Never heard of Preston Sturges? Strap in: I’ll be here every week for the duration of AFS Cinema’s new Essential Cinema series, Four by Preston Sturges, extolling this most singular talent. A bon vivant and terrific wit, Sturges was also widely credited as the first-ever screenwriter to transition to being a writer-director. This here’s the film he made the jump with. Originally called The Biography of a Bum, it’s a 1940 comedy about the improbable rise and fall of a hobo-turned-politician. The Great McGinty lacks a formidable leading lady – more on them next week! – but it’s still an entertaining gateway into Sturges’ smirking vision of America as a land of opportunity ... most especially for the grifters and fleecers and con artists, God bless them all. – Kimberley Jones
