Preston Sturges and four by Elliott J. Clawson.) Though he had a thirty-year Hollywood career, Sturges' greatest comedies were filmed in a furious five-year burst of activity from 1939 to 1944, during which he turned out "The Great McGinty", "Christmas in July", "The Lady Eve", "Sullivan's Travels", "The Palm Beach Story", "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" and "Hail the Conquering Hero". Half a century later, four of these – "The Lady Eve", "Sullivan's Travels", "The Palm Beach Story" and "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" – were chosen by the American Film Institute as being among the 100 funniest American films. The film
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 75 based on six reviews. Richard Gere was praised by both "Variety" and "The Guardian" for his "strong performance" portraying a "Court Jew" archetype. Indeed, Cedar's fictional character 'Norman Oppenheimer' was inspired in part by the real life court Jew Joseph Süß Oppenheimer, whose life in turn inspired the 1934 British film Jew Süss, as well as the 1940 Nazi propaganda film Jud Süß. Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer