The Palm Beach Story (1942)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Preston Sturges

Writer:

Preston Sturges (writer)

Release Date:

7 November 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Romance | Comedy

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Inventor | Gibberish | Writer Director | Rifle | Husband Wife Relationship

Cast

Claudette Colbert	...	Geraldine 'Gerry' Jeffers
Joel McCrea	...	Tom Jeffers ('Capt. McGlew')
Mary Astor	...	The Princess Centimillia
Rudy Vallee	...	John D. Hackensacker III
Sig Arno	...	Toto
Robert Warwick	...	Mr. Hinch, Ale and Quail Club
Arthur Stuart Hull	...	Mr. Osmond
Torben Meyer	...	Dr. Kluck
Jimmy Conlin	...	Mr. Asweld, Ale and Quail Club
Victor Potel	...	Mr. McKeewie
William Demarest	...	First Member Ale and Quail Club
Jack Norton	...	Second Member Ale and Quail Club
Robert Greig	...	Third Member Ale and Quail Club
Roscoe Ates	...	Fourth Member Ale and Quail Club
Dewey Robinson	...	Fifth Member Ale and Quail Club

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording) | Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Penn Station, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Quotes:

Tom Jeffers: Funny having to sleep with a sitting-room between us.
Gerry Jeffers: And the doors locked.
Tom Jeffers: You don't have to worry about that.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "American Masters: Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer" (1989)

Zany Classic

Far fetched, but very humorous story of a wife Gerry, who decides to divorce her husband, Tom and go seduce & marry a rich man/widow, but she is only going to use the man to get the money to finance Tom's invention. Gerry does meet a man, one of the richest men in the world, and when Tom confronts the man down in Palm Beach, Tom is immediately introduced to the man's chatterbox, & man obsessed sister, who decides Tom is to be husband number 6 for her. How to get out of this one. Only Preston Sturges could have come up with this one and gotten away with it. Colbert is delightful as Gerry, McCrea as well as her bewildered husband, but Vallee and Astor really steal the show as the eccentric Hackensacker and his sister. Also enjoyable to watch are the Ale & Quail club, with Demarest & Horton's little skeet shooting bet in the pullman car, and Dudley as the old, but delightful Weinie King. The ending though seemed like a plot contrivance to make the film end smoothly, and appease the censors. Rating, 9.