Sullivan's Travels - Plot

Plot

John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrea), a popular young Hollywood director fresh from a string of very profitable, but shallow comedies (e.g. Ants in Your Plants of 1939), tells his studio boss, Mr. Lebrand (Robert Warwick), that he is dissatisfied and wants his next project to be a serious exploration of the plight of the downtrodden, to be based on the socially-conscious novel O Brother, Where Art Thou? by Sinclair Beckstein. Not surprisingly, Lebrand wants him to direct another, more lucrative comedy instead, but the idealistic Sullivan refuses to give in. He wants to "know trouble" first-hand as a tramp so he can return and make a film that truly depicts the sorrows of humanity. His butler (Robert Greig) and valet (Eric Blore) openly question the wisdom of his plan.

Undeterred, Sullivan dresses as a penniless hobo and takes to the road. However, no matter how hard he tries, somehow he always ends up back in Hollywood. Lebrand insists that his staff follow him in a double-decker coach. Neither party is happy with the arrangement; Sullivan eventually persuades his guardians to leave him alone and arranges to rendezvous with them later. When he hitchhikes, he finds himself back where he started.

Then he meets a young failed actress (Veronica Lake, credited only as "The Girl") who is contemplating quitting the business. In return for her kindness to him, Sullivan gives her a lift in his car, without telling his servants; they report the "theft" and the pair are apprehended by the police. Upon their release, the Girl pushes him into his enormous swimming pool for deceiving her about his true identity. However, after considering her options, she becomes his traveling companion.

This time, Sullivan succeeds in living like a hobo. After eating in soup kitchens and sleeping in homeless shelters with the Girl, Sullivan finally decides he has had enough. His experiment is publicized by the studio as a huge success. The Girl wants to stay with him, but he explains that, on the advice of his business manager, he got married to reduce his income tax, only to discover that his wife cost him double what he saved in taxes.

Sullivan decides to thank the homeless by handing out $5 bills, but one man decides he wants more than his share and ambushes Sullivan when he is alone. Sullivan is knocked unconscious and thrown onto a train boxcar leaving the city, but the thief is run over and killed by another train. The man had earlier stolen Sullivan's shoes, which had a special identification card hidden under one of the soles. When the card is found, everyone assumes the unrecognizable body is Sullivan's.

Meanwhile, Sullivan wakes up in the rail yard of another city, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. In his confused state, he assaults the railroad worker who finds him, for which he is sentenced to six years in a labor camp. He eventually regains his memory, but not before learning the importance of laughter in the otherwise dreary lives of his fellow prisoners when they are allowed to attend a showing of Walt Disney's Playful Pluto cartoon. Sullivan comes to realize that comedy can do more good for the poor than O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

But Sullivan still has a problem – he cannot convince anybody that he is Sullivan. Finally, he comes up with an ingenious solution: he confesses to being his own killer. When his picture makes the front page of the newspapers, the Girl recognizes him and gets him released. His "widow" had taken up with his crooked business manager in the meanwhile, so he can now divorce her and be reunited with the Girl. A montage of happily laughing faces ends the film.