Sullivan's Travels (1941)
This comedy / satire was a first time viewing for me and it blew me away. The story about a famed Hollywood director tired of making comedy and musical motion pictures hits on the idea of making a socially relevant drama along the lines of the novel O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Dressing as a tramp he sets off out of Hollywood to see where the journey takes him.
The mark of a great film can sometimes be it's unpredictability and director Preston Sturgess certainly achieved that. I genuinely had no idea where the road would take Sullivan, quite brilliantly played by Joel McCrea, in fact i won't go into the events of the film as it's definitely worth discovering for yourselves. All i will say is he meets the lovely Veronica Lake in a roadside diner and a love affair blossoms over the course of the movie. The film is funny, it's also oddly disturbing and proves that in all walks of life men are both kind and decent and throughly despicable too. Although not the same men.
Sullivan's Travels is one of those films where i almost don't feel qualified to discuss it yet but is one of the best new to me films i've seen in months and just know i'll be returning to it time and again in the future.
An amazing film!
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