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Preston Sturges
[1898-1959]
![formal portrait of Preston Sturges [1898-1959] circa 1950s](images/PrestonSturges-cig.jpg "formal portrait of Preston Sturges [1898-1959] circa 1950s") |
short profile
movies written by Preston Sturges movies directed by Preston Sturges | ![Preston Sturges [1898-1959] circa 1941](images/PrestonSturges1941.jpg "Preston Sturges [1898-1959] circa 1941") |
"[Preston Sturges was] the most gifted writer/director of comedy that Hollywood has ever seen."
— Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times reviewer
"If I don't run out of ideas - and I won't - we'll have some fun. There are some wonderful pictures to be made,
and God willing, I will make some of them." — Preston Sturges
Edmond Preston Biden was born in Chicago, Illinois on 29 August 1898. His mother went to Paris, France to become a singer; she divorced his father, then returned to America. She married stockbroker Solomon Sturges, who adopted young Preston. His youth afforded him much travel, for he spent parts of each year in America and France, as well as touring with the dance company of Isadora Duncan (a friend of his mother). Preston worked on Wall Street, joined the Air Service, and then became manager of his mother's makeup & fashion company, Maison Desti, where he invented the first 'kiss proof' lipstick in 1920.
Preston married Estelle de Wolf Mudge in 1923 (divorced in 1927), and tried his hand at inventing. While recuperating from surgery, he began writing plays; the second was successful on Broadway, followed by the hit "Strictly Dishonorable", and Hollywood soon made offers for his work. He married Eleanor Post Hutton in 1930 (annulled 1932). He moved out to the West Coast, where his scripts were turned into popular movies. He married Louise Sargeant Tevis in 1938 (divorced 1947). He opened his second restaurant, Players, on the Sunset Strip in 1940.
But Preston was increasingly frustrated by the direction given to his scripts, so (the story goes) he sold the script of "The Great McGinty" for a dollar {or ten dollars} to Paramount Pictures in exchange for the right to direct. While Preston Sturges was not the first filmmaker to both write and direct a film, he was the first to be ballyhooed as such by a studio. That script won the first Academy Award Oscar® for Best Original Screenplay.
The Preston Sturges screwball comedies of the 1940s were an amazing cluster of popular and critical hits, and include "The Great McGinty" [1940], "Christmas In July" [1940], "The Lady Eve" [1941], "Sullivan's Travels" [1941], "The Palm Beach Story" [1942], "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" [1944], and "Hail The Conquering Hero" [1944]. Success as a director emboldened him to become an independent producer, which did not go well; his wife moved out in 1946, and traveled with their son, Solomon, to Europe. Preston's last Hollywood film was in 1949.
In 1951 he married Anne Margaret 'Sandy' Nagle. Troubles with the I.R.S. required sale of his yacht, the Players restaurant, and his other assets in 1953. His second son, Preston, arrived during these hard times, as the family chased work in London and Paris and America; son Thomas was born in 1956. Preston returned to New York in 1958 to direct a play, but the producer decided that he wanted the job. Preston took refuge in the Algonquin Hotel to fulfill a contract with publisher Henry Holt to write an autobiography {working title "The Events Leading Up To My Death"}, and that book was about half-finished when Preston Sturges died of a heart attack on 6 August 1959.
His widow finished the autobiography (published in 1990), and his youngest son Tom now manages and promotes the legacy of his father. (Son Preston is a lyricist and son Solomon is in real estate.)
