The Lady Eve (1941) Blu-ray Coming From Criterion
Since the Criterion Collection gets a lot of love across the Internet, I don’t usually post their monthly upcoming Blu-ray announcements. However, the July 2020 lineup that was posted on Criterion.com today, contained a title from Hollywood’s greatest wit and my personal favorite filmmaker, Preston Sturges. Consequently, I have to share the news.
The classic screwball comedy The Lady Eve (1941) is getting a Blu-ray upgrade on July 14th, with some new features (in addition to the extras from the original Criterion DVD). In addition to The Lady Eve, Criterion announced July Blu-rays of The War of the Worlds (1953), Taste of Cherry (1997), Marriage Story (2019), and a Bruce Lee box set.
Here’s The Lady Eve announcement from Criterion.com:
The Lady Eve (1941)
Barbara Stanwyck sizzles, Henry Fonda bumbles, and Preston Sturges runs riot in one of the all-time great screwballs, a pitch-perfect blend of comic zing and swoonworthy romance. Aboard a cruise liner sailing up the coast of South America, Stanwyck’s conniving card sharp sets her sights on Fonda’s nerdy snake researcher, who happens to be the heir to a brewery fortune. But when the con artist falls for her mark, her grift becomes a game of hearts—and she is determined to win it all. One in a string of matchless comedic marvels that Sturges wrote, directed, and produced as part of a dazzling 1940s run, this gender-flipped battle-of-wits farce is perhaps his most emotionally satisfying work, tempering its sparkling wit with a streak of tender poignancy supplied by the sensational Stanwyck at her peak.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Audio commentary from 2001 featuring film professor Marian Keane
- Introduction from 2001 by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
- Interview from 2020 with writer-director Preston Sturges’s biographer and son Tom Sturges and friends
- New video essay by film critic David Cairns
- Costume designs by Edith Head
- Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1942 featuring Barbara Stanwyck and Ray Milland
- Audio recording of “Up the Amazon,” a song from an unproduced stage musical based on the film
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and a 1946 profile of Preston Sturges from LIFE magazine
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