Writer-director Preston Sturges made some of the sharpest, cleverest comedies of the 1940s, and Sullivan’s Travels might be his best. Joel McCrea stars as John L. Sullivan, a director of slapstick comedies who yearns to direct socially responsible dramas. Taking to the road to learn more about how the other half lives, he meets a down-on-her-luck actress (Veronica Lake) and gets involved in zany situations that take him from soup kitchens to prison camps to Hollywood board rooms.