Full Stop
As a sort of spoiled appetizer to tomorrow’s Film Club look at SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS, The Forgotten today tells the story of Preston Sturges’s last… what’s the opposite of a hurrah? Last boo? At any rate, THE FRENCH THEY ARE A FUNNY RACE, a title which seems to demand point-by-point rebuttal based on the contents of the film, is under analysis over at the Auteurs’ Notebook.
April 22, 2010 at 9:58 pm
It’s great to see this very neglected film get some attention, and I’m happy to see that you were able to obtain a copy. I left some rather vaporous comments at The Auteurs. I think the worst thing about the film is the title–the bawdy rhyme it refers to really mesh with the film, but perhaps Sturges thought he’d draw in more punters that way.
April 22, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Whoops, meant to say “the bawdy rhyme it refers to doesn’t really mesh with the film.”
April 22, 2010 at 10:08 pm
I wonder if it was his title, or something dreamt up by publicists to sell the film abroad? The original title is the same as the book.
April 22, 2010 at 10:25 pm
make straight the way for Aunt Connie!
April 22, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Coming soon! Although at the rate it’s going, probably not till mid-afternoon tomorrow.
April 23, 2010 at 1:05 am
IIRC, Diane Jacobs says the title was chosen by Sturges.
April 23, 2010 at 4:14 am
April 23, 2010 at 6:53 am
It was damned decent of Hope (who outlived his sell-by date, unfortunately, by several decades) to give this part to Mr. Sturges, who was somewhat down on his luck at the time. To see one of the greatest writers of dialog in the English language speaking someone else’s lines, and so convincingly, is simultaneously thrilling and heartbreaking.
April 23, 2010 at 9:37 am
A few Hollywood friends tried to keep Sturges afloat. William Wyler hired him to polish Roman Holiday. Sturges completely rewrote it. Wyler preferred the original, but at least it was a pay day for the great man.
You know, I think Sturges has had a hand in his own dialogue in Paris Holiday… that meaningless “Thank you” is a Sturges trademark, he uses it almost as often as “Phooey.”