Rating: 
Summary: Nothing could be nicer...
Review: Is there a better movie out there than this one for brightening one's spirits? I don't think so. I will not give away any of the wacky plot details, which are typical of Preston Sturgis. Needless to say, Barbara Stanwyck plays, what used to be called an "adventuress" who is on the prowl for an easy mark while on an ocean cruise, with card shark of a father. Enter Henry Fonda and a snake. I intend not to spoil the viewing of anyone who has not seen this movie, but suffice it to say there is a marvelous sequence aboard a train with rapid cutting that is perhaps one of the best moments in the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Very high-grade, funny stuff
Review: It's hard to believe that some people who see this film don't get the point (this is another way of saying that this brand of comedy is not for a generation weaned on The Beaver and the Brady's). If you thought that the laugh track on The Brady Bunch was real, you should stay away from the films of Preston Sturges, whose cerebral wit in "The Lady Eve" and other films is strictly for true cynics who secretly wish they could be idealists. The cast is terrific, and Charles Coburn steals scenes so subtley you wonder why he didn't appear in more films (maybe that's why). The weakest part of the movie is Miss Stanwyck's wooden face and her habit of either over- or under-acting -- but for some of Mr. Sturges' dry-witted lines, this works quite well. The Sturges comedies were the nearest american equivalent to the dry British social satires of the 20's and 30's. Certainly, Hollywood wouldn't have the nerve to make such a film today. Critics are in error, though, when they class this strictly as a "screwball comedy". Sturges, as a writer and director, went past screwball and toward the sublime, where at least a modicum of worldly (and world-weary) awareness is involved. Not only was this movie ahead of its time, it may still be too advanced for the current generation. The honeymoon scene in the Pullman car is hysterical, and so is Mr. Coburn's line when someone suggests that Eve should open one of the train's windows.
Rating:
Summary: Stanwyck/Fonda at their comedic best!! Background here...
Review: Plot reviews are elsewhere below - Here's some background...Stanwyck and Fonda did a film prior to this, THE MAD MISS MANTON, but absolutely nothing happened between the stars. She was too involved with Robert Taylor and he was in his third year of films and still being miscast. By the time Sturges coupled them for EVE, they were ready to work together as a team and their chemistry was incredibly right. Once the premise is established and Stanwyck has him in her sights, the ball is rolling and it never stops. Fonda has stated more than once that he fell in love with Stanwyck at the time, and had he not been married, would've tried his best to win her away from Bob Taylor. Barbara was thrilled that someone was willing to cast her in a role that required more of her in the way of an accent, having been pidgeon-holed with tough talking Brooklyn gals(previous attempts at an accent had failed until she passed with flying colors in 1939 as Irish Molly in Cecil B DeMille's UNION PACIFIC). Fonda was fresh from heavy dramas after GRAPES OF WRATH and was looking for something light. Stanwyck had been cast in a holiday comedy penned by Sturges, REMEMBER THE NIGHT with Fred MacMurray(years before DOUBLE INDEMNITY) so Sturges knew she'd be perfect in his first A picture directing project. The stars liked everything about the script, the shoot was a joy and she was nominated for a Best Actress award. She should've won(I think DeHavilland did) - Some brilliant scenes include over two minutes of narrative about Fonda in her compact mirror, her snaring and baiting him on a chaise lounge without anything really happening but the heat being turned WAY way up, Eugene Palette trying to get fed by someone in his staff, William Demarest as Fonda's nosy valet, Fonda's pratfalls and a hilarious sequence involving a horse getting in on the action. In that case, a horse began inching up on Fonda in one of the takes and the acting pros kept on going with the scene until crew laughter stopped it. Then Sturges wrote it into the script, causing someone to deliberately inch up the horse on the Fonda thruout the scene. It's truly funny to watch and a truly brilliant film. This is the one I show to people who think Stanwyck was only in Big Valley or noir pieces and think of Fonda as a Western star. I HIGHLY RECCOMMEND THIS FILM!!! It's one of my all time favorites and woe to the fool who thinks they can do a remake. (It's so special for so many reasons, no one's been fool enough to try!) - MDM
Rating: 
Summary: "Let us be crooked, but never common."
