The Palm Beach Story

Even more dementedly frantic than The Lady Eve, this film is Preston Sturges's most delirious screwball/slapstick romance, with one of the most amazing bits of comic combustion in the Ale and Quail Club train sequence. It's not as neatly structured as The Lady Eve, but it's filled with hilarious gags, lines, and performances. Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea are remarkably composed and relaxed, but Rudy Vallee, Mary Astor, and all the other performers outdo themselves in energetic tomfoolery. When Vallee complains, plaintively, that the problem with the world is that the men most in need of a beating are usually enormous, or when Astor slyly suggests that she grows on people, like moss, you know you're hearing Preston Sturges's wit at its peak.

An inventor (Joel McCrea) needs cash to develop his big idea. His wife (Claudette Colbert), who loves him, decides to raise it for him by divorcing him and marrying a millionaire.

One of the more interesting things about this film is the trouble it had getting made thanks to the censorship office. Although there is no explicit sexuality or foul language, it does have some questionable themes. There is talk of prostitution, and apparently the censors did not like the way marriage and divorce were handled so lightly. Even after the necessary cuts, this remains a strong central part of the plot and humor.

Interestingly, the Bill Hader interview on the Criterion disc adds a lot. You might not think of Hader as a film historian or critic, and maybe he is not. But he really understands Sturges and how Sturges wrote his scripts. He connects the dots between Sturges and the Coen brothers, as well as explaining how each character, no matter how minor, is important to the story.

Fun fun!! the versatile Claudette Colbert is Gerry, married to an architect Tom (Joel Mcrea), who can't get his designs across. so... Gerry hatches a ridiculous plot to leave him, and get hitched to someone who CAN help him. right from the start, we know its going to be silly and fun, with the william tell overture. Supporting cast is filled with incredible hollywood names (how did they ever get all of them together?) Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee, William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn. and some funny scenes, like the old,deaf guy that wants to rent Gerry's apartment while she's still in it, or the group of drunks on the train. all classic Sturges... loud, over the top scenes. it all moves right along, with a snappy script and story. Vallee is the rich guy who may or may not come to Gerry's rescue. and that surprise ending... where did that come from? but it's fun. a lot of fun. definitely worth catching this one! Written and directed by Preston Sturges. one of only fourteen films he directed. all clever and fun.

When commenting on a film as brilliantly constructed and deeply entertaining as The Palm Beach Story, it's hard to know just where to start.

Do you tip your hat to the uniformly wonderful performers?

Do you pay tribute to the bizarre and hilarious conversations held by the Weenie King (Robert Dudley), an incidental character who manages to be a lot more than a mere plot contrivance?

Do you mention the fact that the film was clearly an influence upon the (slightly superior) screwball classic Some Like It Hot?

Nope. You just say, Preston Sturges was a genius and this is his best film.

Gerry Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) has decided that she needs to divorce her husband Tom (Sturges regular Joel McCrea). Why? We're not quite sure. Perhaps she's looking for thrills, perhaps she simply wants a partner who can pay the rent and perhaps she's truly come to believe that she no longer loves him. No matter. Her mind is made up and there's nothing Tom can do about it. Try as he might, Gerry slips through his fingers and ends up on a train to Palm Beach, the divorce capital of the world.

Echoes of Some Like first appear on the train ride when Gerry finds herself unable to sleep do to the racket being caused by The Ale and Quail Club. It's bad enough when they start shooting out windows, and what comes next... let's just say that it's a lot funnier than it would be if it happened in real life.

Still, Gerry makes it to Palm Beach, in the company of nutty millionaire John D. Hackensacker (Rudy Vallee). Things only get really out of hand once Tom arrives and becomes pegged as a bachelor, Captain McGlew. And spoil more of the plot for you I will not.

Sturges was capable of operating in many modes: responsible and patriotic (Sullivan's Travels) and outrageously madcap (The Miracle of Morgan's Creek) are two that come to mind. But Palm Beach shares its elegance, wit and reserve with The Lady Eve, in which con artist Barbara Stanwyck sets her sights on absent-minded professor Henry Fonda. (Even the mistaken identity plot is similar upon examination).

Between the two, Eve may end on a slightly more graceful note, but Beach seems to be made with a bit more... well, experience. Sturges seems at his most relaxed throughout the film and it does a world of good. (The story is bogged down only by brief moments of racism early on). And leaving, it's hard not to feel sunny and refreshed.

For those in need of a vacation, I recommend a stay at Palm Beach. And the rest of you should come along as well.

A real hoot from Preston Sturges, a rollicking watch which is over all too soon. From the brilliant stop-start sequence over the titles, confusing right until the last frame which at last makes crazy sense (I'm sure Preston would forgive the oxymoron!) of it all, taking in a madcap menagerie of characters, every bit as eccentric as their names or nicknames indicate, for example get these; the Wiener King, the Ale and Quail Club, Princess Centimillia not to mention John D Hackensacker the Third. The set-piece comedic set-ups at the couple's flat, train station, on-board the train and on Hackensacker's yacht are played to the hilt with lightning fast delivery of dialogue so good you take for granted the comic timing so effortlessly achieved. Star of the show is the lovely effervescent Claudette Colbert, almost 40 at the time of making this movie but looking years younger in a variety of differing costumes, taking in over-sized men's pyjamas to the very best costumes that Hackensacker can buy.She's an audio-visual treat, putting into effect her madcap idea for the betterment of her unlucky, under-achieving, unrecognised husband, played with straight-laced, straight-faced aplomb by previous Sturges alumni, Joel McCrea. There are far too many other minor highlights amongst the supporting cast along the way to mention, with almost everyone in the cast getting to make some kind of wisecrack and the whole is served up as a riotous upper-class Marx Brothers-type confection for the 40's replete with a sub-Harpo stooge as Princess Centimillia's adoring numb-skull suitor. There are so many scenes which just fizz and crackle with wit and occasionally bawdy humour, as Sturges takes pot-shots at sexual mores and the idle rich. Rudy Vallee is great in his role as the hopelessly smitten, hapless multi-millionaire and Mary Astor equally winning as his caustic, man-mad sister. To summarise, 90 minutes of sheer Hollywood bliss topped off with that magic Sturges touch.