"Sullivan's Travels"--along with "The Palm Beach Story"--is a movie that keeps coming up over and over again in books, reviews, articles, and TV specials as being one of *the* classic comedies, but it's kind of hard to find (at least it has been for me). So I was thrilled when Turner Classic Movies decided to air it recently. This is why I wish I liked it better.
Leonard Maltin says in his review that the film blends comedy and sorrow "seamlessly," but I disagree. The first 30 or 45 minutes of the movie were terrific. The action was funny, the dialogue was smart and crisp, Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake played off of one another fabulously. But right around the time of the "hobo montage," the tone shifts gears and gets too somber. By the time the movie turned into "I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang," it had lost me.
I give it high marks for its wit, and I certainly wouldn't tell anyone not to see it. But for me the sudden transition from screwball to preachy makes this a pretty good comedy rather than a great one.
Leonard Maltin says in his review that the film blends comedy and sorrow "seamlessly," but I disagree. The first 30 or 45 minutes of the movie were terrific. The action was funny, the dialogue was smart and crisp, Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake played off of one another fabulously. But right around the time of the "hobo montage," the tone shifts gears and gets too somber. By the time the movie turned into "I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang," it had lost me.
I give it high marks for its wit, and I certainly wouldn't tell anyone not to see it. But for me the sudden transition from screwball to preachy makes this a pretty good comedy rather than a great one.