(Preston Sturges, US 1941, 94 min)

The irresistible Barbara Stanwyck is a quick-witted and resourceful confidence operator determined to snag a serious and somewhat sappy son of a beer tycoon, played by Henry Fonda. Stanwyck’s streetwise toughness and capacity for intense suffering add depth to her superb comic timing, and the film’s many layers of masquerade have made it one of the wittiest screwball romances of Hollywood’s Golden Era.