Watch The Good Fairy For Free

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I am shocked at how many reviews on this site give all the credit to Preston Sturges. Are they influenced by a bunch of French critics who have declared the great WILLIAM WYLER out of fashion? Few, if any, directors have made so many outstanding movies. His 'crime' seems to be crossing the genre line, and not putting himself in every frame! Here we find him in fine comic 1935 form. Wyler's aim was always to do justice to his subject. It can be no surprise, therefore, that he's influenced by the daft and hilarious Sturges script. Wyler translates this into an hilariously daft and totally charming movie. Always a great director of actors, he once again leads his cast to memorable performances. Sullavan, unusually delightful: Marshall, unexpectedly funny and miles from his other Wyler roles (The Letter, The Little Foxes): bumbling, hilarious Morgan: beautifully daft Owen, and a madcap drunk act by Blore. The WYLER touch and the STURGES craziness combine beautifully in this unfairly neglected comic gem.

'The Good Fairy' and 'Easy Living' (with Jean Arthur) are the two finest screenplays Preston Sturges wrote before he started directing his own work. Working from a Hungarian farce (a national flavor of playwriting that was the basis for many of Ernst Lubitsch's best movies), Sturges polished the plot and stuffed it with his inimitable comic dialogue. Directed with quiet confidence by William Wyler and cast with Margaret Sullavan (not the most sparkling comedienne, but perfectly capable) surrounded by top-notch actors, including Herbert Marshall (a superb and appallingly under-appreciated actor -- his effortless comic timing nails every line of this, "Trouble in Paradise", and "If You Could Only Cook") and Frank Morgan (best known as the Wizard of Oz, but also great in "The Shop Around the Corner"). All in all, a comic gem from the 1930s.

I'm a fan of Preston Sturges, and I was brought to this movie by his screenplay credit, not knowing if that would be enough to make this a movie I was going to enjoy. GOOD NEWS! This movie is a real joy from start to finish.From the outset the humour was quite subtle, and the sophisticated dialogue sounded very modern. Clearly, although this Sturges script isn't served by Sturges direction, this is still a Preston Sturges movie. And the script is backed up by sympathetic direction from William Wyler and the performances of the lead players. In particular Margaret Sullavan is fresh and funny as the fish-out-of-water naive young girl leaving her orphanage to join the outside world, determined to do a good deed every day... to be a Good Fairy to somebody.Unfortunately the lies she feels she has to tell, and the resulting problems she's willing to face, lead her into digging a deeper and deeper hole for herself, and into dragging other characters into the hole with her. Those other characters are the Sturges eccentrics we know from his acclaimed movies of later years. The scenes with Frank Morgan and Reginald Owen shouting at each other with Sullavan between them are fabulous. Herbert Marshall is also good, but he or his character can not match the same level of lunacy.Now I've seen this, I just hope it won't be long before I can get to see "Easy Living", the next comedy that Preston Sturges was able to write and exert the same level of influence over.

Don't let the title or director give you the wrong idea; THE GOOD FAIRY is a snappy and sophisticated example of the kind of civilized lunacy for which screenwriter (and later director) Preston Sturges became so well-known. Yes, it's adapted from a Hungarian play, and yes, it's directed by William Wyler, but Sturges' creative influence is evident - even dominant - throughout. Though Wyler did make the occasional foray into lighter material ("Roman Holiday," "How To Steal a Million"), he's mostly associated with intelligent drama, and here one can almost sense idea man Sturges lurking just behind him, whispering, "Hey, Willie, how about this....?" There's so much about this picture that is prototypical of later Sturges classics such as "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" and "Unfaithfully Yours." Indeed, THE GOOD FAIRY utilizes a plot device that was later modified for "The Palm Beach Story," wherein Claudette Colbert tries to get a millionaire to enrich her husband by pretending he's not her husband. Here, Margaret Sullavan tries to get a millionaire to enrich a complete stranger by pretending the stranger IS her husband. Only Sturges could make such near-insanity seem almost logical.There's not much point in synopsizing the plot; it's rather like a benign little tornado that sweeps the characters - and the viewer - up with it; there's nothing to do but surrender and see where it will touch down next, and what happens when it does. Let it suffice to say that, if you're any kind of Sturges fan, you'll find the ride delightful. It's no surprise that winsome Sullavan, blustery Reginald Owen and the eminently reliable Alan Hale handle the material so deftly, but even normally serious players such as Herbert Marshall and Beulah Bondi exhibit understated but devastating comedy chops. Special mention must be made of Eric Blore (whose tipsy descent of a brief flight of stairs is nothing short of a miniature comic ballet) and Frank Morgan, at his flustered best, giving a performance of such sustained energy and velocity that (as my viewing companion said) he must have had to lie down for a rest after every take. An odd little sidelight: quintessentially American players Sullavan and Morgan made exactly three pictures together, in two of which they played Hungarians (this one and "Shop Around The Corner"), with the story taking place in Budapest. (In the third - "The Mortal Storm" - they played Germans in a small Alpine town.) Just one of those curious bits of trivia.As noted in other comments, this gem of a film is apparently little known or remembered. Perhaps its release on DVD will accord it the attention and praise it so richly deserves. Do yourself a huge favor and get your hands on it right away. I saw it just a week ago and am already looking forward to watching it again.