A Hollywood Story – 10

In our continued exploration of Hollywood films—looking at the genre so that you can create your OWN unique Hollywood story to tell—let’s take a look at a classic, Sullivan’s Travels [1941] written and directed by Preston Sturges. It won a single award that year, from the National Board of Review—they included it in their list of what they considered to be the top ten films of the year.

Sullivan’s Travels won no other awards, yet it is considered a comedy classic today. So what gives?

And of note, it was a box office smash when it opened in December of 1941.

You probably remember something else that happened in December of 1941… on December 7^th to be exact?

This film is a comedy about a director of comedies in Hollywood, Joel Sullivan, who decides that what he produces is not important and that with all the poverty and unemployment in the world he should stop living his Hollywood high life and hit the road to meet the “real” people of America. The depression wasn’t yet gone and lots of people were having hard times. He has in mind that he needs to be telling more important stories, not just the silly comedies he’s known for. He has adventures along the way, there’s romance… it’s a comedy that has it all.

The irony is that the film underlines something that was true then and is still true today—comedies don’t win awards, comedies aren’t considered “important” films—so Joel thinks what he does producing popular comedies isn’t enough and that he should be doing “better” films, i.e., more socially relevant films, thus his need to really mix with the common folk.

But what does he discover after the adventure and the romance on his journey? That the “common folk” love nothing more than to forget their troubles in front of a movie screen as they laugh at an entertaining comedy.

Interesting, huh? I’ve seen this time and again in Hollywood and outside of Hollywood.

I know Hollywood writers who feel their ability to create great comedy isn’t meaningful enough so they switch to creating dramas—something they think is more laudatory. And very often? Their dramas just aren’t as good as their comedies.

Then there’s the world outside of Hollywood. My mother is a good example. She spent the last two years of her life in an assisted living facility in the Midwest. Her mobility was slightly limited and she was experiencing short term memory loss, otherwise she was her normal self. But her life didn’t allow her to do the normal activities she had done. Instead, she watched lots of TV. And what shows/movies were her favorites? The ones that made her laugh, that reminded her of the joy of life in all its silliness.

That’s one of the things that Joel Sullivan discovers in his travels—that maybe what he does is worth his time, that it’s important to give the “real” people an escape from their lives. And Sullivan’s Travels did that for America in December of 1941, when the country was reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Lesson? Well, for you, if you happen to be thinking about a comedic Hollywood Story, remember how very important that story can be to people… whether it wins any awards or not!

Copyright © Diane Lake

12May19

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com