official Preston Sturges website [est. June 1998]
Preston Sturges entry at Wikipedia
Preston Sturges credits [1930-84] at Internet Movie Database
Preston Sturges Broadway stageplay credits [1928-61] at Internet Broadway Database
  | Preston Sturges won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar® for "The Great McGinty" [1940] and was nominated twice in 1945. He was the first writer to receive the Screen Writers Guild's Laurel Award for Screen Writing Achievement (posthumously, in 1975). He has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame |
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 | "Preston Sturges: The Filmmaker Collection" box set [2006]
Universal DVD box set [11/2006] 7 disks for $46.19 includes "The Great McGinty" [Aug 1940] starring Brian Donlevy & Muriel Angelus; "Christmas In July" [Oct 1940] starring Dick Powell & Ellen Drew; "The Lady Eve" [Feb 1941] starring Barbara Stanwyck & Henry Fonda; "Sullivan's Travels" [Dec 1941] starring Joel McCrea & Veronica Lake; "The Palm Beach Story" [Nov 1942] starring Claudette Colbert & Joel McCrea; "Hail The Conquering Hero" [Aug 1944] starring Eddie Bracken & Ella Raines; "The Great Moment" [Sept 1944] starring Joel McCrea & Betty Field |
Movies Written by Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges credits [1930-84] at Internet Movie Database
"Strictly Dishonorable" [Universal Dec 1931]
![orange poster for "Strictly Dishonorable" [1931]](covers/pStrictlyDishonorable1931.jpg) ![yellow poster for "Strictly Dishonorable" [1951]](covers/pStrictlyDishonorable1951.jpg)
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A Southern belle and her jealous fiance visit a New York City speakeasy, she dances with an Italian opera singer, and the couple has a spat. The fiance leaves and tells a cop that his girl has been 'kidnapped by villains' ...
Co-produced & directed by John M. Stahl; screenplay by Gladys Lehman, based on the hit 1929 play by Preston Sturges; starring Paul Lukas, Sidney Fox, Lewis Stone, George Meeker, William Ricciardi & Sidney Toler
video/DVD not available • playscript is available below • full credits from IMDb novelization by Joseph Weil [1931]: Grosset & Dunlap hardcover / rare color remake [M.G.M./Loew's July 1951]
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"Child of Manhattan" [Columbia Feb 1933]
 | A wealthy Manhattanite has an affair with a dancehall girl, and pregnancy leads to a secret marriage. But the baby does not survive, and the girl runs to Mexico for a divorce, where she happens to meet a former suitor, now owner of a silver mine. Directed by Edward Buzzell; based on the 1932 play by Preston Sturges; starring Nancy Carroll, John Boles, Buck Jones, Jessie Ralph, Clara Blandick, Luis Alberni, Warburton Gamble, Jane Darwell & Betty Grable
video/DVD not available • full credits from IMDb |
"The Power and The Glory"
[Fox Oct 1933; restored 2005]
 | The life of a railroad tycoon is retold after his funeral, showing how he rose from track-walker to president and lost touch with his family. (Orson Welles reportedly wore out a print of this film while studying its story construction, a technique Sturges referred to as 'narratage'.) Directed by William K. Howard; starring Spencer Tracy, Colleen Moore, Ralph Morgan, Helen Vinson, Phillip Trent, Henry Kolker, Sarah Padden, Billy O'Brien, Cullen Johnson & J. Farrell MacDonald video/DVD not available • full credits from IMDb |
"We Live Again"
[Sam Goldwyn/United Artists Nov 1934]
 | A Russian nobleman realizes that a woman being sentenced to Siberia is the servant girl that he wooed and abandoned in their youth. Directed by Rouben Mamoulian; script co-written by Preston Sturges, based on Leo Tolstoy's 1899 novel "Resurrection"; lovely cinematography by Gregg Toland; starring Fredric March, Anna Sten, Jane Baxter, C. Aubrey Smith, Sam Jaffe, Ethel Griffies, Gwendolyn Logan, Jessie Ralph, Leonid Kinskey, Dale Fuller, Morgan Wallace & Crauford Kent
M.G.M. b&w DVD [3/2005] for $12.99 full credits from IMDb |
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"Thirty Day Princess"
[Paramount May 1934]
