It's no accident when wealthy Charles falls for Jean. Jean is a con artist with her sights set on Charles' fortune. Matters complicate when Jean starts falling for her mark. When Charles suspects Jean is a gold digger, he dumps her. Jean, fixated on revenge and still pining for the millionaire, devises a plan to get back in Charles' life. With love and payback on her mind, she re-introduces herself to Charles, this time as an aristocrat named Lady Eve Sidwich.
Acting
Stanwyck's ankle-closeup seduction—acting school in 30 seconds
Writing
Sturges' dialogue machine-guns faster than comprehension
Direction
Razor-sharp comic timing that never pauses to breathe
Director
Preston Sturges
Barbara Stanwyck
Jean Harrington
Henry Fonda
Charles Pike
Charles Coburn
'Colonel' Harrington
Eugene Pallette
Horace Pike
William Demarest
Muggsy
Eric Blore
Sir Alfred McGlennan Keith
Melville Cooper
Gerald
Martha O'Driscoll
Martha
Janet Beecher
Janet Pike
Robert Greig
Burrows
Dora Clement
Gertrude
Luis Alberni
Emile, Pike's chef
Bobby Barber
Ship's Waiter with Toupee (uncredited)
Eddie Hall
Chauffeur (uncredited)
Arthur Stuart Hull
Party Guest (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Sturges had to fight studio head William LeBaron to keep the long flashback structure—studios hated delaying the meet-cute.
This cemented the 'screwball' template where female desire drives the plot—radical for 1941 and still rare now.
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