Directed by Preston Sturges

Directed by Preston Sturges

5 Episodes

From capitalism to patriotism to politics to marriage, there was virtually no pillar of American life that escaped unscathed during screwball auteur Preston Sturges’s whirlwind heyday in the 1940s. One of the first Hollywood filmmakers to direct his own scripts (a deal he negotiated by selling his Oscar-winning screenplay for THE GREAT MCGINTY to Paramount for just $10), Sturges took screwball comedy to new heights of sublime absurdity with his elegantly cockeyed dialogue, free-form approach to narrative, and subversive skewering of conventional morality. These immortal comedy classics—including the zingy Barbara Stanwyck vs. Henry Fonda showdown THE LADY EVE, the rocket-speed romantic romp THE PALM BEACH STORY, and the topsy-turvy small-town satire HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO—were the result of a brief but dazzling run of creativity that remains virtually unmatched in Hollywood history.

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Directed by Preston Sturges

5 Episodes

  • Christmas in July
    1:07:29
    Christmas in July
    Episode 1

    Christmas in July

    Episode 1

    Directed by Preston Sturges • 1940 • United States
    Starring Dick Powell, Ellen Drew, Raymond Walburn

    “If you can’t sleep at night, it isn’t the coffee, it’s the bunk!” That’s the slogan that ambitious office clerk Jimmy MacDonald (Dick Powell) enters in hopes of winning the $25,000 grand prize i...

  • Hail the Conquering Hero
    1:41:07
    Hail the Conquering Hero
    Episode 2

    Hail the Conquering Hero

    Episode 2

    Directed by Preston Sturges • 1944 • United States
    Starring Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines, William Demarest

    Too embarrassed to admit to his family and friends that he was discharged from World War II because of hay fever, Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith (Eddie Bracken) is befriended by a group...

  • The Great McGinty
    1:21:40
    The Great McGinty
    Episode 3

    The Great McGinty

    Episode 3

    Directed by Preston Sturges • 1940 • United States
    Starring Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angelus, Akim Tamiroff

    Preston Sturges famously sold the story for this barbed political satire to Paramount for just $10 in exchange for the chance to direct. Brian Donlevy stars as Dan McGinty, a Depression-era h...

  • The Lady Eve
    1:34:30
    The Lady Eve
    Episode 4

    The Lady Eve

    Episode 4

    Directed by Preston Sturges • 1941 • United States
    Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn

    Barbara Stanwyck sizzles, Henry Fonda bumbles, and Preston Sturges runs riot in one of the all-time great screwballs, a pitch-perfect blend of comic zing and swoonworthy romance. Aboard a cr...

  • The Palm Beach Story
    1:28:16
    The Palm Beach Story
    Episode 5

    The Palm Beach Story

    Episode 5

    Directed by Preston Sturges • 1942 • United States
    Starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor

    This wild tale of wacky wedlock from Preston Sturges takes off like a rocket and never lets up. Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert play Tom and Gerry, a married New York couple on the skids, fin...

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