A remarkable movie about movie-making. Veronica Lake steals scenes as Joel McCrea deadpans his part. Lovely story, great directing by Preston Sturges. You forget it’s in B&W after a while… it suits the Depression era theme. Funny, dark, cynical, silly… it’s got it all in abundance. I’m glad the AFI elevated this to the ranks of the top 100 in 2007. I probably would have missed it otherwise. Bonus features include a wonderful 2001 interview with Sandy, Preston’s wife, that gives insight into his writing and directorial personae.

I have to admit that I found out about the film due to the bit of trivia that the Coen Brothers named their film “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou” after a fictional film in “Sullivan’s Travels”. I was surprised at the fast-paced comedy and wit of the film and also how the film radically shifted tone and became quite dark and serious at times. The boldness is due in a large part to Preston Sturges, who was one of the first screenwriters to make the leap into directing.

While it combines funny and serious elements, it really is about the role of the filmmaker in the world. What do people want to see in films and what responsibility does the filmmaker have to really know about what they portray. While the ideas are deep, the film manages to effortlessly mix comedy and tragedy together to make a point without being very didactic. It was a lot of fun and it made me think.

This movie has a twist to it but like all of Preston Sturges’ movies, it wouldn’t be one if it wasn’t one. OK. Joel McCrea plays a director who makes nice little movies; He graduated from a Ivy League school and life is good; Yet, he decides to stretch out and make a movie called Oh,Brother Where Art Thou? (sounds familiar? well the Coen Brothers finally made a movie on this same title over sixty years later based on this).So he takes to the road as a hobo(mind you, this is still the days when folks still hitched rides on trains getting around the country); Well, he hitched rides,meets Veronica Lake on the way, and somehow ends up on a work gang behind it and the movie folks somehow feels he was dead. Mind ya, this was before DNA, positive ID etc in the end though all is straightened out and accomplished.