Film > Classic

The screwball comedy classic that sparked the brilliant career of writer/director Preston Sturges (Sullivan’s Travels, Palm Beach Story), The Lady Eve puts a wicked comic spin on the Adam and Eve story as a naïve Henry Fonda and conniving Barbara Stanwyck make a high stakes play for love. Father and daughter card sharks Jean (Stanwyck) and Harry Harrington (Charles Coburn) are looking for easy prey on a luxury ocean liner when bumbling beer baron Charles Pike (Fonda) boards the ship in South America. Pike hasn’t seen a woman for six months, and quickly falls for Jean, and her con. But will love come back to bite her? Bizarre plot twists, mistaken identities, dizzying dialogue – the film received a Best Writing Oscar® nomination - outrageous slapstick, and stellar performances from two of Hollywood’s biggest stars mark this screwball screamer from the great Preston Sturges.