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The Lady Eve
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Lady Eve | |
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| Directed by | Preston Sturges |
| Produced by | Paul Jones |
| Written by | Monckton Hoffe (story) Preston Sturges |
| Starring | Barbara Stanwyck Henry Fonda Charles Coburn Eugene Pallette William Demarest |
| Cinematography | Victor Milner |
| Release date(s) |  25 February 1941 |
| Running time | 97 min. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Lady Eve is a 1941 screwball comedy film about a mismatched couple who meet on a luxury liner. The movie was written by Monckton Hoffe and Preston Sturges, and directed by Sturges.
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Barbara Stanwyck plays con artist Jean Harrington. Along with her equally larcenous father, "Colonel" Harrington (Charles Coburn), she is out to fleece rich, naive Charles Pike (Henry Fonda), a woman-shy ophiologist returning from a year-long expedition up the Amazon.
But even the best laid plans can go astray. First, she falls hard for the guy and shields him from her card sharp father. Then, when Pike's suspicious minder/valet (William Demarest) discovers the truth, he dumps her. Furious at being scorned, she re-enters his life masquerading as the terribly posh "Lady Eve Sidwich", determined to torment him mercilessly. Eugene Pallette plays Pike's wealthy businessman father, who is impressed by English nobility and eager to promote a marriage between his son and her ladyship. Soon her hapless victim is so confused and bothered, he doesn't know which way is up. In the end, though, romance wins out after all the twists and turns.
The Lady Eve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
In 1956, the plot was recycled for the movie The Birds and the Bees, starring George Gobel, Mitzi Gaynor and David Niven.
