The Lady Eve

We’re almost at the end of our Preston Sturges festival, only two more films to go. (I’m ignoring the unfortunate movies he made near the end of his career, and focusing only on the string of brilliant gems from 1940 to 1944.) This one is right up there with his best. Henry Fonda is a clueless rich guy, Barbara Stanwyck and Charles Coburn are a father and daughter con team. But she falls in love with him. There’s a hilarious scene where Coburn is trying to take Fonda in a card game, and Stanwyck is trying to thwart her father. Who is the best cheat? And there is a famous seduction scene, almost four minutes long, where the actors barely move, but say volumes.