Sullivan's travels

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Movie
German title Sullivan's travels
Original title Sullivan's Travels
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1941
length 90 minutes
Rod
Director Preston Sturges
script Preston Sturges,
Ernst Laemmle
production Paul Jones ,
Buddy DeSylva for Paramount Pictures
music Charles Bradshaw ,
Leo Shuken
camera John F. Seitz
cut Stuart Gilmore
occupation

Sullivan's Travels (Original title: Sullivan's Travels ) is an American comedy film directed by Preston Sturges . The film premiered in December 1941, the German premiere took place on November 21, 1970 on television.

action

Famed Hollywood comedy director John L. Sullivan is tired of his genre and wants to break new ground. In a socially critical film committed to realism with the working title O Brother, where art thou? he wants to bring the misery of the poorest in society to the canvas without make-up. To the horror of his producers and to the wind all the warnings of his butler, he slips into a shabby outfit and sets off with ten cents in his pockets to experience the rough life of the tramp first hand. This proves to be difficult, however, as the studio's PR department initially remains closely on his heels in a mobile home equipped with all harassment and eight employees. Later, as a day laborer, he finds board and lodging in the farm house of two lonely older sisters, one of whom is so overly interested in him that soon the only thing that helps is to flee.

As a hitchhiker, Sullivan is picked up by a truck that is bringing him back to Hollywood of all places. In a diner he meets a young beauty who dreams of a career as an actress. At first he makes her believe that she is dealing with a have-nothing friend who is friends with the famous director Sullivan, but he cannot keep up the game for long. Since the girl has nothing to lose, she becomes Sullivan's companion on his further journey. Together they make ends meet as hobos and tramps, get closer and actually immerse themselves in the world of extreme poverty. In the homeless asylum, Sullivan's shoes are even stolen at night. At some point they have had enough of the experiment that is now being exploited by the studio's PR machine.

But when Sullivan goes back alone to slip a few banknotes to those in need, the already more serious comedy turns into drama. The tramp, who had stolen his shoes earlier, knocks him out, steals his money and puts him on a freight train leaving town. The unfortunate thief in turn is hit by a train and killed. His mutilated body is identified as John L. Sullivan from the shoes. Meanwhile, the real Sullivan comes to again at a train station in the south of the country, but has lost his memory after being hit on the head. Still half dazed, he knocks down a railroad worker who has become violent with a stone and is promptly sentenced to 6 years imprisonment as a chain convict. In the labor camp, he regained his memory, but was unable to prove his true identity. Instead, he has to do hard work under a brutal overseer and now finally gets to know life from its bitterest and most hopeless side.

One Sunday the prisoners are allowed to attend a film screening in the church of an Afro-American congregation and experience Pluto's hopeless fight against a particularly sticky flypaper. Soon the battered convicts are bending over with laughter until even Sullivan is infected. He realizes that a comedy does more for the poor than any didactic work that feigns dismay. Inspired by this realization, he now also thinks of a way out of his confused situation: Sullivan accuses himself of being the murderer of Sullivan, and in no time his likeness graces the front pages of all newspapers. His girlfriend recognized him and obtained his release. The director returns to Hollywood to only shoot comedies from now on: “There's a lot to be said for making people laugh! Did you know that's all some people have? It isn't much, but it's better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan! "

background

  • The film begins with a dedication:

"To the memory of those who made us laugh: the motley mountebanks, the clowns, the buffoons, in all times and in all nations, whose efforts have lightened our burden a little, this picture is affectionately dedicated."

  • Veronica Lake was six months pregnant at the beginning of the shooting, which initially angered the uninformed Preston Sturges and complicated the shooting - among other things, a double had to be used for the hobo scenes. Since Lake was constantly stalking Joel McCrea during the shoot , the latter later refused to work with her again for the film My Wife, the Witch, produced by Sturges .
  • In the film, producer Paul Jones has a cameo as a portrait of the late husband of the lovable Miz Zeffie, who constantly changes facial expressions. Towards the end of the film, Preston Sturges can also be glimpsed as the director looks after the Sullivan girlfriend who jumps up from the set in confusion.
  • Due to the brutality and inhumanity shown in the labor camp scene, the film was not allowed to be exported abroad during the war, so as not to grist on the mill of the enemy propaganda machine.
  • The short film shown in the church scene is Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon Playful Pluto (1934). Sturges had originally wanted to use a sequence with the tramp character Charlie Chaplin , but he refused permission.
  • Sullivan's abandoned dream project surfaced as the title of the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? by the Coen brothers from 2000, which also has marginal similarities with the plot of the Sturges film.
  • In 2007 , Sullivan's Travels was ranked 61st in the American Film Institute 's list of the greatest films of all time .
  • In 1990 the film was entered into the National Film Registry .

Reviews

"Biting-sarcastic satire on pseudo-engagement and profit interest in the film industry, especially on the socially critical ambitions of Hollywood mighty", was the lexicon of international film . At the same time, the film is "an homage to jesters, clowns and comedians of all time". The Heyne Film Lexicon was also full of praise: "Brilliantly written, biting genre mixture of humor and drama - full of terrific slapstick , intelligent puns and original situation comedy ."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sullivan's Travels. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 24, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used