![still photo from "Thirty Day Princess" [1934]](covers/30dayprincess.jpg) | When a princess bound for America is quarantined, the American banker in charge of her fund-raising tour hires an out-of-work look-alike actress, who is soon being courted by a handsome newspaper publisher. Directed by Marion Gering; script co-written by Preston Sturges; starring Sylvia Sidney {in 2 roles}, Cary Grant, Edward Arnold, Henry Stephenson, Vince Barnett, Edgar Norton, Ray Walker, Lucien Littlefield, Robert McWade, George Baxter & Marguerite Namara
DVD as part of the Cary Grant Collection box set Universal DVD box set [11/2006] 5 movies/3 disks for $17.99 full credits from IMDb |
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"The Good Fairy" [Universal Jan 1935]
 | A young orphan becomes an usherette in Budapest, and tries to help a waiter pal get a job with a wealthy businessman, while fending off his romantic advances by pretending marriage to a lawyer picked out of the phone book. Directed by William Wyler; script by Preston Sturges, loosely based on Jane Hinton's translation of the Ferenc Molnár play; starring Margaret Sullavan, Herbert Marshall, Frank Morgan, Reginald Owen, Eric Blore, Beulah Bondi, Alan Hale & Cesar Romero
Kino Video b&w DVD [11/2002] for $26.99 Kino Video b&w VHS [11/2002] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
"I'll Be Yours" [Universal Feb 1947]
 | Musical remake of "The Good Fairy" of 1935, with singing star Deanna Durbin. A New York theater usherette tries to help a pal by securing him a job with a meat-packing magnate. Directed by William A. Seiter; script by Preston Sturges; also starring Tom Drake, William Bendix, Adolphe Menjou, Walter Catlett & Franklin Pangborn
Universal b&w VHS [1/99] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
"Diamond Jim" [Universal Sept 1935]
video/DVD not available • full credits from IMDb |
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"Hotel Haywire" [Paramount June 1937]
video/DVD not available (one nitrate print exists) • full credits from IMDb |
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"Easy Living" [Paramount July 1937]
 | A Wall Street banker erupts over his wife's excessive spending and throws her just-purchased sable coat off the balcony of his office building. The coat lands on a magazine editor, who is soon mistaken for the banker's mistress. Directed by Mitchell Leisen; screenplay by Preston Sturges, based on a story by Vera Caspary; starring Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, Ray Milland, Luis Alberni, Mary Nash, Franklin Pangborn, Barlowe Borland, William Demarest & Harlan Briggs
Universal b&w VHS [8/98] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
"Port of Seven Seas" [M.G.M. July 1938]
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"If I Were King" [Paramount Sept 1938]
 | While Paris is under seige (in 1463), the king goes undercover to track down traitors. When a poet-rogue kills one high-level traitor, the king asks him to replace the dead man as Grand Con- stable of France. Co-produced & directed by Frank Lloyd; script by Preston Sturges, based on the 1901 Broadway play by Justin Huntly McCarthy; starring Ronald Colman, Basil Rathbone, Frances Dee, Ellen Drew, C.V. France, Sidney Toler & William Farnum; 4 Oscar noms
Universal b&w VHS [8/98] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
"Never Say Die" [Paramount April 1939]
 | At a Swiss resort, a Texas millionaire wants his daughter to marry a bogus count, the daughter wants to marry an admirer from back home, and a fortune hunter sets her sights on a wealthy American who believes that he is dying – so of course the heiress and the American get married.
Directed by Elliott Nugent; co-written by Preston Sturges, based on the 1912 Broadway play by William H. Post; starring Martha Raye, Bob Hope, Andy Devine, Alan Mowbray, Gale Sondergaard, Sig Ruman, Paul Harvey, Frances Arms, Monty Woolley, Ernest Cossart, Ivan F. Simpson & Foy Van Dolsen
Universal Double Feature b&w DVD [10/2002] 2 disks for $12.99 with Hope's "Louisiana Purchase" [1941] Universal b&w VHS [10/2002] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
"Remember The Night" [Paramount Jan 1940]
 | When a woman is caught shoplfting for the third time, the prosecutor postpones the trial until after Christmas, then feels sorry for her and arranges bail. They soon fall in love . . .
