Rating: 
Summary: The first 10 minutes are worth it...
Review: I love this film. The weenie king alone is worth the effort to see this flick (actually, this is the best part!). I love both Colbert and McCrea. Great screen presence!
Rating: 
Summary: A gem!! They don't make 'em like this anymore, alas.
Review: I saw this movie years ago and remembered it with affection as an unfailing pick-me-up. I've just seen it for the 2nd time on telly and wrote my review. In my enthusiasm I neglected to avoid spoilers, so for those who haven't seen this screwball masterpiece, please see the movie first and then read my review! Regardless of what you may think of me, you will not be disappointed by this movie. I dare you not to be charmed.One of Preston Sturges four or five masterpieces, and IMHO his most masterly piece. The beautiful Geraldine (Claudette Colbert) and Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea) are your (seemingly) normal everyday working-class married couple in financial straits; Tom needs some cash to develop his invention, a suspension-airport-tennis-racket, but this being 1942 and venture capital more difficult to raise in those days, Geraldine helps her husband and does the next sensible thing, deciding to divorce Tom, marry someone rich, and then invest in Tom's project. She hies herself to Palm Beach, touted to her by a helpful cab driver as the second most popular divorce resort next to Reno, "but for my money Palm Beach is your best bet for this time of year, you got your beaches, you got your hotels." Tom for some reason disagrees with her plan, valuing their marriage over his fortune, and hies himself Palm Beach-ward to fend off his divorce-minded wife. But Gerry, who's left her husband without taking any money, sells herself to a band of gun-toting ale-drinking millionaires in exchange for a train passage, meets another multimillionaire by repeatedly grinding his pince-nez into his face with her foot (it's all right, he carries an inexhaustible supply of them) and becomes adopted by her smitten mutlimillionaire and his sister the Duchess or Princess Centimellia (oh, it's Princess, she divorced the Duke two husbands ago, or was it three?). This becomes complicated when Tom shows in Palm Beach and is taken up by the Princess in the guise of Gerry's brother, one Captain McGlue ("Captain of what? The Boy Scouts?" Tom shrieks. "And why is my name McGLUE?!") and the multimillionaire, who goes by the nickname Snooty, attempts to befriend him, all the while imprecating Gerry's dastardly soon-to-be-ex-husband. The plot, as you can see, is another of Sturge's marvelously convoluted structures, and is rife throughout with much of his trademark one-liners ("It is the tragedy of this world that the men most in need of a beating are always enormous"; "Nothing is forever, dear. Except Roosevelt.") and dazzling design. What makes this concoction the creamiest of Sturge's crop are the wonderful performances; McCrea's stolidness doesn't trip him up as it did in the coda of "Sullivan's Travels," and actually gives his Tom Jeffers a warm growly dog quality I find endearing. Mary Astor perfects her chatterbox heiress performance in this film. Rude Vallee is a revelation as the persnickety Snooty, abandoning his teenybopper-crooner fame to play the role of a parsimonious googolplexaire falling disastrously in love. And Claudette Colbert, wow. Barbara Stanwyck may be more sexy in "The Lady Eve," Veronica Lake more mysterious and stylish in "Sullivan's Travels," but Claudette Colbert.... wow. That said, I took a star off because of the sequences of the drunken millionaire's gun club and the black railroad servicemen. I know that the film was made in 1942 and one should make allowances, but the scene where the millionaires are shooting randomly around the train, forcing the black bartender to dance around their bullets made me wince. It was funny, but too sadistic for our sensitivities 50 years later. This goes too for the extended scene where the only joke is that the (black) train attendant continously pronounces "yacht" as "yachit." The film's abrupt happy ending was an out-of-left-field delight, and of course made me watch the beginning credit sequence again. I'm not altogether sure what happens there in the beginning, does anyone out there have any ideas?
Rating:
Summary: Palm Beach never looked so good
Review: Preston Sturges' 1942 comedy gem "The Palm Beach Story" posits that people are so unused to good fortune that when it's dropped right into their laps, they have no idea what to do with it. And those people include the movie's audience.
The movie begins with a whirlwind exposition sequence which explains absolutely nothing. It's Sturges' nose-thumbing at movies which have nothing *but* exposition. He seems to be saying, "Must we explain everything from the get-go? Have some patience on this trip, and I'll get you there."
Soon enough, we meet Tom (Joel McCrea), a frustrated construction designer, and Jerry (Claudette Colbert), his equally frustrated wife. They live in a posh apartment but are constantly dodging bill collectors, until Jerry's chance run-in with a meat mogul known as "The Weenie King." (You think that's flouting the censors? Wait until you see Sturges's "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" [1944].) When the Weenie King hears of Jerry's financial plight, he gives her a wad of money just because she's so darned cute. (Once you see Claudette Colbert, this will seem a bit more plausible.)
