Review: Sullivan’s Travels

Directed by: Preston Sturges

Written by: Preston Sturges

Starring: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick, William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn 

Rating: [4/5]

To truly tell stories of populations and areas one does not identify with, research must be conducted to get any level of accuracy across. This has led many filmmakers to spend time with populations prior to crafting a film about them, rightfully. Sullivan’s Travels exhibits this particular journey as a filmmaker who wants to experience poverty in order to catalog making for quite the ride. 

Tired of directing comedies, Hollywood filmmaker, John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea) wants to create something more realistic and dramatic about the everyday working people. This leads him to forsake his current lifestyle for the moment and try to live as a poor person in order to understand how they live allowing for a spark of inspiration to strike. 

Certainly well-intentioned in its presentation, Sullivan’s Travels borders very closely on being an absolutely cruel story about a rich man learning about poor people to extract information for his next project only to retreat back to his palatial mansion afterward. Quite distasteful if not for this feature operating as a satire of this practice with the protagonist of the feature serving as the bud of the joke in this narrative in this ridiculous stunt bringing much more than he bargained for. The fun of the feature comes from him trying to get out of the holes he’s gotten himself into. 

Through this journey, it reveals something quite enlightening and surprisingly to Joel but also something fairly integral to understanding how most of the moviegoing public thinks. Films serve as an escape from their world, a place where they can shut off their brains and not want to watch something reminding them of a life they seek a break from. In fact, Joel’s journey as a poor person lays that completely out for them especially when most individuals sit on the same level as them and not him on the rung of the socioeconomic ladder he sits on. This fascination he has in crafting a feature about the people lies only lies with him because of his position and not necessarily the public wants to watch. Something others could tell him without him going to the lengths he does in this feature but then we lose out on the fun. 

As he traverses these plains of the less fortunate, John learns plenty about how things work when individuals do not have paid staff to take care of the more unsavory tasks for them. It allows several humorous moments of realization for him as a clash appears right before him and he does not quite know how to properly react to it all. Whether it appears in his time in the soup kitchens or homeless shelters he sees it all and certainly does not handle it all in the way individuals subjected to the lifestyle would, making him stand out.  This then brings the introduction of the struggling young actor portrayed by Veronica Lake bringing all of the energy this feature needed to serve as the counterbalance to John.

Lake serves as the individual trying to show him the reality of circumstances for underprivileged individuals and with a nameless character she pretty much steals the entire show. The chemistry she builds with Joel McCrea proves quite a dynamite as their dynamic and delivery of the sharp dialogue employed in this feature work exquisitely well. Something to appreciate as they get some meaty material to sink their teeth into allowing them to shine in their own way. Through this performance, Lake becomes the heart and soul of the feature as she learns what John seeks to do through this venture. 

Releasing this feature in the same year as The Lady Eve demonstrated, director Preston Sturgess was on a complete tear right from the start of his career in a major way. With this feature serving as the fourth film in his first two years as a director, he makes quite the mark here. As a director himself, putting together this feature certainly makes for quite an interesting opportunity to reflect on his own style and views on filmmaking. Someone who definitely made a name for himself as a comedic director, displaying John’s approach makes complete sense and falls right in line with what he likes to piece together in this story. Sturgess keeps everything incredibly lively in this feature ensuring the entertainment aspect as well as the satirical message he wishes to convey work together well. 

Bundles of fun and well-crafted, Sullivan’s Travels presents quite the premise but handles it very well overall. We get several wacky moments to enjoy the hijinks involved while laughing at John’s plight in this ridiculous stunt of his. In the attempt to highlight the way others without the same amount of resources live, he very much displays how much this cosplay can switch up on him. He certainly gets in hot water in some instances but undoubtedly uses his name to get him out when necessary. Quite the fool, but a lovable fool in this journey of his.