Directed by Mitchell Leisen; written by Preston Sturges; starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson, Willard Robertson, Sterling Holloway, Charles Waldron, Paul Guilfoyle, Charles Arnt, John Wray, Thomas W. Ross, Fred 'Snowflake' Toones, Tom Kennedy & Georgia Caine Universal b&w VHS [9/95] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
Movies Directed by Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges credits [1930-84] at Internet Movie Database
"The Great McGinty"
[Paramount August 1940]
  | A political boss turns a bum into a successful crooked politician; when McGinty marries an honest woman, his career is in jeopardy. The first film given the 'Written & directed by' credit; starring Brian Donlevy, Akim Tamiroff, Muriel Angelus, Allyn Joslyn, William Demarest, Arthur Hoyt & Thurston Hall; won the first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay
Universal b&w VHS [3/92] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb DVD as part of the Preston Sturges Collection box set Universal DVD box set [11/2006] 7 disks for $41.99 |
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"Christmas In July" [Paramount Oct 1940]
 | Office workers fake a telegram that tells a co-worker that he has won $25,000 in a coffee slogan contest. He gets a promotion, proposes to his girlfriend, and buys presents for family & friends – then the truth is revealed. Written & directed by Preston Sturges; starring Dick Powell, Ellen Drew, Raymond Walburn, Alexander Carr, William Demarest, Ernest Truex, Franklin Pangborn, Harry Hayden, Rod Cameron, Adrian Morris & Harry Rosenthal
Universal b&w VHS [10/2001] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb script by Preston Sturges, based on his play "A Cup of Coffee: A Comedy About Business" Contentville Press 10¾x8¼ pb [2/2001] for $20.00 |
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"The Lady Eve" [Paramount Feb 1941]
 | A wealthy scientist returning by ship from a year up the Amazon meets a con-artist; they fall in love, but break up due to a misunderstanding • Co-written & directed by Preston Sturges; based on the story "Two Bad Hats" by Monckton Hoffe; starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, William Demarest & Eric Blore; Oscar nomination for Best Original Story, listed on National Film Registry (1994); listed on Time Magazine's All-TIME 100 Movies (5/2005)
Criterion Collection b&w DVD [6/2010] for $29.69 Universal Studios Home Ent. b&w VHS [8/98] for $4.14 full credits from IMDb script by Preston Sturges Contentville Press 11x8¼ pb [4/2001] out of print/SOLD OUT! |
"The Birds and The Bees" [Paramount April 1956]
 | Technicolor remake directed by Norman Taurog; script by Sidney Sheldon, based on the prior movie; starring George Gobel, Mitzi Gaynor, David Niven, Reginald Gardiner, Fred Clark, Harry Bellaver, Hans Conried, Margery Maude, Clinton Sundberg, Milton Frome, Rex Evans & King Donovan
Kartes color VHS [undated] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
"Sullivan's Travels" [Paramount Dec 1941]
 | A successful director of lightweight popular films decides that he wants to make a serious movie about people affected by The Great Depression. When his producers counter that he knows notrhing about such lives, the director goes on the road as a hobo. Co-produced, written & directed by Preston Sturges; starring Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick, William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn, Porter Hall, Byron Foulger, Margaret Hayes, Robert Greig, Roscoe Ates & Eric Blore; listed on National Film Registry (1990)
Criterion b&w DVD [8/2001] for $35.99 Universal b&w VHS [3/92] out of prodn/many used full credits from IMDb • watch official trailer [2:17] at YouTube |
"The Palm Beach Story" [Paramount Nov 1942]
 | A struggling architect quarrels with his wife; she runs off to Florida to file for divorce, and he follows to get her back. Written & directed by Preston Sturges; starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee, Robert Dudley, Sig Arno, Robert Warwick, Arthur Stuart Hull, Torben Meyer, Jimmy Conlin, Victor Potel, William Demarest, Jack Norton, Robert Greig, Roscoe Ates, Dewey Robinson, Chester Conklin & Sheldon Jett
Universal b&w Special Edition DVD [2/2005] for $11.99 Universal b&w VHS [1/98] out of prodn/many used full credits from IMDb critical text [1998] by John Pym British Film Institute 7½x5½ pb [9/98] for $11.66 |
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"The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" [Paramount Jan 1944]