Far from feeling relieved, Tom is displeased that Jerry solved their financial woes with only a little flirting. Jerry counters that everything in life is "about sex" (Note to censors: Flout-flout), and eventually she leaves Tom and sets out on her own, solely to prove that she can get whatever she needs in life just by being a woman.
It's never shown whether Jerry proves this to herself or not. But along the way, she meets some memorable characters: the Ale and Quail Club (headed by Sturges veteran William Demarest); a millionairess (delightful Mary Astor) and her foreign-speaking boyfriend; and a soft-spoken yachtsman (Rudy Vallee), who falls for Jerry even after she accidentally breaks all of his pairs of glasses. All of these people love to talk, and Sturges obliges them with enough epigrams for a New Year's bash.
And for those who think Sturges couldn't direct as well as he wrote, I recommend the scene where a tipsy Tom and Jerry discuss their impending divorce. The scene begins with Tom trying to unzip the back of Jerry's dress for her, and it ends as one of the swooniest love scenes it has ever been my pleasure to witness.
And just when you think the movie has run out of steam, Sturges pulls a happy ending out of his hat that has you laughing through the closing credits. Smart and smarter--now, *there's* a trend Hollywood should have pursued.
Rating:
Summary: 1942 STURGES CLASSIC
Review: Preston Sturges, as a director, had a strong fancy for trains. In SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS, he had a great railroad yard sequence in which an old tramp was killed by a streamliner, and later Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake spent much time in freightcars. Here, Sturges again picked out a railroad car - a private Pullman to Florida - for a wild and slapstick farce. Claudette Colbert, fleeing from her husband in New York, finds herself in Pennsylvania Station without a cent. Here she is taken in tow by the millionaire members of the Ale & Quail Club - who are going south for their annual shoot-'em up and drink-em'-down vacation. What happens on the train is one of the funniest scenes in vintage comedy. Rudy Vallee plays the world's richest man who believes that it's un-American to give more than a 10-cent tip; he was praised by the critics for this performance because he showed he could do more than croon the Maine STEIN SONG, and act ineptly as he did in his early talkies. As John D. Hackensacker III, Vallee (playing straight comedy) rescues Claudette from the pyrotechnics of the Ale & Quail Club and takes her to Palm Beach on his yacht. Mary Astor and Joel McCrea also serve this classic film well.
Rating:
Summary: 1942 STURGES CLASSIC
Review: Preston Sturges, as a director, had a strong fancy for trains. In SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS, he had a great railroad yard sequence in which an old tramp was killed by a streamliner, and later Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake spent much time in freightcars. Here, Sturges again picked out a railroad car - a private Pullman to Florida - for a wild and slapstick farce. Claudette Colbert, fleeing from her husband in New York, finds herself in Pennsylvania Station without a cent. Here she is taken in tow by the millionaire members of the Ale & Quail Club - who are going south for their annual shoot-'em up and drink-em'-down vacation. What happens on the train is one of the funniest scenes in vintage comedy. Rudy Vallee plays the world's richest man who believes that it's un-American to give more than a 10-cent tip; he was praised by the critics for this performance because he showed he could do more than croon the Maine STEIN SONG, and act ineptly as he did in his early talkies. As John D. Hackensacker III, Vallee (playing straight comedy) rescues Claudette from the pyrotechnics of the Ale & Quail Club and takes her to Palm Beach on his yacht. Mary Astor and Joel McCrea also serve this classic film well.
