Review of The Lady Eve (1941) by Eric R — 06 Aug 2011

The manic archness usually associated with Sturges is hardly anywhere to be seen: this is the Fonda and Stanwyck show, sincere about flirtation, growing sexual attraction, and the possibility of something more besides.

.. The pain - that of having a match burn down to your fingers, an image Sturges tellingly finds room for come the finale - rules out screwball comedy, because these lovers have too much at stake to be breezy, much less funny: the question they ask, and by extension the film asks, is this - to what extent in any given relationship do you allow yourself to be seduced, and possibly made a sucker of? The dinner jackets of the second half feel like a conscious effort to dress up the hurt, yet even here, the protagonist finds himself on shaky ground: Fonda's frequent pratfalls, the way he's constantly dumped upon, serve to describe a hopeless case tumbling against his better nature.

It's not really a surprise, then, how much is left hanging come the end credits: everything that matters on screen is temporary and tenuous, at risk of collapse, as indeed the world might have seemed to cinemagoers who lived through the Depression only to emerge in the late 1930s/early 40s.

It remains one of the great, timeless screen romances - in part because it addresses, in smart, adult fashion, those issues that still threaten to deprive young lovers everywhere of the earthly happiness that is their right.