That way she can head to Palm Beach, marry rich, and finance Tom's ambitions. Woodrow is discharged from the military for hay fever, but fabricates receiving a heroic honorable discharge before returning home. Victor Young contributed the musical score, including a fast-paced variation of the William Tell Overture for the opening scenes. But mostly I thought about one actor in particular. [6], The second unit did background shooting at Penn Station in Manhattan. The Palm Beach Story is a 1942 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallée. The Palm Beach Story (1942) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. An inventor needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying a millionaire. 25 of 30 people found this review helpful. The Palm Beach Story leaves the answer hanging in the air, a touch as funny and true as any of Sturges’ jokes. Tom is an inventor/ architect and there is little money for them to live on. From The Way of the Dragon to Minari, we take a look back at the cinematic history of Asian/Pacific American filmmakers. They are about to be thrown out of their apartment when Gerry meets rich businessman being shown around as a prospective tenant. Then, when Tom and Gerry reveal that they met because they are both identical twins, which explains the opening sequence of the film, Hackensacker and his sister are elated. Gerry decides the marriage is over and heads to Palm Beach for a quick divorce but Tom has plans to stop her. Sturges, perhaps like no other filmmaker, knew what money could buy and what it couldn’t. On the train, she meets the eccentric John D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallée), one of the richest men in the world. He gives Gerry $700 to start life afresh but Tom refuses to believe her story and they quarrel. It's not as neatly structured as The Lady Eve, but it's filled with hilarious gags, lines, and performances. The Palm Beach Story is full of autobiographical details from Sturges' life, such as the sequence in which the club car carrying the drunken members of the Ale and Quail Club is unceremoniously uncoupled from the rest of the train and left stranded on the tracks. What will happen when the ruse is discovered? One incident in the film is based on something that happened to Sturges and his mother while traveling by train to Paris: when the car with their compartment was uncoupled while they ate dinner two cars away. He gives Gerry $700 to start life afresh but Tom refuses to believe her story and they quarrel. Dan McGinty has great success in his chosen field of crooked politics, but he endangers it all in one crazy moment of honesty. You've reached the "hub" for any and all Dramatica analysis of The Palm Beach Story.In addition to the Storyform, you'll also find any additional analysis or media related to the story in question.. More Analysis → The Philadelphia Experiment Palm Beach is sinfully rich, deliciously decadent and still strictly off-limits to outsiders--except beautiful and talented photographer Meg McDermott. Search for "The Palm Beach Story" on Amazon.com, Title: After over 100 years of graceful evolution, Palm Beach today is a fully developed community, world-renowned for its beauty, quality of life and small-town character. Victor Young contributed the lively musical score, including a fast-paced variation of the William Tell Overture for the opening scenes. The Palm Beach Story. 'The Palm Beach Story' (#742 in The Criterion Collection) comes on a 50GB Region A Blu-ray disc in a clear keepcase. 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. The Palm Beach Story book. Written by Col Needham
Plot Summary | … Adventure, Certificate: Passed Get the latest breaking news, sports, entertainment and obituaries in Palm Beach, Florida from Palm Beach Post. 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. Let our editors help you find what's trending and what's worth your time. Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. Biography. A trio of classy card sharks targets the socially awkward heir to brewery millions for his money, until one of them falls in love with him. Col Needham . When Tom meets Hackensacker, Gerry introduces him as her brother Captain McGlue. A wealthy banker throws his wife's expensive fur coat off the roof of a building; it lands on the head of a stenographer, leading to everyone assuming she is his mistress and has access to his millions. Tom is an inventor/ architect and there is little money for them to live on. They are about to be thrown out of their apartment when Gerry meets rich businessman being shown around as a prospective tenant. