After
The Lady Eve premiered at the
Rialto Theatre,
The New York Times reviewer
Bosley Crowther characterized the film as "a sparkling romantic comedy". He further described the director's work: "It isn't often that this corner has good reason to bang a gong and holler 'Hurry, hurry, hurry!' As a matter of fact, it is all too rare indeed that we have even moderate provocation to mark a wonder of the cinematic world. Too many of the films on which we comment boil down to woeful mediocrity, and too many of the people who make them betray a depressing weariness." 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." British critic
Leslie Halliwell gave it three of four stars, stating: "... the film itself was an unexpected delight: smouldering along in an inconsequential way, like an indoor firework to whose blue touch paper someone has just applied a light. It even has an explosive finish; but along the way it dazzles with bouts of romance, character comedy, witty dialogue and outrageous farce... "
Pauline Kael commented, "A frivolous masterpiece... a mixture of visual and verbal slapstick, and of high artifice and pratfalls... it represents the dizzy high point of Sturges's comedy writing."
Leonard Maltin gave it three and a half of four stars: "Sometimes silly and strident, this film grows funnier with each viewing—thanks to Sturges' script, breathless pace, and two incomparable stars." Some have identified a theme of gender inversion, with Jean Harrington clearly in control for the majority of the film until her feelings get in the way of her original intentions. Until she realizes that she loves Charles, there is little sense of the struggle between equals that typifies most romantic comedies. The film has been lauded for a unique blend of
slapstick and
satire. Film scholars have observed the theme of the
fall of man implied by the film's title; in the literal sense, the fall is evidenced in Pike's frequent pratfalls, and figuratively, he falls from innocence as he is lured into Jean's deceptive plots. Film critic
Andrew Sarris identifies the theme of deceptiveness throughout the film, with things as small as the distinction, or lack thereof, between beer and ale, as well as the various disguises of Jean Harrington, adding depth to the plot line. Most of the characters have two names (Charles is Hopsie, Jean is Eve Sidwich); this lack of recognition sets the stage for the storyline. Sturges repeatedly suggests that the "lowliest boob could rise to the top with the right degree of luck, bluff and fraud". ==Awards and honors==