Here are five comic masterpieces by Preston Sturges, who has been called "Hollywood's greatest writer-director, with emphasis on the former." The scripts are drawn from the great period between 1939 and 1944, which Andrew Sarris called "one of the most brilliant and most bizarre bursts of creation in the history of cinema."

They are astonishingly readable and deliciously funny. Brian Henderson's introduction provides an overview of Sturges criticism and brief biographical material. Each script is preceded by a prefatory essay discussing its evolution. The insights provided by this volume will be useful to film students and aspiring screenwriters, and fascinating to anyone interested in screen comedy. Virtually all the illustrations, showing Sturges at work, are published here for the first time.

The collection includes The Great McGinty, Christmas in July, The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, and Hail the Conquering Hero.

Preston Sturges (1898-1959) was a member of Hollywood's gifted royalty. He wrote, directed, and produced a remarkable number of successful films and wrote and produced for the Broadway stage. Brian Henderson is Professor of Film and Chair of the Department of Media Studies at the State University of New York, Buffalo.

"The scripts are demonstrations of comedy construction at its most expert and of the writing of vernacular dialogue at its most effective. . . . Henderson's book is not so much a reminder as a proof of what an original and gifted filmmaker Sturges was."—Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times

"The scripts . . . help to reveal Sturges's working process. . . . Henderson provides the reader with fascinating background information on the genesis and evolution of these pictures."—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"Superb commentaries by Henderson."—Geoffrey O'Brien, The New York Review of Books

Among the Top 100 Books on Hollywood and the Movies, The Book Collectors of Los Angeles