The Lady Eve - Enzian Theater

***NOMINEE*** - Best Writing, Original Story: 1942 Academy Awards®

Charles Pike (Henry Fonda, The Grapes of Wrath), heir to the Pike brewing fortune, is a shy man who would much rather read a book than interact with people. While returning home from a scientific expedition in South America, he meets the lovely Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck, Double Indemnity). Unbeknownst to him however is the fact that Jean is part of a trio of cardsharps who travel on ocean liners looking for men just like him to give up his money. As they spend time together they soon fall in love and she is determined to protect him from her colleagues. Charles’ bodyguard smells a rat and when he gets proof that Jean is a con artist, Charles breaks off the relationship. Jean now sets her sights on revenge and once back home, poses as the English Lady Eve to confuse and confound the innocent Charles.

Preston Sturges screwball comedy classic has been ranked one of the greatest films of all time by Sight & Sound Magazine, The New York Times, the British Film Institute, Empire Magazine, Time Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, American Movie Classics, and nominated for 6 (appearing on 2) of the American Film Institute’s “Top 100” films lists.

1941, 94 minutes, USA, Directed by Preston Sturges, Unrated

“Like Bringing Up Baby, The Lady Eve is a mixture of visual and verbal slapstick, and of high artifice and pratfalls.”
– Pauline Kael, THE NEW YORKER
“A beguilingly ribald sex comedy, spattered with characteristic Sturges slapstick.”
– Tom Milne, TIME OUT
“By all odds the best and breeziest thing at which Sturges has turned an impish hand and an equally impish pen.”
– Mildred Martin, THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
“A movie like The Lady Eve is so hard to make that you can't make it at all unless you find a way to make it seem effortless. Preston Sturges does a kind of breathless balancing act here, involving romance, deception and physical comedy.”
– Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES