It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a Preston Sturges movie but, of those I’ve seen, I’ve rarely been impressed. My memory is that I’ve usually found them tame after years of reading about he was the great satirist of his age. But this one mostly worked for me.

It’s pretty funny from the get go and I found myself laughing much more than I thought I would. Now, some of that probably came from my low expectations but I did laugh a fair amount, especially before he meets The Girl.

Like so many old Hollywood movies, some of it is really silly. One of the silliest moments is the car chase where the movements of the people inside of the “land yacht” just is completely out of touch with what is happening outside the vehicle.

For me, the more serious third act doesn’t work as well as it could have if it had still been played for laughs. I also think there was a missed opportunity to really dig into the class issues in the US with how easily Sullivan gets out of his real legal predicament. (By the way, I thought the sentence was a dream at first, given the way it was shot.) To me, that’s pulling a punch that doesn’t need to be pulled. Yes, there’s the one comment about it but it really needs to be emphasized how absurd it is that he just walks free.

And the ending – and, therefore, the film – feels very much like Sturges’ attempt to defend the charge that he should have been making films like The Grapes of Wrath. I have no idea whether or not that’s something he was personally accused of by critics or whether he just felt guilty, but it really felt that way to me and I haven’t seen The Grapes of Wrath in decades. I’m not super sympathetic. If this film was sharper in its final act, I might be, though.

Anyway, I laughed much more than I thought I would and I did appreciate the overall plot which, for me, stands out among a lot of Hollywood comedies I’ve seen from the era.

7/10