Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

Now that I've blown my nose and wiped the tears from my eyes, I can write about Here Comes Mr. Jordan, the 1941 romantic fantasy starring the warm and friendly and even gentle Robert Montgomery (Elizabeth's dad), the comely Evelyn Keyes (Scarlett's younger sister) and the take charge Claude Rains (Charlotte's doctor). The original engorges the heart just as deeply as its more famous 1978 remake Heaven Can Wait but lacks the laugh out loud comedy of the latter. Although it has no Dyan Cannon, Here Comes Mr. Jordan does have James Gleason, Edward Everett Horton, a very young Lloyd Bridges and any number of great and familiar Hollywood character actors (many from the Preston Sturges stable) that we've all come to know and love.

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Easy Living (1937)

Easy Living is a genuinely daffy, Preston Sturges-written, Mitchell Leisen-directed laugh riot. Jean Arthur as the girl who gets bonked on the head by a sable (or is it kilonsky?) fur coat (starting a chain of events that leads to a stock market meltdown) demonstrates why she is one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history. Edward Arnold and Ray Milland round out the triumverate exquisitely in this screwball classic that finally gave auteur Sturges enough clout to direct the next screenplay he wrote and Hollywood was never the same.

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