 | A small-town girl wakes up the morning after a wild farewell party for the troops to find that she married someone she can't remember – and she's pregnant. The 4-F local boy who loves her tries to help her out of the predicament. Co-produced, written & directed by Preston Sturges; starring Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn, William Demarest, Porter Hall, Emory Parnell, Al Bridge, Julius Tannen, Victor Potel, with guest appearances from "The Great McGinty" by Brian Donlevy & Akim Tamiroff; Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay, listed on National Film Registry (2001)
Paramount b&w DVD [9/2005] for $11.99 Paramount b&w VHS [1/98] out of prodn/many used full credits from IMDb • watch official trailer [2:02] at YouTube |
"Rock-A-Bye Baby" [Paramount July 1958] /tt0052141/
Adapted & directed by Frank Tashlin, loosely based on "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek"; co-produced by & starring Jerry Lewis
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"Hail The Conquering Hero" [Paramount Aug 1944]
 | A Marine recruit discharged for his hayfever condition is encouraged by fellow soldiers to wear unearned medals and return home as a hero. The town gets carried away, making plans to build a statue of him and asking him to run for mayor, and when he tries to tell the truth nobody will believe him. Co-produced, written & directed by Preston Sturges; starring Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines, Raymond Walburn, William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn, Elizabeth Patterson, Georgia Caine, Al Bridge, Freddie Steele, Bill Edwards, Harry Hayden, Jimmy Conlin, Jimmie Dundee & Chester Conklin; Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay
Universal b&w VHS [3/92] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb DVD as part of the Preston Sturges Collection box set Universal DVD box set [11/2006] 7 disks for $41.99 |
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"The Great Moment" [Paramount Sept 1944]
 | The true story of Boston dentist Dr. W.T.G. Morton [1819-68] who in 1846 discovered the anaesthetic properties of highly rectified sulphuric ether. Co-produced, adapted & directed by Preston Sturges, based on the 1938 book "The Triumph Over Pain" by René Fülöp-Miller; starring Joel McCrea, Betty Field, Harry Carey, William Demarest, Louis Jean Heydt, Julius Tannen, Edwin Maxwell & Porter Hall
Universal b&w VHS [3/92] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb DVD as part of the Preston Sturges Collection box set Universal DVD box set [11/2006] 7 disks for $41.99 |
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"The Sin of Harold Diddlebock"
[California Pictures/United Artists Feb 1947]
 | A mild-mannered clerk who dreams of past glory on the college football field is fired; after imbibing a potent drink. he goes on a wild rampage, with a lion in tow. {NOTE: Originally released at 90 minutes, then re-edited as the 79-minute "Mad Wednesday" & re-released in 1950.}
Co-produced by Howard Hughes & Preston Sturges; written & directed by Preston Sturges; starring Harold Lloyd, Jimmy Conlin, Raymond Walburn, Rudy Vallee, Edgar Kennedy, Arline Judge, Franklin Pangborn, Lionel Stander, Margaret Hamilton, Jack Norton, Robert Dudley, Arthur Hoyt, Julius Tannen, Al Bridge, Victor Potel, Frances Ramsden & Jackie the Lion; nominated for the Grand Prize at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival
"TSoHD" version: Alpha Video b&w DVD [1/2004] for $7.98 "TSoHD" version: V.C.I. Home Video b&w VHS [11/2000] out of prodn/used "MW" version: Hollywood Movie Classics b&w VHS [1/85] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb • watch full "TSoHD" movie online [1:29:35] at Internet Archive |
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"Unfaithfully Yours" [Fox Nov 1948]
 | A symphony conductor fantasizes three different responses to what he imagines is his wife's infidelity, but his attempts in real life collapse into slapstick farce. Produced, written & directed by Preston Sturges; starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee, Barbara Lawrence, Kurt Kreuger, Lionel Stander, Edgar Kennedy, Al Bridge, Julius Tannen & Torben Meyer
Criterion b&w DVD [7/2005] for $26.99 Fox b&w VHS [2/85] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
 | color remake [Fox Feb 1984] Convinced that his wife is having an affair with a fellow musician, a symphony conductor plans a perfect crime, to murder his wife and frame her lover – but execution of the plan proves difficult. Directed by Howard Zieff; loosely based on the 1948 script by Preston Sturges; starring Dudley Moore, Nastassja Kinski, Armand Assante, Albert Brooks, Cassie Yates, Richard Libertini, Richard B. Shull, Jan Triska & Jane Hallaren Fox color DVD [6/2005] for $5.47 Fox color VHS [1/85] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
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"The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend"
[Fox May 1949]
 | A silly Western: Two saloon singers run from the law and from a boyfriend by taking jobs as school-marms.
