clanciai This isn't easy for Henry Fonda, being rather backward with a sole life interest in snakes and other reptiles and being the only son of a multi-millionaire of beer, who wants to get him married at any price with whomever, and so he meets with the worst possible death trap for a bachelor, Barbara Stanwyck at her smartest and loveliest, partnering her father in cheating at cards. Charles Coburn is that father and makes the best of it as another father who wants his daughter married at any price with whomever as long as he is rich. This film was entirely made for fun, and there are many irregularities, but it's the fun that counts. Mind all the whistles. They play an important part symbolically and make the finale. Eric Blore is another bloke cheating the heads off of all society and entering just at the right critical moment to save the situation by doubling the trouble, together with Eugene Palette in on of his many exhilarating performances, making the company of merry rogues complete. Everyone dominating the stage here is a cheat with accomplished faked identities and playing for kicks, except poor Henry Fonda, who is totally honest and innocent and is well taken care of and fares the better off for not understanding a thing. His silliness is adorable throughout the film, and his play-acting as this very odd character is a marvel, matching Barbara's resplendent superiority perfectly. No wonder she has to fall for him, while he just follows her in the fall... The music also plays an important part, and even Wagner's Pilgrim Chorus adds solemnly to the comedy at another of the film's multitude of moments of enjoying hypocrisy.One of the most hilarious comedies of all time, and you can see it many times and still enjoy its freshness.

erictopp I had high expectations for this film. I liked the quirky "Sullivan's Travels" and wanted to see what Preston Sturgess could do with a screwball comedy.Unfortunately, "The Lady Eve" was a disappointment. The opening scene introduces Charles (Henry Fonda), a dedicated ophidiologist. Then we meet Jean (Barbara Stanwyck) and Harrington (Charles Coburn), a couple of professional gamblers looking to take money off rich suckers aboard a cruise liner. There is some snappy dialog as Jean targets Charles for a take-down. Stanwyck has charisma in this role and the supporting cast do a fine job up to this point.Then things go off the rails. Charles is boring and Fonda gives no life to this character. Why a cynic like Jean should go gooey-eyed over him is absurd. I dislike movies where the romantic leads say "I love you" when there is nothing to make you think these are anything more than words in a script.The setup for this supposed romance is stupid. Jean finds that Charles' passion is for snakes. She is deathly afraid of snakes. This could be an act but her running out of his cabin and down the stairs is sped up for a cheap gag. Will he give up snakes for her? No! So now she is in love and wants to marry him?That is pretty much the end of the snake theme. After the opening credits, we are led to expect that snakes and the legend of Eve must be a big part of this story. A snake appears in a brief scene at the Pike mansion later. Will a snake appear at the wedding to reveal Eve is Jean after all? No!There are a couple of other things in the film that go nowhere. On the ship, Charles goes dizzy at the smell of Jean's perfume. At the mansion, Eve wears the same perfume but Charles refuses to believe that Eve is Jean. When Charles is courting Eve, the horse misbehaves. They shoot the scene from a different angle with the horse in shot. If this is meant to be a sight gag, it doesn't work.The final scene is ridiculous. Charles is back on a ship where he meets Jean again. Why is he on a ship? Why is Jean there? Most importantly, why does Charles say he is in love with Jean? It makes no sense.Screwball comedies are funny. This is not.For a much better movie about a con artist marrying a clumsy naturalist, watch "A New Leaf" instead.

