The Lady Eve is a 1941 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda.

Furious at being spurned, Jean soon re-enters Charles' life masquerading as the posh Lady Eve Sidwich, niece of Sir Alfred McGlennan Keith, another con man who has been swindling the rich of Connecticut.

Jean takes on an English accent, determined to torment Charles mercilessly; as she puts it, "I've got some unfinished business with him — I need him like the axe needs the turkey."

The Lady Eve is loosely based on a 19-page story by Monckton Hoffe called "Two Bad Hats", which was also the working title of the film.

Lewin wrote to Sturges, "[T]he first two-thirds of the script, in spite of the high quality of your jokes, will require an almost one hundred percent rewrite."

Sturges objected, and eventually Lewin acceded, writing, "Follow your witty nose, my boy; it will lead you and me and Paramount to the Elysian pastures of popular entertainment.

[10] At some point, the studio wanted Brian Aherne for the male lead,[9] and Joel McCrea, Madeleine Carroll and Paulette Goddard were under consideration as of July 1940.

[11] According to Donald Spoto in Madcap: The Life of Preston Sturges, Sturges "... invariably paraded on [the] set with a colorful beret or a felt cap with a feather protruding, a white cashmere scarf blowing gaily round his neck and a print shirt in loud hues ... the reason for the peculiar outfits, he told visitors, was that they facilitated crew members finding him amid the crowds of actors, technicians, and the public."

In his biography of Stanwyck, author Axel Madsen wrote, "The set was so ebullient that instead of going to their trailers between setups, the players relaxed in canvas chairs with their sparkling director, listening to his fascinating stories or going over their lines with him.

"[9] Location shooting for the opening jungle scene took place at Lake Baldwin of the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia, California.

[10][12] In that scene, Fonda's character refers to Professor Marsdit, whose last name is an anagram of Raymond L. Ditmars of the American Museum of Natural History, a well-known reptile expert and popular science writer of the time.

[14] After The Lady Eve premiered at the Rialto Theatre, The New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther characterized the film as "a sparkling romantic comedy".

"[15] More than 50 years later, Roger Ebert gave the film high praise: "If I were asked to name the single scene in all of romantic comedy that was sexiest and funniest at the same time, I would advise beginning at six seconds past the 20-minute mark in Preston Sturges's The Lady Eve.

The website's consensus reads: "A career highlight for Preston Sturges, The Lady Eve benefits from Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda's sparkling chemistry -- and a script that inspired countless battle-of-the-sexes comedies.

[21] At the 14th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Original Story for Monckton Hoffe, but Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Harry Segall) proved victorious.

[2] In 1994, The Lady Eve was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".