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The Palm Beach Story (1942)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writer:
Preston Sturges (writer)
Release Date:
7 November 1942 (USA)
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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. full summary | full synopsis
NewsDesk:
(2 articles)
Nocturnal Admissions: Movie Review - World’S Greatest Dad
(From Quick Stop. 24 August 2009, 1:01 AM, PDT)
Jody McCrea
(From Alternative Film Guide. 7 April 2009, 1:41 PM, PDT)
(From Quick Stop. 24 August 2009, 1:01 AM, PDT)
Jody McCrea
(From Alternative Film Guide. 7 April 2009, 1:41 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
It's a slightly cynical screwball comedy about lust and greed.
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Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | 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 |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
88 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Certification:
Filming Locations:
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Fun Stuff
Trivia:
The original title of this film was Is Marriage Necessary?, but this was deemed to contravene the Production Code.
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Goofs:
Continuity: The position of Tom's tie changes from when he first kneels at the wedding, and in the following cut.
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Quotes:
Princess Centimillia:
I'd marry Captain McGloo tomorrow, even with that name.
John D. Hackensacker III: And divorce him the next month.
Princess Centimillia: Nothing is permanent in this world - except for Roosevelt.
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John D. Hackensacker III: And divorce him the next month.
Princess Centimillia: Nothing is permanent in this world - except for Roosevelt.
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Movie Connections:
Soundtrack:
Isn't It Romantic
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FAQ
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The "Palm Beach Story" has a poor title but it's a hilarious movie by the sometimes cynical master of comedy, Preston Sturges. "Palm" comes a year after Sturges far lesser comedy, "The Lady Eve", staring Stanwyck and a dull Henry Fonda. The superior comedy, "Palm," rivals the greatest screwballs like "Bringing up Baby" and "The Awful Truth" for sustained insanity and strength of characterization.
In this screwball masterpiece, the characters' flakiness is shared by the rest of their absurd world. It climaxes in a fantastic scene set on a train where an "Ale and Quale" club goes on a drunken shooting spree, forming a posse that tramps from car to car singing "A hunting we will go".
As Anthony Lane argues, "Palm" presents a realist view of the prominence of sex and greed as motivating and blinding forces. In a key scene, Colbert gives a little speech about "the look", or the copulatory gaze, that she's been getting from every man since she was 14. This movie is slightly cynical and funnier for it's richness. Comedy is set off against discussions of lost opportunity and youth. "Topic A" is what runs the world of "The Palm Beech Story", but sometimes topic B, money, is temporarily more important. After leaving her struggling husband, Gerry gets prizes from any horny man she comes in contact with: rent money from the regretful wiener king, taxi rides, a train ticket from hunters, and dresses and rubies from a millionaire. Also, the Princess has a kept pet-man who tags along as she pursues new husbands.
Sturges shares with Wilder and Allen a slighlty cynical view of human "nature". As Lane points out, they don't have a conservative Catholic view of the inherent selfishness and sinfulness of human kind, but a liberal, more Deweyan, view of human potential, slightly jaded from their experience. They are not without hope, but aware of limitation. Sturges is beyond naivete, like many of his screwball compatriots, and frankly examines weaknesses that others avoid or deny, and he criticizes conventions that supposedly created a utopia in the 1950's.
This is one of the highlights of the screwball genre that illuminatingly explores, like no other group of films, life, love, gender, sexuality, and desire in 20th century America in an endearing and always fun manner.