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:

Money | Divorce | Millionaire | Marriage | Florida

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 | Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

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

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

In-joke: The character John D. Hackensacker performs the song "Goodnight Sweetheart", associated in the 1930s with Rudy Vallee who plays the part.

Goofs:

Continuity: The position of Tom's tie changes from when he first kneels at the wedding, and in the following cut.

Quotes:

Gerry Jeffers: [Gerry has just found out that John is one of the richest men in the world] I would step on your face!
John D. Hackensacker III: That's quite all right, I rather enjoyed it.
Gerry Jeffers: Twice!
John D. Hackensacker III: You made quite an impression.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Some Like It Hot (1959)

Soundtrack:

Goodnight Sweetheart

Delirious screwball/slapstick romance

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.