 | Sullivan's Travels is a masterpiece combining comedy, drama, and social satire. Sullivan (McCrea) is a successful Hollywood director of comedies who, seeing the depression-era suffering of the common people around him, aspires to make a drama about the poor and oppressed. His producers object, explaining that he has never experienced hardship in his entire life, and therefore does not have the life experiences for such an undertaking. As a result, he sets out undercover, dressed as a bum, to find out what it is really like to experience the hardships of life. He thinks that, if he does this, he will be about to make a truly meaningful film called, O Brother Where Art Thou. At first, his research on the road always brings him back to Hollywood. On one of these trips he meets up with the girl (Lake).
The first part of the film is a comedy. Then, an unexpected twist occurs. After Sullivan returns to Hollywood, he decides to repay the acts of kindness paid to him by strangers by distributing money to the homeless. One of the hobos follows him, knocks him out, takes his money, and throws him into a freight car. The hobo is hit by a train and killed while picking up the money he has stolen. The authorities conclude that it was Sullivan who was killed.
Sullivan is dazed, assaults a railroad employee when the train stops, and consequently is arrested and is sentenced to six years of hard labor on a chain gang. Ironically, he now learns the real meaning of hardship which was his goal in the first place. He and his fellow convicts are tormented and no one's believes his claims that he is the famous director who disappeared.
In a brilliant scene, the convicts are taken to an all-black church where they watch a Mickey Mouse cartoon. Both the black folks and the convicts (including Sullivan himself) break into laughter. He then realizes that the poor and unfortunate do not watch films to see more tragedy but , rather, to laugh. After a hard day's labor, people want to laugh and not bemoan their troubles or engage in self-pity. His epiphany is that people need comedy to distract them from their problems.
When Sullivan pleads guilty to having murdered himself, his picture is seen and he is recognized and freed. He then returns to the world to make more comedies. Comedy is important to people who have nothing else to cheer them up.
Sturges' magnificent film shows that the downtrodden themselves are helped by viewing comedic films. In addition, his own film itself, Sullivan's Travels, makes those who are not poor aware of the plight of the less fortunate perhaps prompting them to care and to take action. Sturges succeeds in secretly drawing the viewer into the very kind of "social consciousness" movie that the producer -characters in the film say it is difficult, if not impossible, to get people to watch. Sturges, all at the same time, attacks spurious attempts to make "serious" films, provides an argument for escapist entertainment, and creates a great movie himself that combines comedy, drama, and social commentary!!!
What more could anyone ask for?
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