Watch The Lady Eve For Free

Simply Perfect

Memorable, crazy movie

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

NOTES: One of the top 25 box-office hits in the USA/Canada for 1941. Re-made as The Birds and the Bees. Monckton Hoffe was nominated for a prestigious Hollywood award for his Original Story, losing to Here Comes Mr Jordan. COMMENT: For the most part, this is a superlative comedy of manners, wittily directed and beautifully acted. On the debit side, however, it does really need a bit of clever but judicious trimming. For instance, several extremely long, and really overly verbose two-shots between Fonda and Stanwyck, all of them done in a series of one takes, hold up the plot for far too long and are not nearly witty enough to justify their inclusion with such marvelous set-pieces as: Handsome Harry's attempt to win at cards; Pike clamoring for his breakfast; the wedding montage; and the deft scene on the train, brilliantly inter-cut to the strains of Wagner's "Pilgrim's Chorus" and Rossini's "William Tell Overture".

This isn't easy for Henry Fonda, being rather backward with a sole life interest in snakes and other reptiles and being the only son of a multi-millionaire of beer, who wants to get him married at any price with whomever, and so he meets with the worst possible death trap for a bachelor, Barbara Stanwyck at her smartest and loveliest, partnering her father in cheating at cards. Charles Coburn is that father and makes the best of it as another father who wants his daughter married at any price with whomever as long as he is rich. This film was entirely made for fun, and there are many irregularities, but it's the fun that counts. Mind all the whistles. They play an important part symbolically and make the finale. Eric Blore is another bloke cheating the heads off of all society and entering just at the right critical moment to save the situation by doubling the trouble, together with Eugene Palette in on of his many exhilarating performances, making the company of merry rogues complete. Everyone dominating the stage here is a cheat with accomplished faked identities and playing for kicks, except poor Henry Fonda, who is totally honest and innocent and is well taken care of and fares the better off for not understanding a thing. His silliness is adorable throughout the film, and his play-acting as this very odd character is a marvel, matching Barbara's resplendent superiority perfectly. No wonder she has to fall for him, while he just follows her in the fall... The music also plays an important part, and even Wagner's Pilgrim Chorus adds solemnly to the comedy at another of the film's multitude of moments of enjoying hypocrisy.One of the most hilarious comedies of all time, and you can see it many times and still enjoy its freshness.

I realize that the screwball comedy genre has its own kind of logic, but "The Lady Eve" strikes me as having no logic at all. Though well written, which one expects from a Sturges film, I came away with the unsettling sense that the audience was being played for suckers. The turning point in the film appears to be the moment when Hopsie was presented with a photo of Jean and her father as evidence of their swindling career. This can come as no surprise to the audience, which has already seen how the Colonel can turn a five-card nothing into four kings, then four aces. But can a supposed scientist (I forget the proper name for "snake hunter") be so gullible as to fall for his blatant card-sharpery? And when he confronts Jean with the photo, can his sense of betrayal and humiliation really be so shocking to her? Yet this event sends Jean on a completely preposterous crusade of revenge. What exactly is her trick? To pose as an upper-class Brit who, by coincidence, looks exactly like Jean. And though Muggsy, Hopsie's dimwit ward, sees though the imposture immediately, our scientist falls for it, literally and figuratively, in no time.Jean/Eve finally delivers the coup de grace while on their honeymoon -- in a train, of course. As she divulges her numerous supposed dalliances, Sturges intercuts shots of train whistles, lightning and the obligatory tunnel. Maybe this Freudian stuff was novel back in 1941; today it verges on self- parody. Watching Hopsie detrain with a muddy pratfall (one of literally dozens in the film), Eve/Jean seems to have an attack of conscience, as though she's just now realizing he "the only man I ever loved." Stanwyck is sensational, even if her character(s) make no sense at all. William Demarest is very good, and occasionally hilarious, as Muggsy. The whole case, in fact, is first-rate. But Fonda's character is impossible to sympathize with, let alone root for, so improbably clueless and clumsy is Hopsie. Is he really surprised that an English aristocrat is not a virgin (the whole point of the setup)? Is he really so stupid as to fall for a grifter not once, but twice? Yes, evidently he is. It's clear to me that his real element is with the snakes of the Amazon, not those of Connecticut.

This is a tale of love and trickery. About coning and redemption . a man who studies snakes on the amazon fall for a beautiful woman on ship back home. She is a hustler who targets him. but even she cannot help who she falls in love with. love is a funny thing it can change people some times for good other times no so much . But in this case it was for good. They bonded instantly as couples do in these old films. Its kind of corny yet charming because thats how things were back then . I was a simpler time.I always like the stereotypical old movie dynamic a guy a love interest something happens that makes the couple break up. There is a break up period and at the end of the film they find their way back to each other . Its Not all realistic but hey its the movies thats why people pay money to go and see them for a little break from reality . This film gives that to the audience.