is not, "Director of light comedies goes amongst the poor to better understand their suffering, and then translates their suffering into great ART." but rather, "Member of the privileged class spends two-thirds of the film attempting to pretend he's poor, fails miserably, meets a perfectly lovely woman with whom he can share his life of privilege with, attempts a humanitarian act of compassion, said act indirectly lands him in a genuinely terrible position in life, and realizes that not only was his butler right all along, but the best thing for him to do is to keep making light comedies." It's light satire. These days, light satire falls along the lines of 'Idiotcrasy', which was so wrong-headed in its approach that Fox, of all studios, buried it.

I gave it a 'B+', because in my need to nitpick, it seems Sullivan's fall from grace is too short, and his rescue seems more like an act of deux et machina than an actual plot point. I suppose Sturgis had to wrap it up at that point for time considerations, though. Ha! I am now the only person in history to not make the comparison between the title of Sullivan's 'important' film and the Coen brothers...

Er...