mmallon4 The Lady Eve is a conflicting film. The first hour is some of the most perfect romantic comedy I've ever seen, however it falls apart around the one hour mark. However what is it that makes the first hour so perfect? Firstly it didn't take too long for me to realise that Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck are one of the most flawless screen pairings ever, the perfect combination of sexy meets innocent. Watching these two I get the impression they must have been head over heels for each other. I've read that apparently Henry Fonda would later tell his wife he was still in love with Barbara Stanwyck, dam! But then again, after having your hair caressed by Stanwyck for 3 minutes and 51 seconds, who wouldn't be?!The Lady Eve is a prime example of a "How did they get away with that?!" movie. I'm not aware of what Stanwyck's ideological or moral beliefs where but a number of her films are some of most sexually suggestive old Hollywood films I've seen. There's her pre-code work such as Baby Face but in the post code era we have Ball of Fire, Double Indemnity and of course, The Lady Eve. Call me old-fashioned but movies were sexier when the actors kept their clothes on. Vilma Banky did more with one raised eyebrow than an entire (Warning! Problem in Sector 7G).So where does it all go wrong, well about 50 minutes into The Lady Eve, the movie pulls my least favourite movie cliché of all time, "the liar revealed". You know, when a character is exposed as a fraud causing a relationship to end, even though you know they're going to get back together again by the end of the movie. Having this cliché is bad enough, however I thought it was only a contrived modern invention but here it is in 1941. At least they don't drag it out like any rubbish modern day romantic comedy would. I've found Preston Sturges' films to be indiscipline, his films all have their moments of greatness but at times they delve into over the top absurdity, even by screwball comedy standards. During the later part of The Lady Eve it's hard to buy into Stanwyck disguising herself as another woman who doesn't look massively different from her previous self in order to win back Henry Fonda. Oh and he buys into the charade, the dope! Part of me wished the entire movie could have just been the two of them on the boat and it would have been a perfect film, however the final third still has some hilarious moments, such as Eugene Palette frantically banging the table demanding his breakfast, or Fonda getting his suit destroyed three times at a party, a perfectly timed slapstick gag if I've ever seen one.On a second viewing of The Lady Eve I still have the same reaction to the first hour but I did find myself more forgiving of the last third. With my love of screwball comedies and the pairing of Stanwyck and Fonda, perhaps with additional future viewings I may become completely forgiving of the last half hour. The first hour is just that perfect.

jbirks106 I realize that the screwball comedy genre has its own kind of logic, but "The Lady Eve" strikes me as having no logic at all. Though well written, which one expects from a Sturges film, I came away with the unsettling sense that the audience was being played for suckers. The turning point in the film appears to be the moment when Hopsie was presented with a photo of Jean and her father as evidence of their swindling career. This can come as no surprise to the audience, which has already seen how the Colonel can turn a five-card nothing into four kings, then four aces. But can a supposed scientist (I forget the proper name for "snake hunter") be so gullible as to fall for his blatant card-sharpery? And when he confronts Jean with the photo, can his sense of betrayal and humiliation really be so shocking to her? Yet this event sends Jean on a completely preposterous crusade of revenge. What exactly is her trick? To pose as an upper-class Brit who, by coincidence, looks exactly like Jean. And though Muggsy, Hopsie's dimwit ward, sees though the imposture immediately, our scientist falls for it, literally and figuratively, in no time.Jean/Eve finally delivers the coup de grace while on their honeymoon -- in a train, of course. As she divulges her numerous supposed dalliances, Sturges intercuts shots of train whistles, lightning and the obligatory tunnel. Maybe this Freudian stuff was novel back in 1941; today it verges on self- parody. Watching Hopsie detrain with a muddy pratfall (one of literally dozens in the film), Eve/Jean seems to have an attack of conscience, as though she's just now realizing he "the only man I ever loved." Stanwyck is sensational, even if her character(s) make no sense at all. William Demarest is very good, and occasionally hilarious, as Muggsy. The whole case, in fact, is first-rate. But Fonda's character is impossible to sympathize with, let alone root for, so improbably clueless and clumsy is Hopsie. Is he really surprised that an English aristocrat is not a virgin (the whole point of the setup)? Is he really so stupid as to fall for a grifter not once, but twice? Yes, evidently he is. It's clear to me that his real element is with the snakes of the Amazon, not those of Connecticut.