Crooked, but Never Common

[A] portrait of a director with a gift for character development and 'head-spinning dialogue executed at high speed' by an author with a keen critical eye and plenty of flair in his own writing. Film buffs will relish this.

Richard Peña, director emeritus, New York Film Festival, and professor of film and media studies, Columbia University:
Nobody wrote better screenplays than Preston Sturges, whose dialogue remains among the most sparkling ever committed to the screen. Yet, until now, his achievements as a visual artist have been overlooked. Klawans’s wonderful new study has finally remedied that, demonstrating that Sturges was an artist as skilled with the camera as he was with a typewriter.

Annette Insdorf, author of Cinematic Overtures: How to Read Opening Scenes:
Stuart Klawans’s deep dive into the films of Preston Sturges is a gift for cinephiles. Whether providing context or close analysis, his tone is witty and accessible as well as erudite and profound.

Phillip Lopate, author of Totally, Tenderly, Tragically:
Stuart Klawans has extended and upended the field with takes that are as witty and audacious as his subject. One has only to read his wry unpacking of the contradictions in Sullivan’s Travels or his sympathetic dissections of my own favorites, The Lady Eve and Unfaithfully Yours. Klawans really knows these films, has a nuanced understanding of cinema in general, writes beautifully, and is the best, most trustworthy guide imaginable to the genius of Preston Sturges. A triumph.

Molly Haskell, film critic and author:
From one of our finest critics, an elegant and deftly argued contribution to our appreciation of the great and glorious Preston Sturges. Stuart Klawans teases out inspired connections in the culture surrounding the director—the books, paintings, and legends that fed the artistry of a man who refused to call himself an artist. The kind of book that makes you want to dive back into the films for fresh stimulation and delight.