What most would consider Preston Sturges’ career high point is a bunch of things at once: romantic comedy, a political film, a commentary on Hollywood and commerce as well as work touting the trials of the under-dog. Sullivan’s Travels, today, isn’t talked about the way in which some other films of the era are currently. There’s not the same kind of reverence granted the writer and director. Certainly, film geeks still sing Sturges’ praise, but mentioning his name to a random passer-by on the street wouldn’t get anyone too far.

With any number of other American directors from the first half of the twentieth century, Struges witnessed one of the most harrowing epochs in the country’s history. Of course, being well off, connected and gainfully employed insulated him from being a part of the roving throngs moving from town to town looking for food or employment or both. So, making films that touched on reality must have seemed perverse to Hollywood star, but a necessity given the goings on around him.

There’s a pervasive winner/loser aesthetic featured in not just Sullivan’s Travels, but also in Sturges’ preceding film, The Great McGinty. The two films aren’t identical, by any means, but each figure a character that has (or has gained) a great deal, only then to find himself on the other end of the socio-economic ladder.

For Sturges, part of his desire to render American characters in this light was obviously tied to then current goings ons in the country. But being from a privileged background, reared in Europe, the writer and director must have felt beholden to a segment of the American populace that took it on the chin, perhaps precluding Sturges himself from falling on hard times. Either way, dedicating Sullivan’s Travels to the down-trodden masses wasn’t for show. It was a sincere gesture and an attempt to rationalize a life lived in opulence, even if that life had been led to craft entertainment intended to reach a wide audience.

And in the scope of Sullivan’s Travels, just about any American type is portrayed – there’re even scenes of relatively respectful levity portraying interactions with servants and rich folks. And some of the servants aren’t white. Shocking.

This is Sturges’ depression era film - one that he worked on while under contract with Paramount, necessitating him to negotiate some of the more tedious hallways of the business, lobbying for himself and his craft. And regardless of the long term success Sullivan’s Travels has accrued, it’s become scaffolding for subsequent generations of film makers.