Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges (Book)
The Last Years of Hollywood's First Writer-Director
Few directors of the 1930s and 40s were as distinctive and popular as Preston Sturges, whose whipsmart comedies have entertained audiences for decades. This book offers a new critical appreciation of Sturges’ whole oeuvre, incorporating a detailed study of the last ten years of his life from new primary sources.
Edition
Few directors of the 1930s and 40s were as distinctive and popular as Preston Sturges, whose whipsmart comedies have entertained audiences for decades. This book offers a new critical appreciation of Sturges' whole oeuvre, incorporating a detailed study of the last ten years of his life from new primary sources. Preston Sturges details the many unfinished projects of Sturges' last decade, including films, plays, TV series and his autobiography. Drawing on diaries, sketchbooks, correspondence, unpublished screenplays and more, Nick Smedley and Tom Sturges present the writer-director's final years in more detail than we've ever seen, showing a master still at work – even if very little of that work ultimately made it to the screen or stage.
Nick Smedley is the author of A Divided World: Hollywood Cinema and Emigre Directors in the Era of Roosevelt and Hitler and The Roots of Modern Hollywood. He taught an MA module in recent Hollywood history at Birkbeck College, London, in 2008. Since then, he has been a freelance lecturer at film societies and cinemas in Chichester, the New Forest, Wimbledon and Central London.
Tom Sturges is the son of Preston Sturges and the author of three books: Parking Lot Rules, Grow The Tree You Got and Every Idea Is a Good Idea, all published with Penguin Random House. He teaches music business at UCLA and is both an artist manager and consultant. He has been widely recognized for mentoring at-risk, inner-city children and is the father of three sons.
Foreword by Peter Bogdanovich
Preface by Nick Smedley
Part I
The Preludes: The Brilliant Career of Preston Sturges, 1940–1949 — A Critical Survey of His Hollywood Films
1. Beginnings
2. The Emergence of a Genius
3. Sturges Triumphant
4. A Sputtering Flame: The Final Hollywood Films
5. Conclusion: The Brilliant Career of Preston Sturges
Part II
The Last Years of Preston Sturges, 1949–1959
Chapter 1: A Fallen Giant: Adjusting to the New, 1949–1950
Chapter 2: Back to the Future: Broadway and Paramount, 1951–1952
Chapter 3: Sturges’ Travels: Farewell to America, 1953
Chapter 4: The Millionairess and the Major: Sturges Returns to Paris, 1954
Chapter 5: Americans in Paris: Filming Major Thompson, 1955
Chapter 6: American Gangster: The Trials and Tribulations of Independent Film Production, 1956–1957
Chapter 7: Farcical Manoeuvres, 1957–1958
Chapter 8: New York, New York: Public Hopes, Private Griefs, 1957
Chapter 9: For Better or For Worse: Marital Tensions, 1957–1958
Chapter 10: Sliding Towards the Brink, January–July 1958
Chapter 11: The Road to Despair, July–December 1958
Chapter 12: The Conquering Hero: Return to New York, January–March 1959
Chapter 13: Triumph over Pain: The Last Happy Months of Preston Sturges, March–August 1959
Chapter 14: The Events Have Led Up to His Death, August 1959
Afterword by P. G. Sturges
Appendix 1: Fabulous Inventions
Appendix 2: Story Ideas
‘A fascinating account of Preston Sturges, who wrote and directed some of the great treasures of cinema and has remained as mysterious as his God-given talent.’
‘The unknown final chapter in the life of American comic genius Preston Sturges after his meteoric rise and fall, revealed in great detail by Nick Smedley and Tom Sturges.’
‘Every past, present and future screenwriter owes Preston Sturges big time. He was the first Hollywood screenwriter to control his own work by becoming film's first writer-director. I owe him my hyphen as well as my pure awe of his talent. And now, finally, in this book, the whole story of his life and times and his forever-golden work.’
