The Lady Eve (1941)

The conniving Harringtons, father and daughter, Harry and Jean, (Charles Coburn and Barbara Stanwyck) orchestrate a meeting on board a cruise ship with Charlie Pike (Henry Fonda), the wealthy, but naive, heir to a brewery fortune, in an attempt to cheat him at cards. Their plan is doomed to failure when Jean Harrington falls in love with her prey. But when Charlie is informed of her gold-digging ways, she must plot to re-conquer his heart. One of Preston Sturges’ most clever and beloved romantic comedies, The Lady Eve balances broad slapstick and sophisticated sexiness with perfect grace.


A bordo de un crucero entre Brasil y los EEUU, los Harrington, padre e hija confabulados, Harry y Jean (Charles Coburn and Barbara Stanwyck), arreglan un encuentro con Charlie Pike (Henry Fonda), el rico, aunque un tanto ingenuo, hijo del barón de la cerveza, todo con el objetivo de desplumarlo al poker. El plan va condenado al fracaso desde el momento en que Jean se enamora de su presa. Pero cuando Charlie es informado del modo de vida de su futura esposa, ésta debe buscar un modo de reconquistar su corazón.
Considerada entre las comedias románticas más inteligentes y recordadas de Preston Sturges, The Lady Eve (Las tres noches de Eva) mantiene un grácil equilibro entre la comedia desopilante y una sofisticada seducción.

While writer-directors are fairly common nowadays, and they have been since the '60s, this hybrid was virtually unheard of until 1940, when a dramatist by the name of Preston Sturges was allowed to both write and direct. Previously, Sturges had written screenplays for Frank Lloyd and William Wyler, but after watching film directors at work, he decided where the greatest creative control lay. Two of his scripts had been directed by Mitchell Leisen, Easy Living (1937) and Remember the Night (1940), and Sturges didn't like how they turned out: he thought Leisen threw away the important lines and kept the ones he should've thrown away. Sturges knew if he wanted his scripts filmed as he intended, he would have to assume the director's chair himself. So in 1939, he offered Paramount a script for $1 if they'd let him direct it. Sturges was a hot commodity and Paramount wanted to keep him happy, so they accepted the offer. Much to Paramount's surprise, the resulting movie – The Great McGinty – was one of the biggest box-office successes of 1940. It also won the 1940 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Sturges' future as a writer-director was assured. Soon afterwards, other writers, such as Billy Wilder and John Huston, were allowed to direct their own scripts.(…)
Barbara Stanwyck is in rare form in The Lady Eve. She was a beautiful woman, but in The Lady Eve, she is positively luminous (with thanks to Edith Head's superb costume designs). (…)
Many critics consider The Lady Eve to be Sturges' best movie. The New York Film Critics even gave it their 1941 award for Best Picture. It's less hectic and more leisurely paced than Sullivan's Travels. The story is relatively slim. The emphasis is upon the characters and that lets the actors shine.
Mientras que los guionistas-directores son bastante comunes hoy en día, y lo vienen siendo desde los años 60, tal figura híbrida era virtualmente desconocida hasta la década del 40, cuando un guionista llamado Preston Sturges logró que le permitieran escribir y dirigir. Anteriormente, Sturges había escrito guiones para Frank Lloyd y William Wyler, pero tras ver el trabajo de los directores, tomó conciencia de en dónde se tomaban las principales decisiones creativas. (…)
Muchos críticos consideran a The Lady Eve como la mejor película de Preston Sturges. Los Críticos Cinematográficos de Nueva York le dieron en 1941 el premio a mejor película. Es menos frenética y tiene un paso más apacible que Sullivan's Travels. La historia es relativamente simple. El énfasis está puesto en los personajes y eso permite que los actores se luzcan.

Gary Johnson, Images...mp; English subs