Directing

Preston Sturges

Born August 29, 1898 · Chicago, Illinois, USA

Died August 6, 1959 · aged 60

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Preston Sturges (29 August 1898 – 6 August 1959), originally Edmund Preston Biden, was a celebrated playwright, screenwriter and film director born in Chicago, Illinois. In 1941 he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film The Great McGinty. Sturges took the screwball comedy format of the 1930s to another level, writing dialogue that, …

Known For

The Lady Eve

The Lady Eve · 1941

MovieComedyRomance

It's no accident when wealthy Charles falls for Jean. Jean is a con artist with her sights set on Charles' fortune. Matters complicate when Jean starts falling for her mark. When Charles suspects Jean is a gold digger, he dumps her. Jean, fixated on revenge and still pining for the millionaire, devises a plan to get back in Charles' life. With love and payback on her mind, she re-introduces herself to Charles, this time as an aristocrat named Lady Eve Sidwich.

Sullivan's Travels

Sullivan's Travels · 1941

Sullivan's Travels

MovieComedyRomance

Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterpiece until he has suffered, dons a hobo disguise and sets off on a journey, aiming to "know trouble" first-hand. When all he finds is a train ride back to Hollywood and a beautiful blonde companion, he redoubles his efforts, managing to land himself in more trouble than he bargained for when he loses his memory and ends up a prisoner on a chain gang.

I Married a Witch

I Married a Witch · 1942

I Married a Witch

MovieRomanceFantasy

A 17th-century witch returns to wreak havoc in the life of a descendant of the Puritan witch hunter who burned her, but runs afoul of her father when she discovers that her mischief might have found her true love.

Unfaithfully Yours

Unfaithfully Yours · 1984

Unfaithfully Yours

MovieComedyRomance

A composer—who suspects his wife of cheating—plots to kill her and frame it on her lover, but things don't turn out as planned.

Easy Living

Easy Living · 1937

MovieComedyRomance

J.B. Ball, a rich financier, gets fed up with his free-spending family. He takes his wife's just-bought (very expensive) sable coat and throws it out the window, it lands on poor hard-working girl Mary Smith. But it isn't so easy to just give away something so valuable, as he soon learns.

Hotel Haywire

Hotel Haywire · 1937

Parkhouse plays a practical joke on a poker-playing buddy by sending him home with a lady's chemise stuffed in his coat pocket. The gag backfires, whereupon Parkhouse finds himself in hot water with his own wife. Threatened with divorce, Parkhouse is advised by a zany astrologer to frame Mrs. P. in a compromising situation at the Hotel Haywire, enlisting amateur detectives Bert and Genevieve Sterns in his scheme.

Remember the Night

Remember the Night · 1940

Remember the Night

MovieComedyRomance

Unexpected love blossoms when an assistant district attorney agrees to take a recidivist shoplifter home so she doesn't have to spend Christmas alone in jail.

The Palm Beach Story

The Palm Beach Story · 1942

The Palm Beach Story

MovieComedyRomance

A New York inventor, Tom Jeffers, needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife, Gerry, decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire, J. D. Hackensacker III.

Filmography

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The Lady Eve

The Lady Eve · 1941

MovieComedyRomance

It's no accident when wealthy Charles falls for Jean. Jean is a con artist with her sights set on Charles' fortune. Matters complicate when Jean starts falling for her mark. When Charles suspects Jean is a gold digger, he dumps her. Jean, fixated on revenge and still pining for the millionaire, devises a plan to get back in Charles' life. With love and payback on her mind, she re-introduces herself to Charles, this time as an aristocrat named Lady Eve Sidwich.

Director

Sullivan's Travels

Sullivan's Travels · 1941

Sullivan's Travels

MovieComedyRomance

Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterpiece until he has suffered, dons a hobo disguise and sets off on a journey, aiming to "know trouble" first-hand. When all he finds is a train ride back to Hollywood and a beautiful blonde companion, he redoubles his efforts, managing to land himself in more trouble than he bargained for when he loses his memory and ends up a prisoner on a chain gang.

Director

I Married a Witch

I Married a Witch · 1942

I Married a Witch

MovieRomanceFantasy

A 17th-century witch returns to wreak havoc in the life of a descendant of the Puritan witch hunter who burned her, but runs afoul of her father when she discovers that her mischief might have found her true love.

Producer

Unfaithfully Yours

Unfaithfully Yours · 1984

Unfaithfully Yours

MovieComedyRomance

A composer—who suspects his wife of cheating—plots to kill her and frame it on her lover, but things don't turn out as planned.

Original Film Writer

Easy Living

Easy Living · 1937

MovieComedyRomance

J.B. Ball, a rich financier, gets fed up with his free-spending family. He takes his wife's just-bought (very expensive) sable coat and throws it out the window, it lands on poor hard-working girl Mary Smith. But it isn't so easy to just give away something so valuable, as he soon learns.

Screenplay

Hotel Haywire

Hotel Haywire · 1937

Parkhouse plays a practical joke on a poker-playing buddy by sending him home with a lady's chemise stuffed in his coat pocket. The gag backfires, whereupon Parkhouse finds himself in hot water with his own wife. Threatened with divorce, Parkhouse is advised by a zany astrologer to frame Mrs. P. in a compromising situation at the Hotel Haywire, enlisting amateur detectives Bert and Genevieve Sterns in his scheme.

Writer

Remember the Night

Remember the Night · 1940

Remember the Night

MovieComedyRomance

Unexpected love blossoms when an assistant district attorney agrees to take a recidivist shoplifter home so she doesn't have to spend Christmas alone in jail.