Produced, co-written & directed by Preston Sturges; starring Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, Rudy Vallee, Olga San Juan, Porter Hall, Hugh Herbert, Al Bridge, El Brendel, Sterling Holloway, Dan Jackson & Chester Conklin
Fox color VHS [9/98] out of prodn/used full credits from IMDb |
"Vendetta" [California Pictures Dec 1950]
 | A Sicilian girl pushes her brother to kill the man who murdered their father. Filming was much troubled; Howard asked Preston Sturges to fire Max Ophüls and take over, then fired Sturges; principal filming was in 1946, with re-filming in 1946-47, then re-editing and eventual release in late 1950. The film was a major critical & box-office disaster. Mis-produced by Howard Hughes; directed by Max Ophüls {fired}, Preston Sturges {fired}, Stuart Heisler & Mel Ferrer; adapted by W.R. Burnett, Peter O'Crotty & Preston Sturges, based on the 1840 novel "Columba" by Prosper Mérimée; starring Faith Domergue {Howard's then-protégée}, George Dolenz, Donald Buka, Joseph Calleia, Robert Warwick, Hugo Haas, Hillary Brooke & Nigel Bruce
VHS/DVD/Blu-ray not available • full credits at IMDb |
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"Christmas In July" [NBC-TV Sept 1954] /tt0637683/ episode of "Lux Video Theatre"
"The Great McGinty" [NBC-TV April 1955] /tt0637879/ episode of "Lux Video Theatre"
"Remember The Night" [NBC-TV May 1955] /tt0637814/ episode of "Lux Video Theatre"
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"The French, They Are A Funny Race"
aka "Les Carnets du Major Thompson"
[France Dec 1955, U.S.A. May 1957]
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A lesser work of Sturges, made in France; filmed in both English & French {see Similtaneous Bilingual Film Production}. The story is of a befuddled Englishman in Paris and his attempts at affairs d'amour. Adapted & directed by Preston Sturges, from the hit 1939 novel by Pierre Daninos; starring Jack Buchanan, Martine Carol, Totti Truman Taylor, Catherine Boyl, Andre Luguet, Genevieve Brunet & Noel-Noel
video/DVD not available • full credits from IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia |
Other Works by Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges Broadway stageplay credits [1928-61] at Internet Broadway Database
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"Hotbed" short-lived Broadway play [1928]
Preston Sturges acted in the play, which ran for 19 performances in November 1928; written by Paul Osborn,
produced & co-directed by Brock Pemberton; co-directed by Antoinette Perry • play credits at IBDb
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"The Guinea Pig" Broadway play [1929]
Out-of-town success in Massachusetts in 1928; 64 performances on Broadway in Jan-March 1929;
written & produced by Preston Sturges, staged by Walter Greenough • play credits at IBDb
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"Strictly Dishonorable" hit Broadway stageplay [1929]
 
| 557 performances from Sept 1929 to Jan 1931; written by Preston Sturges, produced & co-directed by Brock Pemberton; co-directed by Antoinette Perry play credits at IBDb • play entry at Wikipedia Samuel French 8x5 pb playscript [4/2010] out of print/used |
 | "Strictly Dishonorable and Other Lost American Plays" [1993] Edited by Richard Nelson includes "The Racket" (1927) by Bartlett Cormack, "Strictly Dishonorable" (1929 Broadway hit) by Preston Sturges, "A Slight Case of Murder" (1935} by Howard Lindsay & Damon Runyon, and "The Ghost of Yankee Doodle" (1937) by Sidney Howard Theatre Commns Group 9x6 pb [1993] for $9.86 |
"A Cup of Coffee: A Comedy About Business" stageplay [1931]
 | Written by Preston Sturges in 1931; adapted as his movie "Christmas In July" [Paramount Oct 1940]; first performed on 25 March 1988 by the Soho Repertory Theatre [est. 1975] at Greenwich House in New York City; performed in 1992 at Pasadena, Poway & Santa Barbara in California.