Review: Preston Sturges' "The Lady Eve" is a romantic battle of the sexes done screwball style. Yet, to classify it solely as a romantic or screwball comedy would be a mistake. For "The Lady Eve" was a transition film set between the pure screwball comedies that preceded it and the more conventional romantic comedies that followed. It relied on pratfalls and misunderstandings like its predecessors but also added an additional level of wit and sophistication that downplayed the more juvenile aspects of the screwball genre. "The Lady Eve" is about the complicated boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl-boy-meets-another-girl-who-turns-out-to-be-the-same-girl relationship between beer company heir Charles Pike (Henry Fonda) and crafty con artist Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck). They first meet on a cruise ship where Jean pegs Charles as just another victim. However, she soon falls in love with him only to be tossed aside when Charles finds out about her true vocation. Jean bides her time, patiently waiting for an opportunity to exact revenge on the man who jilted her. The opportunity soon presents itself but Jean's romantic feelings get the best of her once more. After deciding to leave behind her fake Eve personage, she chooses true love over the con game and hooks up with Charles again. Fonda is superb at playing the sincere but easily victimized Charles. Those familiar with him only through his dramatic roles will find that he can be just as home in a comedic part. Yet, it is Stanwyck who steals the show. At different points of the film, she is called upon to be vile, sweet, clever, or heartbroken, and she pulls off each new demand placed upon her effortlessly. Stanwyck remarkably manages to create a multi-dimensional character that you loathe and love at the same time. The supporting cast is also strong with Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, William Demarest all contributing winning performances. There's much to enjoy about "The Lady Eve" but perhaps the most important message to take away from it is that it is never good to have five aces in your hand.
Rating:
Summary: "Let us be crooked, but never common."
Review: Preston Sturges' "The Lady Eve" is a romantic battle of the sexes done screwball style. Yet, to classify it solely as a romantic or screwball comedy would be a mistake. For "The Lady Eve" was a transition film set between the pure screwball comedies that preceded it and the more conventional romantic comedies that followed. It relied on pratfalls and misunderstandings like its predecessors but also added an additional level of wit and sophistication that downplayed the more juvenile aspects of the screwball genre. "The Lady Eve" is about the complicated boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl-boy-meets-another-girl-who-turns-out-to-be-the-same-girl relationship between beer company heir Charles Pike (Henry Fonda) and crafty con artist Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck). They first meet on a cruise ship where Jean pegs Charles as just another victim. However, she soon falls in love with him only to be tossed aside when Charles finds out about her true vocation. Jean bides her time, patiently waiting for an opportunity to exact revenge on the man who jilted her. The opportunity soon presents itself but Jean's romantic feelings get the best of her once more. After deciding to leave behind her fake Eve personage, she chooses true love over the con game and hooks up with Charles again. Fonda is superb at playing the sincere but easily victimized Charles. Those familiar with him only through his dramatic roles will find that he can be just as home in a comedic part. Yet, it is Stanwyck who steals the show. At different points of the film, she is called upon to be vile, sweet, clever, or heartbroken, and she pulls off each new demand placed upon her effortlessly. Stanwyck remarkably manages to create a multi-dimensional character that you loathe and love at the same time. The supporting cast is also strong with Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, William Demarest all contributing winning performances. There's much to enjoy about "The Lady Eve" but perhaps the most important message to take away from it is that it is never good to have five aces in your hand.
Rating:
Summary: Stanwyck and Fonda Sparkle
Review: Preston Sturges's first big budget film with superstars Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda is one of the director's most successful and often imitated movies. Stanwyck and Charles Coburn masquerading as daughter and father, make a living as card sharps, taking advantage of the rich and famous aboard transatlantic luxury liners. Along comes Charles Pike (Fonda), the heir to Pike's Ale (the Ale that won at Yale!), and Jean (Stanwyck) immediately sizes him up as an easy mark. To reveal too much of the plot would spoil the fun. Stanwyck and Fonda appear to be having the time of their lives, each digging into their roles with verve and gusto. Fonda is especially amusing showing off his excellent physical comedy skills, heretofore unknown. And Stanwyck proves once again, that when it comes to portraying tough-minded women who chuck it all for love, she's in a class by herself. Filled with the usual Sturges stock company, Eugene Pallette (simply hysterical as Fonda's father), William Demarest, Eric Blore, Robert Greig, all giving wonderful comic performances. The Lady Eve is one of those pictures that grows more endearing with each viewing.
Rating: 
Summary: Deliciously funny screwball comedy
Review: Stanwyck's hard-boiled sex appeal is the perfect foil for Fonda's virginal bumpkiness in this sophisticated but delightfully silly screwball comedy. On a par with Bringing Up Baby and other great screwball flicks. I can't believe one reviewer said this film was not funny; oh, well, we are all entitled to our opinions.
Rating:
Summary: The best romantic comedy ever?
