Preston Sturges came to be known for his screwball comedies. When he wrote Sullivan’s Travels it was in response to his contemporaries continued attempt to replace comedy and laughs for meaning within the comedy genre. He believed that the country always needed and would continue to need the laughter provided by the comedies he made as life is difficult enough on it’s own. To show more difficulty on screen just adds to the strife of life and gives no reprieve for the belabored spirit.
Sturges was a writer/director who became a man ahead of his time. He wrote for his actors in such a way so as to ensure they were realistic. Instead of insisting on “comedic” dialogue, he chose to have people be real people and simply find themselves in strange circumstances that made the scene funny. Sturges came to be known as a man who would cross a line well before others would because he believed in it. An example is that most scripts at the time were written by teams of writers. Well, Sturges bucked that tradition and went solo. This changed the landscape for the writer’s market and with his increase in pay showed that flying solo could prove financially lucrative.
As a writer/director, Sturges would further break away from the standards of writing by going into directing his own screenplays. At the time most writers didn’t get the opportunity to direct, Sturges parlayed a deal with Paramount (they paid him $10 for his screenplay so long as he could direct) into a successful directing career that paved the way for such greats as Billy Wilder and John Huston.
