Sullivan's Travels with Joel McCrea: DVD Cover

    Sullivan's Travels Director: Preston Sturges Cast: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn

    DVD - Black & White / Dolby 5.1 / Mono Learn more

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    • DVD Release Date: 08/21/2001
    • Original Release: 1941
    • Rating: Not Rated
    • Sales Rank: 2,208

    Viewer Rating: (4 ratings)

    Detailed Rating: "Visuals" See All

     
    • Overview
    • Editorial Reviews
    • Scenes
    • Customer Reviews
    • Cast & Crew
    • Full Product Details

    Scenes

    Features

    New digital transfer of the film in a RSDL dual layer edition; audio commentary by Noah Baumbach, Kenneth Bowser, Christopher Guest, and Michael McKean; Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer, a 76-minute documentary by Bowser from PBS's American Masters series; interview with Sandy Sturges, Preston's widow; short Hedda Hopper interview with Sturges; audio recording of Sturges singing his original tune, "My Love" and reciting "If I Were King"; storyboards and blueprints; production stills archive; original publicity materials scrapbook; original theatrical trailer

    Full Product Details

    Scene Index

    Side #1 --
    0. Chapters
    1. Logos/Titles [:10]
    2. "With a little sex in it" [1:28]
    3. The butler's advice [5:30]
    4. The great chase [4:14]
    5. Dead man's clothes [5:29]
    6. The great escape [2:16]
    7. The Girl [3:19]
    8. All washed up [4:32]
    9. "You must have a swimming pool" [5:09]
    10. All aboard [4:01]
    11. "Better with a girl" [5:12]
    12. The Busy Bee [3:58]
    13. Back where they belong [3:04]
    14. Hobos once again [2:20]
    15. Sully's married [6:34]
    16. Greed [3:05]
    17. The soles of his shoes [3:57]
    18. Six years [3:51]
    19. A prisoner [3:56]
    20. Picture show [5:29]
    21. The plot needs a twist [5:35]
    22. "Because you were dead!" [2:23]
    23. A comedy [2:06]
    0. Index
    0. Index

    Scene Index

    Editorial Reviews

    The most ambitious of Preston Sturges' string of 1940s classics, Sullivan's Travels is a brilliant mixture of genres, combining giddy comedy with often brutal realism, made all the more powerful by the contrast. The first part of the film, which details the botched attempts of idealistic film director John Sullivan (Joel McCrea) to leave Hollywood, smoothly blends outrageous slapstick with Sturges' customary satirical dialogue, and includes classic exchanges between Sullivan and his Hollywood producers (Robert Warwick and Porter Hall) and his hilariously droll and opinionated butler (Robert Greig). The tone of the movie changes considerably with three bravura sequences. The first, a graceful, wordless section in which Sullivan and his nameless companion (Veronica Lake, showing a nice flair for comedy) spend a night among the homeless, proves that, although Sturges is noted mainly for his writing, he was also a sensitive and talented director. The second, a violent chain gang episode almost shocking in its stark realism, and the third, a short musical passage set in a rural church, hammer home the movie's apparent moral: that, as Sullivan puts it, there's a lot to be said for making people laugh. Sturges may seem to be ridiculing a cinema of ideas, but his final joke is that Sullivan's Travels supports a different argument: that comedy and serious drama can co-exist quite happily after all. Mark Pittillo All Movie Guide

    Customer Reviews

    Worth the extra money !!by Bubba85

    Reader Rating:
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    March 22, 2009: Criterion has done an expert job on Sullivan's Travels. The clarity of the picture is outstanding.The sound has been cleaned up and the great script is easy to hear and understand. The "extras" on the disc are first rate. The documentary about Preston Sturges is informative and a lot of fun to watch. The radio interview of Sturges with Hopper is a lost gem.

    This DVD is worth the extra money.

    I Also Recommend: The Miracle of Morgan's Creek.

    SIMPLY OUTSTANDING TRANSFER & EXTRASby Anonymous

    Reader Rating:
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    August 09, 2004: After a string of B-movies, icy cool and slick Veronica Lake graduated to the big time with ?Sullivan?s Travels? the Preston Sturges? screwball message picture in which she costars with Joel McCrea. McCrea is film wunderkind, John L. Sullivan, a director of frothy comedies who desires to make a truly gritty motion picture about the 'suffering of humanity'. One problem - Sullivan doesn't know the first thing about suffrage, having been born with a silver spoon and thrust into a lucrative career in an industry ripened on escapism. So what's a desperate rich guy to do? Well, if you?re Sullivan you decide to impersonate a hobo and ride the rails in search of the ?suffering of humanity.? On one such fact finding journey, Sullivan finds ?the girl? (Veronica Lake). At first believing Sullivan to be a hobo, ?the girl? buys him breakfast. Despite being down and out herself, she falls for Sullivan?s floppy eared good nature and, upon learning that she?s now ?the girl? of one of the richest directors in the business she becomes a complicit participant in Sullivan?s research for the forgotten men and women of the Great Depression. Sturges ? considered by many to be one of the truly great all time directors - delivers what is probably his greatest film in his canon with this sobering concoction of merriment and mire, celebrating the wacky-tacky nature of the film industry and exposing the grim harsh reality of poverty on a grand scale. Truly, this is an outstanding accomplishment amongst screwball comedies. For once, ?Sullivan?s Travels? is a Criterion DVD I can actually recommend on every level. First, the picture quality of this classic film is bar none the most outstanding effort from Criterion. The gray scale is superbly balanced. Blacks are black. Contrast and shadow levels are amazing. Fine details are well represented. There are NO digital anomalies. The audio is mono but cleaned up in such a way that one hardly notices its dated shortcomings. AT LAST - as an extra, Criterion gives us 'Preston Sturges: A Life' a thoroughly engrossing, in-depth, full fledged documentary on the man, the making of this movie and his entire career. The documentary is so good in fact that you will surely want to watch it more than once. Yes, there's also an audio commentary and the usual Lux Radio junket that accompanies most Criterion classic titles, but the documentary is what counts here.


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