I didn't care for it.
I watch movies for entertainment and I did not find this movie that entertaining. Yes, I'm sure it made a big social statement when it originally came out in 1941 about the realities of prison life and the hard times just coming out of the depression but like I said, I don't watch movies for social statements. It's supposed to be a comedy but I didn't find too much funny with it. Sure there are some good scenes but in my opinion not many. I love other Preston Sturges comedies but not this one. The quality of the picture and sound on the DVD, both were very good

Absolutely awesome.
Sullivan's Travels (Preston Sturges, 1942)

Sullivan's Travels is one of the movies I'd never heard of before I started compiling critics' thousand-best lists, but that kept cropping up time after time (of the nine lists I have collected, it appears on seven, including Jonathan Rosenbaum's, the They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? list, and Peter Travers' Rolling Stone list).With so many voices behind it, I figured that when I sat down to watch this monster list of movies, I should put this one up near the top. And I'm very glad I did.

Sullivan's Travels is the story of John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea), a director of light comedies who has an obsession with making O, Brother, Where Art Thou?, a serious film about the trials and travails of humanity. An existential drama, if you will. His producers point out to him that he knows nothing of trouble, and so he sets out to disguise himself as a hobo and learn about human misery firsthand. On his first stop, at a diner, he meets an aspiring actress (Veronica Lake, known in the film only as "The Girl"), and through the machinations of fate, she ends up finding out his identity and taking the trip with him. There's more to it than that, but the big plot twist comes late enough in the movie that we're headed for spoilerville if we reveal it, and it's entirely possible to sing the movie's praises without going that far in.

Why? Because this movie is damned funny. I found myself chuckling more times per minute here than I have at any movie I can think of since It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. It turns dark about half an hour from the end, but the hilarity of the first hour just underscores the darkness; this is where the genius of Preston Sturges comes into play. By the time we hit Sullivan's immortal line, "There's a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that's all some people have?", Sturges has managed to make us understand exactly that. A warm, funny, deeply-felt movie. I agree with all those critics; one of the thousand best. **** ½

Nice tenderness; too much camp
If you can get to the first scene with Veronica Lake--which isn't easy to do--this movie will take you in. (But can you sit through a ridiculous car chase, a hobo with a bag on a stick, a Negro cook who dips his face into pancake batter. . ? Some stuff from the 1940's cinema seems so campy, so silly, so sentimental. Imagine how absurd films made today will look in about 50 years. Everything will be hatred and explosion and outdated coolness.)
But when Veronica Lake appears and friendship and romance and danger and trouble happen (all still pretty stylized), the film becomes likeable and effective.
And, of course, as the saying went: Veronica Lake is easy on the eyes.

Great Mix of Comedy and Pathos
Ill add my applause to that of the other reviewers. This was my first viewing of a film by Preston Sturges and I'm so impressed that I'll surely look for more.

There is the usual high energy, and crackling dialogue of the screwball comedies of the era. But midway through the film, it darkens and a whole other level of human experience is touched. That's what makes this so remarkable. There is a scene towards the end in a poor Black church where the pastor leads the congregation in singing "Let my People Go" while the men from the nearby prison shuffle in, in chains, to be allowed to watch a "motion picture." I found it amazingly touching. And then, when they all join together, the poor and the wretched, in hearty laughter...wow that was really a transcendent moment.

Joel McRea is winning as the handsome, rich, Hollywood director who want to suffer a little to make his next movie, "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?"
Veronica Lake is a perfect match for him,as the down and out wanna be actress who accompanies him on his trek through the dark side. She hides her famous over-one-eye blond hairdo under a boy's cap as his fellow hobo.

Incidentally, the wondeful Coen brothers' film, "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" must have gotten its title from this movie. Does anyone know? The Coen film is based on Homer's Odyssey and this is another form of an Odyssey....very smart idea!

All in all, a really enjoyable film! This DVD set has an excellent PBS program on the life of Preston Sturges, which features interviews with old friends and his last wife, Sandy. There's also an extended interview with Sandy.

Sullivan's Travels
Widely considered the greatest of Sturges's classic 1940s films, "Sullivan's Travels" is a stunning hybrid, blending giddy slapstick and razor-sharp humor with grim, unblinking social realism. McCrea and Lake make a fun pair, comically and romantically, while Robert Greig is a hoot as Sullivan's droll butler. It's hard to imagine anyone but Sturges concocting this incisively scripted, beautifully directed Hollywood satire, which ultimately has a lot to say about the restorative power of laughter.