Aug 20, 2021
Our second Margaret Sullavan Acteurist Oeuvre-view entry delivers emotional whiplash as we move from King Vidor's Civil War drama So Red the Rose (1935), in which Sullavan plays a southern belle who's forced to mature when the world she knows collapses around her ears, to William Wyler's comedy The Good Fairy (1935), with a screenplay by Preston Sturges, in which she plays a naive orphan who causes complications when she stumbles on an opportunity to do a good deed. We discuss the relationship of So Red the Rose to the Southern Agrarian movement, debate how progressive the film is attempting to be, and make the inevitable comparisons to Gone With the Wind and Wyler's Jezebel. Then we analyze The Good Fairy as a Preston Sturges comedy, only lacking an American setting to be fully recognizable.
0h 1m 00s: SO RED THE ROSE (1935) [dir. King Vidor]
0h 36m 32s: THE GOOD FAIRY (1935) [dir. William Wyler]
1h 28m 12s: Letter from Listener Adam
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* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s
* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)
* Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating.
* Check out Dave’s new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!
*And Read lots of Elise’s Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*
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