Swap a DVD: The Palm Beach Story (NR)

MPAA Rating: NR
Content Advisory: Adult Situations, Suitable for Children
Movie Release: 1942
DVD Release: 02/01/2005
Format: DVD - Black and White - Closed Captioned
Audio Tracks: English
Subtitles: French, Spanish
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Number of Discs: 1
Run Time: 1 hrs 28 mins
Studio: Universal Studios
Members Wishing: 6
Genres: Comedy, Comedy of Manners, Screwball Comedy

As for the opening reels, the principal motivating factor is money. After a deliberately confusing pre-credit sequence (not explained until the film's punch line), Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea) and Gerry Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) are married. "And so they lived happily ever after," exults a title card, "...or did they?" Well, they didn't. After five years of marriage, Tom hasn't raised a dime with his pie-in-the-sky inventions. Using the sort of logic common to Sturges heroines, Gerry decides that the only way to help her husband is to divorce him, marry a wealthy man, and use the second husband's money to finance Tom's schemes. Borrowing money from a generous self-made business mogul known only as the Wienie King (Robert Dudley), Gerry boards a train to Palm Beach, FL, where all the rich folk go. En route, she is "adopted" by the Ale & Quail Club, a group of perpetually drunken millionaires whose idea of a good time is to shoot their rifles at everything that moves (among the club members are such Sturges regulars as William Demarest, Robert Warwick, Jimmy Conlin, Robert Greig, Jack Norton, and Dewey Robinson). Taking refuge from this rowdy crew, Gerry makes the acquaintance of likeable stuffed shirt John D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee), who happens to be one of the wealthiest men in the Western Hemisphere. While Gerry spoons with Hackensacker in Palm Beach, the confused Tom (remember him?) dallies with Hackensacker's man-crazy sister, Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor). How all this straightens itself out is better seen than described, which is pretty much the case whenever one discusses Sturges' singular work, and The Palm Beach Story is vintage Sturges with one side-splitting sequence after another. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Claudette Colbert - Gerry Jeffers
Joel McCrea - Tom Jeffers
Mary Astor - Princess Centimillia
Rudy Vallee - John D. Hackensacker III
William Demarest - Members of Ale & Quail Club

1942

Best Acting (winner)

National Board of Review

Rudy Vallee

Universal has all but dumped Preston Sturges's The Palm Beach Story onto DVD, at a low list price and features an excellent full-screen transfer (1.33:1) but without bonus features of any kind, apart from optional French and Spanish subtitles and English titles for the hearing-impaired. Still, considering that there was never a really good laserdisc edition of this movie, it's difficult to complain too loudly -- in fairness, the Pioneer laser edition was mastered from a source intended to meet VHS standards, and didn't have contrast or detail half as good as what we have here. And the 88 minute movie has been given a generous 18 chapters which nicely cover the frantically-paced action and plot. But one sorely wishes that this film had been given a commentary track -- it's ripe for it, as one of the funniest screwball comedies ever made. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

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