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. When the co-workers of an ambitious clerk trick him into thinking he has won $25,000 in a slogan contest, he begins to use the money to fulfill his dreams. She packs her bags; takes some money offered to her by the Wienie King (Robert Dudley), a strange, rich man who is thinking of renting the Jeffers' apartment; and boards a train for Palm Beach, Florida. The Palm Beach Story is a 1942 romantic screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallée. The Palm Beach Story (1942) is a hilarious, zany, marital screwball comedy by writer/director Preston Sturges - it was his last romantic comedy and one of the last, classic screwball comedies. The film went into general release on 1 January 1943. on title cards. After an all-night send-off party for the troops, a small-town girl wakes up to find herself married and pregnant, but with no memory of her husband's identity. View production, box office, & company info. Tom finally persuades Gerry to give their marriage another chance, and they confess their masquerade to their disappointed suitors. World-Renowned Beauty. The final scene shows Hackensacker and Gerry's twin sister, and the Princess and Tom's twin brother, getting married, with Gerry and Tom standing as the maid of honor and best man for both. Included is a eight-page fold-out booklet containing "Love in a Warmer Climate," an essay by Stephanie Zacharek. Soon, Hackensacker falls for Gerry, and his often-married, man-hungry sister, Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor), chases Tom, but her last lover Toto (Sig Arno) still follows her around. A mix of the witty and the utterly absurd, THE PALM BEACH STORY is a high-water mark of Sturges’s brand of physical comedy and verbal repartee, featuring sparkling performances from its leads as well as hilarious supporting turns from Rudy Vallee and Mary Astor as a brother and a sister ensnared in Tom and Gerry’s high jinks. Sullivan's Travels, The Lady Eve or Unfaithfully Yours--it is nonetheless a great film in its own right. The U.S.’s entry into World War II in December 1941 brought the sudden transformation of Miami Beach into a training and redistribution of the U.S. Army Air forces. was rejected by the censors of the Hays Office, who also rejected the script that Paramount submitted because of its "sex suggestive situations...and dialogue." A scatterbrained socialite hires a vagrant as a family butler - but there's more to Godfrey than meets the eye. Use the HTML below. —John D. Hackensacker III Because of an encounter with the wild and drunken millionaire members of the Ale and Quail hunting club, Gerry loses all her luggage; after making do with clothing scrounged from other passengers, she is forced to accept Hackensacker's extravagant charity. However, there is a deeper problem with their relationship, just hinted at under the opening credits in the prologue and only disclosed at the end. Written and directed by Preston Sturges ("Sullivan's Travels", "The Lady Eve"), The Palm Beach Story once again shows his knack for wittiness and light-hearted cynicism when it … The Palm Beach Story is yet another satirical gem from director Preston Sturges, who gives the story a cynical edge sharper than in other screwball comedies. The Palm Beach Story ★★★ 1942Young architect Tom Jeffers (McCrea) dreams of building an airport and his adoring wife Gerry (Colbert) decides to help him out—by divorcing him. The Palm Beach Story (1942) Pages: The Story (continued) At Penn Station (located on 33rd Street), Tom vainly pursues after her. Falling in Love with Palm Beach. He gives Gerry $700 to start life afresh but Tom refuses to believe her story and they quarrel. October 28 @ 8:15pm. She persistently vows that she can be resourceful and make it on her own: "I got this far, didn't I?" Although the movie is not quite as good as his other classics--i.e. It is home to “Captains of Industry” and the world famous Worth Avenue. Comedy, Certificate: Passed The Palm Beach Story Preston Sturges’ The Palm Beach Story, newly released as part of the Criterion Collection this week, generally gets classified as a screwball comedy, and it definitely has all the hallmarks of that genre: the rapid-fire pace, the witty dialogue, the zany ensemble, the battle of the sexes. In a seemingly amicable agreement, Colbert hops a train to Palm Beach where divorces come easy. They are about to be thrown out of their apartment when Gerry meets rich businessman being shown around as a prospective tenant. The film ends where it began after the prologue, with the words "And they lived happily ever after...or did they?" Tom follows Gerry to Palm Beach by air, with the impromptu financial assistance of the Wienie King. A Hollywood director, John L Sullivan, sets out to experience life as a poor, homeless person in order to gain relevant life experience for his next movie. Although he is disappointed, Hackensacker intends to go through with his investment in the suspended airport because he thinks it is a good business deal and he never lets anything get in the way of business. The discs boot up directly to the menu screen without any promotional advertisements. Special features: The meatiest special feature on this new edition has critic James Harvey giving a short but incisive account of Sturges’ career and where The Palm Beach Story falls within it. 