And so, Sullivan decides to go down in the dumps, by becoming a hobo. Things don’t go according to his improvised plan, though: no matter what method of transportation he takes, he always seems to wind up back in Hollywood, where he soon meets up with a beautiful and witty would-be actress (Veronica Lake, whose character has no name). Of course, with a handsome devil like McCrea and a gorgeous lass like Lake, you’d be a fool not to start a little onscreen chemistry — and Sturges again provides us with a little romance between his two stars, as well as a heap of heart that serves as an everlasting message to all.
Amazingly enough, Lake was in the late stages of a pregnancy during shooting (though you wouldn‘t know it), and Sullivan’s Travels earned a great deal of admiration from the NCAAP for its depiction of African Americans in one particularly moving scene. Sullivan’s Travels is a funny, touching, topical piece of cinema that is just as important today as it was seventy years ago — and both it and My Man Godfrey get top-notch video and audio presentations as part of Universal’s “100 Years of Unforgettable Movies” series.
Both movies include English 2.0 mono audio (Sullivan’s Travels boasts a secondary 2.0 mono Spanish mix), optional subtitles in English (SDH), French and Spanish the exact same two featurettes — “100 Years of Universal: The Carl Laemmle Era” and “100 Years of Universal: The Lew Wasserman Era” — which have almost nothing to do with the feature films themselves, but do provide some fascinating trivia on the history of Universal Studios. Sullivan’s Travels also includes its own original theatrical trailer.
The downside to these issues is that both titles have previously been released as part of The Criterion Collection with their own exclusive content-specific special features. If you already own them, there is no need to pick these up. If you don’t own the Criterion versions, however, these Universal releases are reasonably priced for the more budget-conscious buyer who wants to add these two classics to their library (and you should, one way or the other).
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