Review of Sullivan's Travels (1941) by Patrick B — 04 Jun 2009

Sullivan's Travels is a little dated in terms of its humor, but for the most part, it's still a wonderful satire on Hollywood, comedies in general, and the relationship between the rich and poor. Joel McCrea plays John Sullivan, a famous Hollywood director notorious for making throwaway comedies. When he decides to make a serious and meaningful drama about the poor, titled "O Brother Where Art Thou?" the studio heads accuse Sullivan of knowing nothing about the poor, and they think that no audience member would want to see a movie so serious. So Sullivan makes a plan to live as a hobo until he is able to feel the poor man's plight. His life as a hobo is quite funny because every time he runs into a tough situation, he returns to his normal life full of wealth and power to fix it. Along the way, he meets an aspiring actress played beautifully by Veronica Lake. They quickly hit it off and slowly start to fall in love. Oh, but Sullivan is already married to another woman. He married her because it would save him tens of thousands of dollars on his taxes. What's a guy to do? The whole storyline of this is played to great comedic effect. Lake and McCrea sizzle on-screen together, and Sullivan's butlers provide a lot of comedic relief. It kind of reminded me of a French farce where the butlers know all! It was also cool to see that the Coen Brothers referenced this movie in their films. There's a scene where a picture of the "man of the house" keeps changing expressions, similar to the Coens' "The Ladykillers" and the title of "O Brother Where Art Thou?" is used in their 2000 film starring George Clooney. The movie also changes tone to great effect towards the end where Sullivan is actually forced to work as a poor man. We definitely see his change in attitude when he no longer has his "rich man safety net". It's a great contrast to the rest of the film, and definitely helps hit the satirical elements home.

While this movie plays up its cheesiness a bit in a satirical way, there are some instances where I felt it was just cheesy 40s comedy without the satirical overtones. There's an instance where all of the characters in the scene throw each other into the pool (its a little much), and some of Sullivan's lines just come across as pure cheese. It's kind of a forgivable flaw considering this was made 68 years ago, back when comedy was a lot different, but it was just kind of a shame to see that not all of the scenes aged as well as others.

Other than that, this is a wonderful satire that you should definitely check out. I haven't seen Veronica Lake in any other movie so far, but this is supposed to be one of her best roles, and she is just so sexy in this film. Her line delivery is full of sarcasm, and it's just a fun character for her to play. See this film!