Chekhov’s ID Card
Preston Sturgess was in top form in 1941 for this comedy starring Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake - in one of her first films. McCrea is a movie director, looking for a way to make a “socially relevant” film, instead of the comedies he’s been making. McCrea travels as a hobo, trying to “know trouble” in a way he can’t while living his life as a Hollywood director. Like Orson Welles, Sturges used a stock company of character actors, and many of them are along for the ride.
Listen to this episode (1 hour, 12 minutes)
Show Notes
Old Movies, New Things: discs, books and other physical objects
- Blu-ray: The Lady Eve (Criterion), Kiss the Blood of My Hands (Kino Lorber)
Sightings: classics on TV, streaming, and (someday) the festival circuit * TCM Summer Under the Stars: some picks from Once Upon a Screen. 14 TCM premiers, 12 previously not featured stars, including Sylvia Sidney, Nina Foch, Delores Del Rio, Diana Dors, Paul Henreid. Some premieres: The Golden Blade (1953), You and Me (Fritz Lang w/Sylvia Sidney), Night Club Scandal (1937), The Senator was Indiscreet (William Powell, 1947), The Weak and the Wicked (Dors, 1954), For Men Only (Henreid, 1952)
The Movie: review/commentary on a single classic film
Sullivan’s Travels (1941) trailer
- Available to stream, rent or buy digitally
- On disc: Multi-format DVD from the Criterion Collection or as part of Preston Sturges: The Filmmaker Collection (DVD)
Next time, we’ll join our friends at Agents of S.M.O.O.C.H. for an Incomparable crossover episode, as we watch Two for the Road (1967), starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney.