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. It looks a bit dated and eccentric occasionally, but … The Palm Beach Story is a 1942 Screwball Comedy written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea.. The film was released on video in the U.S. on 12 July 1990 and re-released on 30 June 1993. [6], The story Sturges came up with had the title Is Marriage Necessary?, and this titled, along with the alternative Is That Bad?, became a working title for the film. Changes were made, but the Hays Office continued to reject the script because of its "light treatment of marriage and divorce" and because of similarities between the John D. Hackensacker III character and John D. Rockefeller. [8], In 2000, the American Film Institute included the film in AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs (#77). A married couple file an amicable divorce, but find it harder to let go of each other than they initially thought. The Palm Beach Story is a 1942 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, and starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallée. Hackensacker (Vallee). This was the seventh of 10 films written by Preston Sturges in which William Demarest appeared. In 1929, the Garden Club of Palm Beach sponsored the preparation of a Town Plan. Released December 9th, 1942, 'The Palm Beach Story' stars Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee The NR movie has a runtime of about … Gerry and Tom Jeffers are finding married life hard. This page was last edited on 14 May 2021, at 16:56. A man dreams of revenge when he suspects his wife is unfaithful. Victor Young contributed the musical score, including a fast-paced variation of the William Tell Overture for the opening scenes. They leave the train and go on a shopping spree for everything from lingerie to jewelry. The West Palm Beach condo has been renamed The Plaza, the original name for the twin-tower complex along the Intracoastal Waterway. Desperate to escape a group of obnoxious millionaires on the train to Florida, Colbert hides out in a sleeping car where she meets, unbeknownst to her, one of the … He’s back! The Palm Beach Story is a light-hearted comedy with Preston Sturges signature traits: fun and fast paced witty banter. Typical of a Sturges film, the pacing and dialogue of The Palm Beach Story are very fast. New to Streaming: Preston Sturges, Rose Plays Julie, Another Round, Zack Snyder’s Justice League & More, The Criterion Channel’s March 2021 Lineup Includes Preston Sturges, Elaine May, Black Westerns & More, American Masters: Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer. The captivating Claudette Colbert stars as the frustrated wife of struggling engineer Joel McCrea. Major Thompson, an Englishman living in France, comments in his memoirs on the peculiarities of his French wife and friends. (1942). The couple remain married from 1937 until 1942 when the story begins. They make the remainder of the trip to Palm Beach on Hackensacker's yacht named The Erl King (a Sturges joke on oil, the source of the Hackensacker family business). It also arguably fits the sub-genre that Stanley Cavell called “comedies of remarriage,” … Along the way, Flagler fell in love with Palm Beach, where a lush grove of coconut palms had grown up following the shipwreck of the Providencia in 1878. Although the movie is not quite as good as his other classics--i.e. Gerry and Tom Jeffers are finding married life hard. [3], Claudette Colbert received $150,000 for her role, and Joel McCrea was paid $60,000. Add the first question. Is Marriage Necessary? Need some help finding the best things to watch on Netflix? Was this review helpful to you? The Palm Beach Story is now available from the Criterion Collection on Blu-ray and DVD. The story concerns a New York couple who are struggling to make ends meet. On the lakefront, he built the Hotel Royal Poinciana, which was both the world’s largest resort and the world’s largest wooden building. Preston Sturges's 1942 classic The Palm Beach Story is like drinking a chilled glass of champagne, down in one. The witty, nonsensical film of mistaken identities and deception is a satire on sex as an asset. In 1942, even as the Great Depression was giving way to the war-time economy of World War II, poking fun at the idle rich continued to be a popular comic motif. Gerry decides that Tom would be better off if they split. In 1941, due to popularity of The Royal Palm and Miami South Beach, the Royal Palm expanded to seven stories. