Truly Dreadful Film

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

A rather strange slapstick comedy with a rather simplistic, albeit honest message, in the end. A successful Hollywood filmmaker hits the road disguised as a poor man so that he can gather material for a film that he plans to make (named O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU).Much of the film is about the director's slap-sticky adventures on the road including a great car/truck chase scene, life with two spinster sisters and an affair with a Hollywood hopeful. Some of the slap-sticky comedy scenes seemed to be uninspired - like the scene at the swimming pool at the director's mansion. The film's second half is quite downbeat with the director being thrown into jail and finally learning that the best he can do for the poor is make them laugh.I liked the dialogs and the sharp one liners over the slapstick comedy scenes. The supporting cast (especially ROBERT GREIG as the butler who mouths the most profound dialog in the film) was excellent.It is a bit of a genre bending film and hard to classify. The film begins with a pulsating action scene atop a train that turns out to be a bunch of studio executives watching a film.Anyway, I'm from a different era and was unable to appreciate this completely. but I enjoyed most of it.(7/10)

The movie's an audacious comedy-drama. The comedy shows up in a number of slapstick sketches like the run-away trailer coach, plus snappy dialog. However, director Sturges took a real chance by shifting gears into dark melodrama of the prison farm. On the whole, it works without too many seams showing. Frankly, the Veronica Lake role appears unnecessary. But her star was rising and was no doubt a big marquee plus. At the same time, seeing McCrea in this cosmopolitan role takes some getting used to if you're used to his laconic westerns. Still, he does well enough. And whose burst of inspiration was the Black minister and congregation, plus the poignant gospel number, Go Down Moses. Catch the hymn's refrain about "letting my people go". In the movie's context, that suggests the Blacks are imprisoned as much as the convicts, even if within a different kind of prison. Still, I'm not sure I agree with the movie's overall message. Of course, comedy and laughter are especially important to the aggrieved and downtrodden. Still, social message films can provide hope and inspiration for those who actually need to change onerous conditions. Trouble is that director Sullivan renounces protest films in favor of comedy, and that strikes me as a retreat into easy commercialism. However, that probably suited movie industry's interests in not rocking the political boat. Anyway, this observation aside, the movie remains an effective combination of comedy, drama and societal expose.

excellent movie that we can easily proclaim a masterpiece. before i go into it...i want to tell you how proud i am to be Canadian. the bickering and hate love of whits and blacks is so infantile and gross. it has been going on for years...stop it already. the black man on the yacht car was not laughed at because of being black.....it was his situation that was funny. one other person said how can grown men laugh at a mickey mouse film....darn it they hadn't seen films for months and were locked up in the dark. veronica lake for the first time surprised me....she is small i see it now. an OK actress who was beginning to show promise but it didn't last. Joel a super star that rendered his role real well. superb supporting cast....and a top notch storyline and director Preston sturges

It starts out great. But then some of the extreme slapstick physical comedy is just not funny today; lot of "falling down or falling in the water" jokes. There is greatness all around this movie, but it never feels focused enough to say what it wants. Still it has to be admired for daring to go someplace no one else could have even imagined back in 1941. And remember, though there were movies about Hollywood afterwards no one went anywhere near this until Fellini. But watching it for the first time today in many years, I was surprised how difficult it was to get involved. It seemed to stop and restart so many times that I got impatient. Still the scene where the prisoners watch the cartoon is undeniably one of the most moving moments in American screen history. And it is also easy to see how many future directors took their lead from what Sturges was trying to do here. Ambition alone can sometimes be quite rewarding.