Sullivan's Travels

Sullivan's Travels (Criterion #118). 1942 Paramount Pictures, now owned by Universal Pictures.
Starring: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick, William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn, Porter Hall
Director: Preston Sturges
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Also available in non-Criterion form as part of the Preston Sturges: The Filmmaker Collection box set.

A film director named John L. Sullivan (McCrea) has just come from a string of profitable, but slight film comedies (like Ants in Your Plants of 1939), and he intends to make his next film a serious exploration of the poor, which will be entitled O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Making that one without the Coen brothers? Inconceivable!) Not surprising, the studio boss Mr. Lebrand (Warwick) wants Sullivan to direct another guaranteed money-making comedy, but the director stands his ground. Sullivan dreams up a crazy idea to live life on the road as a tramp so he can use the experiences in his dream project, which probably is a crazy idea.

Sullivan's ambitions never seem to work out, and he always ends up back in Hollywood, thanks to Lebrand insisting that his staff follow him in a double-decker bus.

Later on, Sullivan meets a failed actress (Lake) who becomes his traveling companion, but only after discovering that he's not a genuine hobo. The director finally gets his firsthand experiences of living homeless, but ends up in a world of trouble after being ambushed by a thief who mugs him and puts him aboard an outbound train. The mugger, in possession of Sullivan's shoes, is killed by another train, and everyone assumes that it was the director who died. Finding himself in a labor camp after attacking a railroad worker, Sullivan learns that comedy can do more good for the poor than a serious film like the one he planned to make. Sullivan also gets out of his situation by confessing to being his own killer. He reunites with the Girl at the end of the film.

A wonderful screwball comedy. Highly recommended.