Screenplay

The Palm Beach Story

The Palm Beach Story · 1942

The Palm Beach Story

MovieComedyRomance

A New York inventor, Tom Jeffers, needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife, Gerry, decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire, J. D. Hackensacker III.

Director

Unfaithfully Yours

Unfaithfully Yours · 1948

Unfaithfully Yours

MovieComedyRomance

Before he left for a brief European visit, symphony conductor Sir Alfred De Carter casually asked his staid brother-in-law August to look out for his young wife, Daphne, during his absence. August has hired a private detective to keep tabs on her. But when the private eye's report suggests Daphne might have been canoodling with his secretary, Sir Alfred begins to imagine how he might take his revenge.

Director

Hail the Conquering Hero

Hail the Conquering Hero · 1944

Hail the Conquering Hero

Having been discharged from the Marines for a hayfever condition before ever seeing action, Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith delays the return to his hometown, feeling that he is a failure. While in a moment of melancholy, he meets up with a group of Marines who befriend him and encourage him to return home to his mother by fabricating a story that he was wounded in battle with honorable discharge.

Director

Christmas in July

Christmas in July · 1940

Christmas in July

MovieComedyRomance

An office clerk loves entering contests in the hopes of someday winning a fortune and marrying the girl he loves. His latest attempt is the Maxford House Coffee Slogan Contest. As a joke, some of his co-workers put together a fake telegram which says that he won the $25,000 grand prize.

Director

Rock-a-Bye Baby

Rock-a-Bye Baby · 1958

Rock-a-Bye Baby

An average television repairman must care for the newborn triplets of his former hometown sweetheart—now a famous movie star—so her career will not suffer.

Story

Twentieth Century

Twentieth Century · 1934

Twentieth Century

MovieComedyRomance

A temperamental Broadway producer trains an untutored actress, but when she becomes a star, she proves a match for him.

Writer

The Good Fairy

The Good Fairy · 1935

MovieComedyRomance

In 1930s Budapest, naïve orphan Luisa Ginglebuscher becomes an usherette at the local movie house, determined to succeed in her first job by doing good deeds for others and maintaining her purity. Luisa's well-meaning lies get her caught between a lecherous businessman, Konrad, and a decent but confused doctor, Max Sporum. When Luisa convinces Konrad that she's married to Max, Konrad tries everything he can to get rid of the baffled doctor.

Screenplay

If I Were King

If I Were King · 1938

MovieAdventureHistory

King Louis XI masquerades as a commoner in Paris, seeking out the treachery he is sure lurks in his kingdom. At a local tavern, he overhears the brash poet François Villon extolling why he would be a better king. Annoyed yet intrigued, the King bestows on Villon the title of Grand Constable. Soon Villon begins work and falls for a lovely lady-in-waiting, but then must flee execution when the King turns on him.

Screenplay

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek · 1944

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

MovieComedyRomance

A small-town girl with a soft spot for American soldiers wakes up the morning after a wild farewell party for the troops to find that she married someone she can't remember.

Director

The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend

The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend · 1949

The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend

MovieComedyWestern

Saloon-bar singer Freddie gets very angry whenever boyfriend Blackie seems to be playing around. She always packs a six-shooter, so this is bad news for anything that happens to be in the way. As this is usually the local judge's rear-end, Freddie and friend Conchita are soon hiding out teaching school in the middle of nowhere.

Director

The Sin of Harold Diddlebock

The Sin of Harold Diddlebock · 1947

The Sin of Harold Diddlebock

Twenty-three years after scoring the winning touchdown for his college football team mild-mannered Harold Diddlebock, who has been stuck in a dull, dead-end book-keeping job for years, is let go by his pompous boss, advertising tycoon J.E. Wagglebury, with nothing but a tiny pension. Harold, who never touches the stuff, takes a stiff drink with his new pal... and another, and another. What happened Wednesday?

Director

Thirty Day Princess

Thirty Day Princess · 1934

Thirty Day Princess

MovieComedyRomance

A European princess arrives in New York City to secure a much-needed loan for her country. She contracts the mumps, and an actress who looks exactly like her is hired to impersonate her.

Screenplay

The Great McGinty

The Great McGinty · 1940

The Great McGinty

Told in flashback, Depression-era bum Dan McGinty is recruited by the city's political machine to help with vote fraud. His great aptitude for this brings rapid promotion from "the boss," who finally decides he'd be ideal as a new, nominally "reform" mayor; but this candidacy requires marriage. His in-name-only marriage to honest Catherine proves the beginning of the end for dishonest Dan...

Director

Paris Holiday

Paris Holiday · 1958

MovieRomanceComedy

Comedian Bob Hunter is aided by his French counterpart Fernydel and two beautiful blondes when he is targeted for death by a powerful European counterfeiting ring.

Serge Vitry

Strictly Dishonorable

Strictly Dishonorable · 1931

Strictly Dishonorable

MovieDramaRomance

A hopelessly silly young flibbertigibbet from Mississippi is faced with the choice of her poor, boorish New Jersey boyfriend or a dashing Opera star, a man of experience.

Theatre Play

The Great Moment

The Great Moment · 1944

The Great Moment

MovieComedyDrama

The biography of Dr. W.T. Morgan, a 19th century Boston dentist, during his quest to have anesthesia, in the form of ether, accepted by the public and the medical and dental establishment.

Director

Star Spangled Rhythm

Star Spangled Rhythm · 1942

Star Spangled Rhythm

MovieComedyMusic

Pop, a security guard at Paramount has told his son that he's the head of the studio. When his son arrives in Hollywood on shore leave with his buddies, Pop enlists the aid of the studio's dizzy switchboard operator in pulling off the charade. Things get more complicated when Pop agrees to put together a show for the Navy starring Paramount's top contract players.

Preston Sturges