Pike’s Pale: The Ale That Won For Yale

On of Stanwyck’s best, and most predatory, performances highlights a Preston Sturges screwball classic.

Turner Classic Movies will start their annual “Summer Under The Stars” festival on Thursday. Each year during August, they do a daily tribute to a different star each day. You get 24 hours of movies featuring that star; and then the next day, 24 hours of movies featuring a different star, and so on.

The term “star” includes not only leading men and ladies. Each year, they throw interesting character actors or supporting players into the mix, so that a day of John Wayne might be followed by a day of Peter Lorre or Marie Dressler.

Things will kick off on Thursday with Henry Fonda, and right in the prime evening spot, 8 p.m. Eastern/Pacific, 7 p.m. Central, they will have one of my all-time favorite comedies, “The Lady Eve”:

I am a big Preston Sturges fan, and this is a great Preston Sturges comedy. I’ve blogged about it before. I am blogging about it again.

Charles Pike (Fonda) is an awkward, science-obsessed heir to a brewery fortune (see the title of this post). After spending some time with a research expedition on the Amazon, he has caught up with an ocean liner, along with his valet/bodyguard (Sturges…