Preston Sturges Preston Sturges Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. In 1941, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film "The Great McGinty", his first of three nominations in the category. Sturges took the screwball comedy format of the 1930s to another level, writing dialogue that, heard today, is often surprisingly naturalistic, mature, and ahead of its time, despite the farcical situations. It is not uncommon for a Sturges character to deliver an exquisitely turned phrase and take an elaborate pratfall within
Rock-A-Bye Baby (film) Rock-A-Bye Baby (film) Rock-A-Bye Baby is a 1958 American musical comedy film starring Jerry Lewis. A loose remake of Preston Sturges' 1944 film "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek", the film was directed and written by Frank Tashlin, and features Marilyn Maxwell, Connie Stevens and Reginald Gardiner. This film was Preston Sturges' last screenplay work in his lifetime, before his death on August 6, 1959 from a heart attack. Clayton Poole (Jerry Lewis) is a small-town TV repairman whose former sweetheart, Carla Naples (Marilyn Maxwell), is now a famous movie star. Carla marries a Mexican bullfighter and becomes pregnant; her husband