Nebraska and Christmas in July

"Is a black cat crossing your path good luck or bad luck?"
"That depends on what happens afterwards."
---Preston Sturges, Christmas in July

At some point while I was watching Alexnder Payne's Nebraska it started to seem very familiar; I realized it was in some ways an updated version of Preston Sturges's Christmas in July (1940; both are Paramount films).  In Nebraska old man Bruce Dern thinks he has won a million dollars in a sweepstakes while in Christmas in July young man Dick Powell thinks he has won twenty-five thousand dollars in a coffee slogan contest (remember slogan contests?) for his slogan "If you can't sleep at night it's not the coffee, it's the bunk."  Powell's girlfriend (Ellen Drew) is skeptical (he explains constantly what the slogan means), as is Dern's wife (June Squibb). Sturges's film is more poignant than Payne's because everyone believes Powell has actually won and he proceeds to buy his mother a new sofa and the children in his poor neighborhood presents based on the fake telegram his co-workers have sent him. The humor in Payne's film is based, to some extent, on making fun of Dern's greedy friends and relatives, though it does also convey their sense of loss and faith in the so-called American Dream; the humor in the Sturges comes more from the sharp dialogue and the interaction of characters.  Sturges's film was made at the end of the Depression and suggests that intelligence and creativity can overcome adversity, while the Payne film puts the emphasis on luck, both good and (mostly) bad. Both films are rich in vivid characterizations in small roles (always a sign of a good director) and both are in black-and-white (more beautiful than color).