Sullivan's Travels

Sullivan's Travels
Theatrical release poster by Maurice Kallis
Directed by	Preston Sturges
Written by	Preston Sturges
Produced by	Paul Jones[a]
Starring	Joel McCrea Veronica Lake Robert Warwick William Demarest Margaret Hayes Porter Hall Franklin Pangborn Eric Blore
Cinematography	John Seitz
Edited by	Stuart Gilmore
Music by	Leo Shuken Charles Bradshaw
Production company	Paramount Pictures
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	December 29, 1941 (1941-12-29) (Jackson, Tennessee)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$678,000[1]
Box office	$1.2 million (US rentals)[2]

Sullivan's Travels is a 1941 American comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges. A satire on the film industry, it follows a famous Hollywood comedy director (Joel McCrea) who, longing to make a socially relevant drama, sets out to live as a tramp to gain life experience for his forthcoming film. Along the way he unites with a poor aspiring actress (Veronica Lake) who accompanies him. The title is a reference to Gulliver's Travels, the 1726 novel by satirist Jonathan Swift about another journey of self-discovery.

Sullivan's Travels received disparate critical reception upon its release. The New York Times described it as "the most brilliant picture yet this year", praising Sturges's mix of escapist fun with underlying significance, and ranked it as one of the ten best films of 1941. But The Hollywood Reporter said that it lacked the "down to earth quality and sincerity which made [Sturges's] other three pictures of 1941 – The Great McGinty, The Lady Eve, and Christmas in July – "a joy to behold".

Over time, the film's reputation has improved tremendously. Media historian Hal Erickson classified it as a "classic", "one of the finest movies about movies ever made" and a "masterpiece".^[3] In 1990, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).