Rating:
Summary: Preston Sturges Screwball Classic Delight
Review: Rarely have I enjoyed a screw ball comedy more than Preston Sturges's classic look at the lives of the idle rich and those that aspire to be that way in 1942's "The Palm Beach Story". Taking over the reins as both writer and director here Sturges has produced a gem which came hot on the heels of his classic "The Lady Eve" of the previous year. This gem of a feature boasts total excellence in all areas, sparkling performances from a top notch cast, superb writing, delicious one liners delivered with relish, rapid fire direction and a beautiful overall look to the proceedings. Indeed so rapid is the pace of this film that it almost requires repeated viewings to be able to fully appreciate the genius of the comic situations and dialogue. To describle the plotline as being involved and complex is a definite understatement. Convoluted in an endearing way is the best way to describe it. It tells the story of young married couple Tom and Geraldine "Gerry" Jefferswho are struggling financially as Tom is an inventor who has difficulty in getting his original ideas to sell. Gerry being of a harder nature is fed up with being poor and when they are in danger of being evicted from their apartment Gerry decides to do the only thing that a girl like her knows; divorce Tom and find herself a rich husband who can keep her in the style she would like to become used to, while also helping Tom to obtain the financing for his new airport project. What develops from this point onwards adds up to one crazy comic situation after another. Gerry firstly encounters the unforgettable "Wienie King" (Robert Dudley in an absolutely scene stealing performance) an elderly gentleman who is hard of hearing and who gives Gerry a stack of money to get her out of her troubles because he likes her. Gerry heads for Palm Beach as that is "the second best place to get a divorce" according to the Taxi driver! What happens along the way is what classic comedies are made of as Gerry finds herself firstly "adapted" by the crazy members of a hunting club, the Ale and Quail Club that are travelling on the same train and who in a drunken state proceed to take over the train causing complete chaos for all concerned including the terrified barman who sees his whole workplace demolished around him. To escape them Gerry then slips into the sleeping compartment area where she then encounters John D. Hackensacker 111 (Rudy Vallee in a non crooner role) who just turns out to be one of the richest men in America and predictably falls instantly for Gerry. Once in Palm Beach pursued by an angry Tom Gerry is thrown into a whirlwind of deception and comic misunderstandings as she encounters the amazingly eccentric Countess Centimillia (Mary Astor in one of her most hilarious roles ever) John's man hungry, much married sister who takes an instant shine to Tom who is introduced to her as Gerry's brother Captain McGlue!! The comic goings one between the 4 main leads are a sight to behold and eventually end up with each person pairing off with the most suitable partner, Gerry with Tom, the Countess with Tom's identical brother and John with Gerry's twin sister!! Total madness indeed but so delightfully done that it almost takes on a logic of it's own! Rarely have the cast here been in finer form. Under Sturges's sure direction each of them are outstanding. Claudette Colbert, a favourite actress of mine has rarely been better than here and she can say more with a sideways glance or a twinkle of her eyethan most actresses could do with 5 pages of dialogue. Her Geraldine is both calculating and refreshingly practical and cool headed in the bizzare situations she finds herself. Her scenes with the Ale and Quail club members are brilliant and real rib ticklers as her normally refined way of performing is put to the test with these loud and over the top performers. Joel McCrea has never been better than in his playing here as the harried husband who goes on a mad chase to reclaim his wife. His reactions to be dubbed "Captain McGlue" are priceless and his entanglement with the man hungry Countess who quickly earmarks him as her next husband will make you laugh out loud. Mary Astor, always an interesting actress literally steals the show as the Countess with her rapid hundred words to the minute type of delivery. Some of the most hilarious lines in the film belong to her and she delivers them with relish for example in a retort to Tom about the length of all her marriages she states "nothing is forever....except Roosevelt!!" In her memoirs Astor stated how she did not enjoy working for Preston Sturges in "The Palm Beach Story" and felt she never really got her characterisation right in this film. Interesting really as I think she has never been better than here and is the comic centre of the whole crazy proceedings with her playing. Rudy Vallee as the hapless millionaire is also a revelation in his playing of the fumbling man besotted with the much more world wise Geraldine. His different style of playing contrasts beautifully with the more over the top playing of Mary Astor. His scenes on the train with Colbert are classic where she continues to break his sets of glasses as he tries to give her a boost up into the top bunk of the sleeping compartment. "The Palm Beach Story" is what classic screwball comedy is all about.The pace of the film is like a rocket and the one liners which hold many perceptive views on the rich and on our money consious society are a clever reflection of societies values at the time. Like all Sturges vechicles under the comic nonsense there is actually alot being said that can be applied to any age or time. Enjoy "The Palm Beach Story" and definately treat yourself to repeat viewings of this 1942 masterpiece as you will, like me, find new things to admire, laugh at, and reflect on with each visit.
Rating:
Summary: Is that McGloo or McGrew?--Preston Sturges forever!
