Preston Sturges’ “golden rules” for successful comedy:
A pretty girl is better than a plain one
A leg is better than an arm
A bedroom is better than a living room
An arrival is better that a departure
A birth is better than a death
A chase is better than a chat
A dog is better than a landscape
A kitten is better than a dog
A baby is better than a kitten
A kiss is better than a baby
A pratfall is better than anything.
Sturges’ own life is as unlikely as some of the plots of his best work.
He was born into a wealthy family. As a boy he helped out on stage productions for his mother’s friend, Isadora Duncan (the scarf that strangled her was made by his mother’s company, Maison Desti).
He served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during WWI.
Upon his return to Maison Desti, he invented a kissproof lipstick, Red-Red Rouge, in 1920. Shortly after his first marriage, his mother demanded that he return control of the company to her.
Kicked out of Maison Desti, he turned to inventing.
A tickertape machine, an intaglio photo-etching process, an automobile and an airplane were among his some of his commercially unsuccessful inventions.
He began writing stories and, while recovering from an appendectomy in 1929, wrote his first play, “The Guinea Pig.” In financial trouble over producing his plays, he moved to Hollywood in 1932 to make money.
It wasn’t long before he became frustrated by the lack of control he had over his work and wanted to direct the scripts he wrote.
Paramount gave him this chance as part of a deal for selling his script for “The Great McGinty” (1940), at a cheap price.
The film’s success launched his career as writer/director and he had several hits over the next four years.
That success emboldened him to become an independent filmmaker, but that did not last long–he had a string of commercial failures and acquired a reputation as an expensive perfectionist.
Sturges wrote the screenplay for “The Lady Eve” (1941) specifically for Barbara Stanwyck, and while he was in Reno, Nevada awaiting his third divorce. Stanwyck and Henry Fonda rarely retired to their dressing rooms between takes. Instead, they hung out with Sturges, listening to his stories and reviewing, and often re-writing, their lines.
Sturges always handled his stars with kid gloves but took out his frustrations on the members of his stock company.
At one point during filming, when he couldn’t get Fonda and Stanwyck to read a scene the way he wanted, he stalked over to William Demarest, who wasn’t even in the scene, and barked, “And don’t talk so damn fast!”
To maintain a light atmosphere on the set, Sturges encouraged visitors. Friends, press representatives and even the general public were free to visit his sets and watch him at work. With so many people on the set, Sturges dressed eccentrically so that he would stand out.
He usually wore either a brightly colored beret or a hat with a feather in it. This sartorial splendor led to his being dubbed the worst-dressed man in Hollywood.
“When the last dime is gone, I’ll sit on the curb outside with a pencil and a ten-cent notebook and start the whole thing over again.” (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Preston Sturges (in the center; see “hat with feather” reference above)!