This tale of innocence seduced by experience, and vice versa, is a comic pinnacle for both director Preston Sturges and actress Barbara Stanwyck. From the moment cardsharp Jean Harrington (Stanwyck) clunks him on the head with an apple, virginal ale heir and ophiologist Charles Poncefort Pike (Henry Fonda) is headed for a fall. “You’re a funny girl for anybody to meet who’s just been up the Amazon for a year,” he tells her, paralyzed with lust. The funny thing is that, setting out to play him, she falls for him, too. When Charles gets wise to her identity, the outraged Jean invents a new one and, as Lady Eve Sidwich, determines to finish the game.

—Juliet Clark

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