PS
for those few who may not have seen any Preston Sturges films (the ones Mark mentions, plus mine plus Hail the Conquering Hero and Sullivan's Travels and the Great McGuinty -- and I think that's it): if you like the Coen Brothers you can (in part) thank Sturges for their approach/style. They are big fans, and their "Oh Brother where Art Thou" is a direct nod to Sullivan's Travels -- in which the title character, a famous and very popular director of comedy films, has a crisis of conscience and wants to make an 'important picture' and a socially responsible film; he wants to make 'Oh Brother where Art Thou' while the studio executives instead want a follow up to his latest smash hit, 'Ants in your Pants'. Please indulge me as I include a snippet of dialogue:
Sullivan: I want to make a commentary on modern conditions -- the problems that confront the average man.
Lebrand: With a little sex in it?
Sullivan: A little, but I don't want to stress it. I want this to be a picture of dignity: a canvas of the suffering of humanity.
Lebrand: But with a little sex in it.
Sullivan: Okay, with a little sex in it.
Hadrian: How about a nice musical instead?
Sullivan: How can you talk about musicals at a time like this? With the world committing suicide, with grim death gargling at you from every corner, with people slaughtered like sheep!
Hadrian: Maybe they'd like to forget that for a while.
Lebrand: It'll die in Pittsburgh.
Hadrian: Like a dog.
Sullivan: What do they know in Pittsburgh?
Lebrand: They know what they like.
Sullivan: If they knew what they liked, they wouldn't live in Pittsburgh.