Rent The Palm Beach Story (1942)
3.7 of 5 from 113 ratings
1h 24min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Penniless husband, Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea) looks like he is losing his scatterbrained wife, Gerry (Claudette Colbert) to multi-millionaire John D. Hackensacker (Rudy Vallee) when she walks out on him and heads for fun and sun in Palm Beach, Florida. They become involved with any number of outrageous characters, played by many of the Sturges regulars in hilarious cameos. The witty, sparkling dialogue, poking merciless fun at, amongst other targets, money and sex, is unforgettable.
- Actors:
- Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee, Sig Arno, Robert Warwick, Arthur Stuart Hull, Torben Meyer, Jimmy Conlin, Victor Potel, William Demarest, Jack Norton, Robert Greig, Roscoe Ates, Dewey Robinson, Chester Conklin, Sheldon Jett, Robert Dudley, Franklin Pangborn, Arthur Hoyt
- Directors:
- Preston Sturges
- Producers:
- Buddy G. DeSylva
- Writers:
- Preston Sturges, Ernst Laemmle
- Studio:
- Universal Pictures
- Genres:
- Classics, Comedy, Romance
- Collections:
- A Brief History of Film Weddings: Part 2, All the Twos: 1902-62, The Instant Expert's Guide to: Mel Brooks, Top 10 Screen Kisses (1896-1979), Top 100 AFI Laughs
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 11/11/2019
- Run Time:
- 88 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.37:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- New interview with writer and film historian James Harvey
- New interview with actor and comedian Bill Hader
- Safeguarding Military Information, a 1941 World War II propaganda short written by Preston Sturges Screen Guild Theater radio adaptation of the film from March 1943
- An essay by critic Stephanie Zacharek
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Reviews (1) of The Palm Beach Story
Screwball Classic. - The Palm Beach Story review by Steve
Sturges' best film is a very funny vehicle for comedy legend Claudette Colbert, but stolen adorably by crooner Rudy Vallee in a (mostly) non-musical role. As with many Sturges farces, this adapts familiar screwball themes: Colbert (Gerry Jeffers) flees from home and marriage and travels across country without money or luggage, hoping to attract a rich benefactor.
She is adopted by eccentric oil millionaire John D. Hackensacker III (Vallee) while Colbert's husband (Joel McCrea) races her down to Palm Beach to save his marriage. The film starts off at full speed and never lets up, the baffling opening scene satisfyingly resolved in a crazy finale.
There is less physical humour in The Palm Beach Story than usual for Sturges, though a motif of Colbert continually breaking Vallee's glasses with her feet is actually pretty funny. There is a typical Sturges supporting cast of oddballs, such as the very deaf Wienie King and the rifle shooting members of the Ail and Quail Club.
But it is the opposites-attract chemistry of Colbert and Vallee that makes the film so special. They turn the dialogue into pure gold, whether Hackensacker's homespun, faux-naif philosophy or Gerry Jeffers' streetwise wit. The last great screwball comedy, bringing to a close a golden age of the cinema.
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