On board an ocean liner, the young adventurer Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck), together with her cheating father (Charles Coburn), manages to lure a young and naive millionaire (Henry Fonda) who is fond of snakes, but ends up falling in love with him. After confessing her past to him, Jean is abandoned, and to win him back she must dress up as an English noblewoman, Lady Eve Sidwich…
An authentic gem of the brilliant American comedy of the 1940s, hovering between farce and romance, ‘Lady Eve’ contributed to the definitive affirmation of Preston Stuges’ vivacious and biting talent, “the complete creator of his films” as William Wyler put it. Thanks to the unusual pairing of Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck, who brought out an unprecedented degree of brilliance, Sturges’ film became ‘the most brilliant kind of nonsense’ of its period. ‘Lady Eve’ also boasts a less successful remake, ‘The Birds and the Bees’, directed in 1956 by Norman Taurog.
subject: Monckton Hoffe
script: Preston Sturges, Monckton Hoffe
photography: Victor Milner
music by: Sigmund Krumgold, Leo Shuken, Charles Brashaw
mounting: Stuart Gilmore
scenography: Hans Dreier, Ernst Fegté
other titles: UN COEUR PRIS AU PIEGE, LADY EVA, THE LADY EVE
color: Bianco & Nero
production company: Paramount Pictures
Su gentile concessione dell'Ente dello Spettacolo
