A_Different_Drummer Review of Sullivan's Travels

Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Movies don't get much better than this...

[10/10 · 6 November 2013]

Hard to believe. Years after this masterpiece, as age caught up with the two stars, McCrea, now too old to play the leading man, would be successfully recast in a series of westerns and actually enjoyed a second career as a cowpoke. No such luck for Lake. Once considered one of the sexiest stars in Hollywood, she continued with a bunch of "filmes noire" for a spell, but within a decade her career had fizzled. Late in life she did a series of interviews saying that of all the sex goddesses of the era, her portrayal was the most effortless, she merely needed to "brush her hair a certain way" and men, dumb as they were, practically swooned. (Not entirely true. She had a naturally coarse voice which was unusual, and sexy, in that era; and she did indeed have the figure of a sex goddess, as the very very brief shower scene in Sullivans Travels reveals.) OK, back to 1941. With both stars pretty at the apex of their careers, here is the kind of story that Hollywood does best, a story of the rich vs. the poor, and the problems that can arise trying to reconcile the two. McCrea is pitch perfect as the idealistic rich guy (film producer) trying to see the world through the eyes of the downtrodden, and Lake is pitch perfect as the beautiful, cynical, babe who tags along for the ride whether McCrea likes it or not. The ending, which involves McCrea on a chain gang reading about his own death, is a masterstroke, and unforgettable in its own right. A must see.