Introducing one of the last classic screwball comedies of Preston Sturges and in cinema history. Preston Sturges’ The Palm Beach Story is when a woman decides to divorce her husband to marry a rich man in hopes of her new husband to financially support her ex-husband’s career.
The Palm Beach Story has one of the most zaniest, head-scratching plots I’ve ever seen in a romantic comedy. It feels like the definition of a screwball. Married couple Tom and Gerry (yes, that’s really their names. Could this have been the inspiration for cat and mouse Tom and Jerry?) are about to be kicked out of their apartment for failure to pay rent. Gerry gets a crazy idea to divorce Tom so that she can find a rich man in Palm Beach, Florida to marry in hopes of him backing up Tom’s career. She meets John on the train to Florida who is crazy rich and starts falling for her. He has a princess sister who starts to fall for Tom. There is basically a lot of romantic entanglements that will cause things to go awry.
While I thought Claudette Colbert was adorable in her role as Gerry, the story just felt nonsensical for my taste. The only things I truly gave the film credit for was the rapid pace dialogue and the ending. Without spoiling anything, “The Palm Beach Story” used the most outlandish way to tie things up in the end. But you know what? This movie actually might be a good one to see during this time just like it was when it first came out. A lot of films around 1942 were combat films and Hollywood dramas that talked about the current World War. Just like in “Sullivan’s Travels,” audiences wanted to have a good laugh. So if you want a good laugh and a big fan of classic screwball films, go ahead and give it a shot.
Watch Preston Sturge’s classic screwball comedy below and comment what you think:
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