Preston Sturges: The Last Years of Hollywood's First Writer-Director

by Nick Smedley, Tom Sturges

Overview

Few directors of the 1930s and ‘40s were as distinctive and popular as Preston Sturges, whose whipsmart comedies have entertained audiences for decades. Beginning with a foreword by Peter Bogdanovich, 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 Drawing on diaries, sketchbooks, correspondence, unpublished screenplays and more, Nick Smedley and Tom Sturges present the writer-director’s final years in more detail than we’ve ever seen, showing a master still at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.
 
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783209927
Publisher:	Intellect, Limited
Publication date:	09/02/2019
Pages:	350
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

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.

Tom Sturges spent 30 years in the music business. His signings include Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, and Outkast. He is the author of three books and a tireless champion of his father’s life and career.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Foreword Peter Bogdanovich xi

Preface Nick Smedley xiii

Part I The Preludes: The Brilliant Career of Preston Sturges, 1940-1949 - A Critical Survey of His Hollywood Films 1

i Beginnings 3

ii The Emergence of a Genius 12

iii Sturges Triumphant 20

iv A Sputtering Flame: The Final Hollywood Films 36

v Conclusion: The Brilliant Career of Preston Sturges 48

Part II The Last Years of Preston sturges, 1949-1959 51

Chapter 1 A Fallen Giant: Adjusting to the New, 1949-1950 53

Chapter 2 Back to the Future: Broadway and Paramount, 1951-1952 67

Chapter 3 Sturges' Travels: Farewell to America, 1953 89

Chapter 4 The Millionairess and the Major: Sturges Returns to Parts, 1954 103

Chapter 5 Americans in Paris: Filming Major Thompson, 1955 129

Chapter 6 American Gangster: The Trials and Tribulations of Independent Film Production, 1956-1957 145

Chapter 7 Farcical Manoeuvres, 1957-1958 161

Chapter 8 New York, New York: Public Hopes, Private Griefs, 1957 177

Chapter 9 For Better or For Worse: Marital Tensions, 1957-1958 195

Chapter 10 Sliding Towards the Brink, January-July 1958 213

Chapter 11 The Road to Despair, July-December 1958 229

Chapter 12 The Conquering Hero: Return to New York, January-March 1959 249

Chapter 13 Triumph over Pain: The Last Happy Months of Preston Sturges, March-August 1959 263

Chapter 14 The Events Have Led Up to His Death, August 1959 277

Afterword P. G. Sturges 285

Appendix 1 Fabulous Inventions 287

Appendix 2 Story Ideas 295

Works Cited 299

Index 301

Editorial Reviews

"A biography that concentrates, in revelatory detail, on Preston’s latter years . . . . often breathtakingly raw."

The Guardian

"A fascinating and revealing book about [Tom Sturges's] father’s 10 years of decline, leading to his death, a decade when he struggled every day to regain his status as Hollywood royalty."

Easy Reader News

Tapping a wealth of fascinating archival material, including telegrams, diaries and screenplay drafts, the co-authors find a story that could have made for one of Sturges’s frenzied farces.

Wall Street Journal - Peter Tonguette

"Other books on the great writer-director Preston Sturges have tended to dismiss his frustrating final years. This one, co-written by his son, emphasizes that part of his life, drawing largely on correspondence between the filmmaker and his last wife Sandy (who kept carbon copies of everything she wrote)."

Leonard Maltin

"A significant contribution to film scholarship."

Washington Post

"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."

Francis Ford Coppola

"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."

Ron Shelton

"It’s a thoroughly researched, illuminating, and heartbreaking portrait of the artist."

Gay City News

"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."

James L. Brooks

"A significant contribution to film scholarship."

Washington Post