Review: The gist of THE LADY EVE is ably summed up by Barbara Stanwyck's character in the first half of the film: "The good girls are never as good as they seem to be, and the bad ones never as bad." In this movie, Barbara plays Jean Harrington, a "bad girl" who is not as bad as she seems to be, who later pretends to be Eve Sidgwick, a "good girl" who isn't as good. In my opinion, this is the greatest romantic comedy ever made. Other films may be more romantic, others funnier, but not a single one combines both elements so perfectly. Everything about this film sparkles. Preston Sturges, one of the finest screenwriters in the history of cinema, turned out one of his most perfect scripts.. The details, the transitions between scenes, the wit, the lightning pace, the superb oneliners, the cascading dialog, absolutely everything marks this as a Preston Sturges production. The cast is utterly beyond reproach. Absolutely no one in the history of film could have been more perfect in the central role as Barbara Stanwyck. Other men could have played the Henry Fonda part, but he was nonetheless excellent in his role, one of the very few comedic parts he managed in his career. Charles Coburn sparkles as "Handsome" Harry Harrington, just as he excelled in a dozen or so other great films from the thirties, forties, and fifties. Eugene Palette, the finest Friar Tuck there ever was or ever could be, is delightful as Henry Fonda's beleaguered father. William Demarest is a fixture in nearly all of Preston Sturges's films, and while his role is not as large here as in some of the others (like HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO, SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS, or THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK), he nonetheless manages to steal nearly every scene he is in. THE LADY EVE is easily one of the most sexual films of the Hays era. There is a great deal of barely concealed sexual innuendo, beginning with the title ("Eve", the temptress), to the moment when Henry Fonda first climbs up the ladder onto the ocean liner that picks him up at the beginning of the movie (Barbara Stanwyck drops an apple that hits him on the head), to the extraordinary seduction scene (no sex, but at the end of the scene you know Henry Fonda goes back to his cabin for a long, cold shower). I am not sure that the forties ever pictured a man filled with greater sexual desire than when Henry was holding Barbara's leg while putting on her shoes, lost in her perfume. Indeed, the entire segment extending from the second when Barbara Stanwyck initiates meeting Henry by tripping him (one of six pratfalls he will take in the film, if one includes his falling in the mud upon disembarking from his "honeymoon" train) to her sending him out of her cabin in a state of intensely heightened sexual awareness, is utterly astonishing. As someone who grew up watching Barbara Stanwyck on THE BIG VALLEY, seeing that sequence for the first time was a revelation. I had no conception that the woman was that sexy. The greatest thing about THE LADY EVE is that it gets better with each viewing. I have to strongly disagreee with the editorial review of this film, when he says that it is hard to say whether BALL OF FIRE or THE LADY EVE is funnier: I have seen BALL OF FIRE and THE LADY EVE approximately four times and nine times respectively. The mark of a really great film is how it stands up to reviewing. BALL OF FIRE is great the first time but lessens somewhat upon reviewing (Howard Hawks is marvelous, but it is not one of his stronger films), but THE LADY EVE improves each time in every way. Like I said, in my opinion, one of the best romantic comedies ever made.
Rating:
Summary: Another Great Sturges Comedy
Review: The Lady Eve is another of the great comedies from writer/director Preston Sturges. Henry Fonda plays a wealthy snake scientist who has been up the Amazon looking for unusual specimens. On the boat back to the States, he literally falls for Barbara Stanwyck. But she is part of a team of con artists seeking to relieve him of his money. The complication is that she starts to really fall in love with him. Out of this situation Sturges provides some hilarious moments. Fonda just can't stop falling over. He falls over feet, over furniture and into mud and has any number of objects fall on him. This is one of his few comedy roles and he does a fine job keeping up with the comic talent around him. Sturges uses Fonda's screen persona and subverts it with the result that the film becomes a sort of Lady Eve meets Young Mr Lincoln. It shows what happens when decent, methodical, idealistic Hank meets conniving, sophisticated, gold-digging Barbara. Stanwyck plays her part to perfection. She can be hard-boiled, but also vulnerable. She can be frighteningly icy, but allows her emotions to peek through the façade. Stanwyck also shows that she can perform a good imitation of an upper-class English accent. It only falls down when she uses a few examples of American English like 'pants' instead of 'trousers', but this is the script's fault not hers. The supporting cast in The Lady Eve is full of Sturges regulars like William Demarest who is his usual gruff no-nonsense self, seeing through all tricks. The cast also has the wonderful Eugene Pallette as Fonda's father. A scene where he calls for his breakfast by banging lids like cymbals is one of the funniest in the film. The script is full of great lines and the dialogue is so fast and witty that it is certainly necessary to see The Lady Eve more than once in order to appreciate all of the humour. The print used for the Criterion DVD is nearly perfect. I noticed one moment where the image flickers, but it only lasts a fraction of a second. Otherwise I saw only clear bright images. The sound quality is also good with none of the background hiss and indistinct dialogue which sometimes plagues films from this period. The DVD also has quite a few extras. The commentary by Marian Keane is a bit academic for my taste and some of Keane's speculations I found to be a bit wild. Nevertheless it has some good insights and is well worth listening to. There is also a collection of stills to scroll through and a recording of the Lux Theater adaptation of the film. I didn't find the extras on this DVD as interesting as those on some other Criterion DVDs, but the film itself is so good I hardly minded.
Rating:
Summary: A movie for people who love movies!
Review: The Lady Eve, probably the best of all of Preston Sturges' films, is a witty and wonderful look at what can happen when things are not as they seem. It stars Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda in two of their funniest and fastest roles. If you like classic comedies and great dialog, you'll love The Lady Eve!
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