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Hackensacker minutely notes the cost of everything in a notebook, which he never bothers to add. Tom is an inventor/ architect and there is little money for them to live on. A mix of the witty and the utterly absurd, THE PALM BEACH STORY is a high-water mark of Sturges’s brand of physical comedy and verbal repartee, featuring sparkling performances from its leads as well as hilarious supporting turns from Rudy Vallee and Mary Astor as a brother and a sister ensnared in Tom and Gerry’s high jinks. [7], In 1998, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader included the film in his unranked list of the best American films not included on the AFI Top 100. To help his suit with Gerry, Hackensacker agrees to invest in Tom's scheme to build an airport suspended over a city by wires. The Palm Beach Story is a light-hearted comedy with Preston Sturges signature traits: fun and fast paced witty banter. The Palm Beach Story is the diamond bracelet of romantic comedies: glittering, extravagant in feeling and in laughs, representative of all the things you might buy in the moonlight and come to regret the next day—but just look at the thing! The year in classic film on video gets off to a laugh-filled start with Criterion’s Blu-ray debut of Preston Sturges’ screwball classic “The Palm Beach Story’’ (1942) in a … A Form to Story. Get a sneak peek of the new version of this page. She plans to get a divorce and meet a wealthy second husband who can help Tom. Bright Family Screening Room at the Paramount Center Certificate: Passed The Palm Beach Story (1942) That’s one of the tragedies of this life — that the men who are most in need of a beating up are always enormous. Gerry decides the marriage is over and heads to Palm Beach for a quick divorce but Tom has plans to stop her. Read reviews from world’s largest community for readers. He gives Gerry $700 to start life afresh but Tom refuses to believe her story and they quarrel. The biography of Dr. W. T. Morgan, a 19th century Boston dentist, during his quest to have anesthesia, in the form of ether, accepted by the public and the medical and dental establishment. [9], List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, "The Palm Beach Story (1942) - Misc Notes - TCM.com", "List-o-Mania: Or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love American Movies", List of actors who frequently worked with Preston Sturges, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Palm_Beach_Story&oldid=1023145960, Films with screenplays by Preston Sturges, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This was Sturges' second collaboration with Joel McCrea, following, Many members of Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors appear in. More changes were made, including reducing the number of Princess Centimillia's previous marriages from eight to three (plus two annulments),then the script finally was approved. At least part of the initial inspiration for The Palm Beach Story may have come to Preston Sturges from close to home because his ex-wife Eleanor Hutton was an heiress who moved among the European aristocracy, and she was once wooed by Prince Jerome Rospigliosi-Gioeni, and Sturges had shuttled between Europe and America as a young man. Sullivan's Travels, The Lady Eve or Unfaithfully Yours--it is nonetheless a great film in its own right. This FAQ is empty. This week I spent some lovely hours re-watching Preston Sturges‘ The Palm Beach Story (1942), and very carefully compiling images and words for my review. Written by Yes, The Palm Beach Story stars Joel McCrea.. McCrea is Tom Jeffers, an unsuccessful inventor with a charmingly terrible idea for a new type of airport. Gerry (Colbert), the wife, comes up with a Zany Scheme to divorce her husband Tom (McCrea), a struggling inventor, so she can get a new rich husband to help … Typical of a Sturges film, the pacing and dialogue of The Palm Beach Story are very fast. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Tom and Gerry Jeffers (Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert) are a married couple in New York City who are down on their luck financially, which is pushing the marriage to an end. Gerry decides the marriage is over and heads to Palm Beach for a quick divorce but Tom has plans to stop her. So Gerry sets her considerable charms on catching eccentric J.D.