Review: THE first Hollywood auteur--i.e., writer-director--Preston Sturges here gives us one of his all-time classics that, for my money, is better than Sullivan's Travels and easily the equal of The Lady Eve. It's pretty amazing to see not one but TWO smart, sophisticated women on the make--Claudette Colbert as a wife fed up with her husband's penury, and Mary Astor as the sister of the goofy millionaire Colbert meets and is, you should pardon the expression, wooed by. Rudy Vallee, as the mllionaire, also has his not-as-wealthy doppelganger in Joel McCrea, Colbert's somewhat bumbling designer husband who's trying to get a $99,000 project off the ground (actually, onto the ground--it's a huge, ridiculous metal-net for airplanes to land on). Just as both women have tongues sharper than stainless steel razors honed with eager whetstones, so too do both men have brains that can't quite follow the women's spitfire patter and instead of paying close attention, resort to what Sturges' men usually do--follow instead their male instincts, which means say what they gotta say and do what they gotta do. Sturges' forte is the uncanny ability to juxtapose selfishness with so much whimsy and foible-ridden thinking it's impossible not to laugh. Women are selfish in one way, men in another. But both of them ARE selfish, and therein lies the rub (as it were)--that is, the famous battle of the sexes. Colbert (Gerry Jeffers) wants a divorce from McCrea (Tom Jeffers) because of his inability to bring in the bacon and doesn't mind it at all when millionaire Vallee (John Hackensacker--gee, I wonder where that name came from...) buys her all kinds of clothes and stuff. Obviously one of the major inspirations for, among many others, the Coen brothers (e.g., The Hudsucker Proxy), Sturges was a genius for his time, so far ahead of anybody else it boggles the mind. Listen to Colbert deliver a jaw-dropping speech on sex--meaning, not the physical act, but the power of a woman to divert a man. The use of the word "sex" to mean that--in fact, the use of the word itself--was without question a milestone (or is that millstone) for 1942, the year of this film. Gerry calls Tom Captain McGloo when she's introducing him to Hackensacker to assure the latter that Tom is not really her husband at all but her brother. Mr. H. introduces Tom to her sister Centimilia (Mary Astor) so the foursome--a real brother and sister, and a fake duo of the same "persuasion"--gaily tramp off together to the nearest hotel. The amazing scene on the train with the Ale and Quail Club has be seen to be believed, again so far ahead of its time it's almsot a shock. How to fuse satire, wit, and superior intelligence in a single film? Preston Sturges FOREVER!
Rating:
Summary: Great Slapstick Comedy
Review: There was a time when the movies were meant to be an escape from reality. Durning the 30's and 40's this was most definitely true. In the 30's we had the "Great Depression", so maybe older movie fans notice that movies always HAD to have a happy ending. People didn't want to see a sad, depressing movie. They wanted to be entertained. And, of course durning the 40's there was "World War 2". And, yet again, they're ALWAYS had to be a happy ending. It's because of this, that I take a star off and is the only fault of the movie. It all ends to "perfectly". Everyone is happy in the end and they all find love and they live happily ever after, how sweet! lol. Preston Sturges comedy in the beginning may make no sense to you, you'll have to wait untill the very last scene to figure out what the first scene was all about. Gerry Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) and Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea) are a poor,I guess happy married couple. Whom will be thrown out of their appartment room unless they come some how pay their rent. Gerry (Colbert) thinks since things are going so hard for them in their marriage it's time to get a divorce. She feels it's better for the both of them to go their own way. When the room is being shown to tenants an elderly man makes his way up to Gerry's bedroom and sees that people are still living there! After Gerry gives him the story of her life. The man decides to help her by giving her rent money and some over, a lot over! When her husband finds out Tom (McCrea) he can't understand that a man would give her money without [anthing else]being involved in the picture. I was shocked to hear them use that word in this movie. I thought it would of been a bit too much for an audience in those days, of course that's child's play to what's being said in movies today. The next morning Tom finds out that Gerry is going to Palm Beach to get a divorce. This makes for a funny scene as Tom tries to stop her, it's pure slapstick. After she tries to con some men into buying her a ticket Joel meets the same man who gave his wife money and decides to give him money too! Just so he can go after his wife. Now, the whole idea of a woman going to Palm Beach to try and get a divorce so she can marry a rich man might remind some of a recent movie out now called "Heartbreakers". I'm sure this movie was seen as some sort of inspiration for their movie. Soon Gerry meets John D. Hackensacker the third( say that 3 times fast!) and he becomes very taken with her and she becomes very taken with his money. He's one of the richest men in the world (It's odd how she just happens to meet him isn't it. It goes back to that happy ending habit in those days). After she and Hackensacker (Rudy Vallee) send some time together she meets his sister Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor) who has one of the best characters in the movie. When Joel meets Gerry there, Gerry lies and says that Joel is not her husband but her brother, and tries to hook him up with the Princess! Now, a lot happens, and most of it is very funny, but, I don't want to spoil everything for everyone. Besides the sappy ending, "The Palm Beach Story" is a great movie that will make just about everyone laugh. It's a good choice to start off your collection of Sturges movies also.
Rating:
Summary: Buy This Film!
Review: This is a classy, sexy, side-splitting comedy. So why is it not out on DVD?!
Buy it, Please! Maybe if enough copies are sold someone will release this gem on DVD.
Criterion, are you listening?
Rating:
Summary: Totally inprobable, but why should it be?
Review: This is a wonderful classic film. Since it was made in the war days, it's very cheerful and unrealistic....but that adds to it's charm! I love the ending, even though it's a bit too.....um, unrealistic. I reccomend this to anyone who likes classic and old films!
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