The Lady Eve

"Let us be crooked, but never common!"

Preston Sturges's The Lady Eve (1941) plays beautifully with screwball comedy tropes. At first glance a typically convoluted romcom, its elegantly crafted silliness makes it a genre standout.

Con artist Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck) works with her father (Charles Coburn) to swindle rich passengers on an ocean liner. Their latest mark is heir Charles Pike (Henry Fonda), a snake expert returning from South America. Jean starts to woo Charles into a card game, only to find he's smarter than he looks. ...