play entry at Wikipedia Samuel French, Inc. pb playscript [1989] out of print/used |
"Make A Wish" Broadway musical stageplay [1951]
"Carnival In Flanders" Broadway musical stageplay [1953]
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"Preston Sturges By Preston Sturges: His Life In His Words" [1990] Edited by {his widow} Sandy Sturges Touchstone 8½x5½ pb [9/91] for $21.00 S&S hardcover [9/90] out of print/many used |
 | "Five Screenplays by Preston Sturges" [1985] Edited by Brian Henderson collects "The Great McGinty" [1940], "Christmas In July" [1940], "The Lady Eve" [1941], "Sullivan's Travels" [1941], and "Hail The Conquering Hero" [1944] Univ CA Press 9x6 pb [2/86] for $37.95 Univ CA Press 9½x6¾ hardcover [6/85] out of print/used |
 | "Four More Screenplays by Preston Sturges" [1995] Edited by Brian Henderson collects "The Palm Beach Story" [1942], "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" [1944], "The Great Moment" [1944], and "Unfaithfully Yours" [1948] Univ CA Press 9x6 pb [1/96] for $34.36 Univ CA Press 9½x6¼ hardcover [1/95] out of print/used |
 | "Three More Screenplays by Preston Sturges" [1998] Edited by Andrew Horton collects "The Power and The Glory" [1933], "Easy Living" [1937], and "Remember The Night" [1940] Univ CA Press 9x6 pb [8/2006] for $28.36 Univ CA Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [8/98] out of print/used |
Works About Preston Sturges
 | "Between Flops: A Biography of Preston Sturges" [1982] by James Curtis Backinprint.com 9¼x7½ pb [9/2000] for $22.95 Proscenium Publrs 9¼x6 pb [10/84] out of print/used |
 | "Intrepid Laughter: Preston Sturges & The Movies" [1985] by Andrew Dickos
Scarecrow Press 9x5¾ hardcover [6/85] out of print/used |
 | "Romantic Comedy In Hollywood: From Lubitsch To Sturges" [1987] by James Harvey covers masters of the genre Ernst Lubitsch [1892-1947], Frank Capra [1897-1991], George Stevens [1904-75], Howard Hawks [1896-1977] & Preston Sturges [1898-1959], and many actors Da Capo Press 9x6½ pb [1/2001] for $26.00 Knopf hardcover [12/87] out of print/used |
 | "Madcap: The Life of Preston Sturges" [1990] by Donald Spoto
Random House bargain hardcover [7/91] out of print/used Little, Brown hardcover [4/90] out of print/many used |
 | "Christmas In July: The Life & Art of Preston Sturges" [1992] by Diane Jacobs Univ CA Press 8¾x6 pb [10/94] out of print/used Univ CA Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [11/92] out of print/used |
Image Gallery
Family & Friends
Preston Sturges was born in 1898 in Chicago Illinois and died in 1959 in New York City.
first wife Estelle de Wolf Mudge Sturges [] - married 1923, divorced 1927
second wife Eleanor Post Close Hutton Sturges Barzin [1909-2006] - eloped 1930, annulled 1932
third wife Louise Sargeant Tevis Sturges [] - married 1938, divorced 1947
son Solomon Sturges IV [b. 1941] is in real estate
grandchild Shannon Sturges [b. 1968]
fourth wife Anne Margaret 'Sandy' Nagle Sturges [1927-2006] - married 1951, widowed 1959
son Preston Sturges, Jr. [b. 1953] is a lyricist
son Thomas Preston Sturges [b. 1956]
L i n k s
official Preston Sturges website [est. June 1998]
Preston Sturges entry at Wikipedia
Preston Sturges credits [1930-84] at Internet Movie Database
Preston Sturges stageplay credits at Internet Broadway Database
browse Preston Sturges on DVD
EW's Preston Sturges fansite
Hughes & Sturges / California Pictures page at S.I.M.P.P. [est. 1941]
Preston Sturges obituary/article at Ancestry/Rootsweb
here on the Preston Sturges [1898-1959] Page at Magic Lantern Video & Book Store
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