The Palm Beach Story
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Movie Reviews of The Palm Beach Story
Movie Review: "Useless wife" in demand (recommended)
Summary: 5 Stars
Penniless Geraldine "Gerry" Jeffers (Claudette Colbert), knows how far her good looks can take her in the world. She loves her husband, Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea) but doesn't like being poor and he is unwilling to pimp her innocent feminine wiles. The solution? Leaving her husband for Palm Beach to file for a divorce with nothing more than the clothes on her back, she becomes one of the world's best dressed women before she can even set foot in the divorce captiol of the day. (If you know anything about Colbert's movies, you realize she can wear some stunning outfits.) Her gallant husband heads her off to convince her how irrational she is but is surprised to find her stepping off a yacht with a 1940's counterpart to Bill Gates, John D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee). So as not to foil her apparently successful plans, she introduces Tom as her brother -- which makes him an all-the-more attractive flavor of the week to a wealthy man's excentric sister, Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor). What is more important, love or money? Find out who ultimately wins Gerry's heart in this screwball romance story.
Movie quote: "Just because I'm a useless wife doesn't mean I couldn't be very valuable to you as a sister."
Movie Review: is there something wrong with me?
Summary: 5 Stars
I must have watched this movie a zillion times and still find it highly amusing, entertaining and just perfectly crafted. It is quite amazing that the standard of screwball comedy that this film shows is hardly ever if at all found in productions of these days. Don't get me wrong: I am the least to proclaim the past superior to these days yet deem it astonishing that a movie from 1942, i.e. shot a few years prior my birth, has caught me entirely offguard when I saw it for the first time some thirtyfive years ago on TV in Germany where I live. I was definitely younger than (and not older than today) but rather drenched with rock music of all sorts. So, anyway, I loved this movie from day one and still love it enough to make the DVD my favorite gift after having made quite a few VHS copies for friends and family. What more can I say? Get yourself into the easy chair and let this funny movie entertain you too. The dialogues alone make it for me, like when husband and wife negotiate a suitcase at the curbstone with a police officer involved ...Movie Review: Spring for This One!
Summary: 5 Stars
Ignore the carping here from other reviewers about DVD quality (just fine, if short on extras) or the merits of the film -- how ridiculous, when PALM BEACH STORY is one of the funniest, most adult comedies from Hollywood's Golden Age! Colbert has never been more charmingly pragmatic, and the underrated Joel McCrea simmers and stews with virile magnetism and ace comic timing. Throw in stellar supporting turns from Mary Astor and Rudy Vallee (whose rendition of "Goodnight, Sweetheart" sparks the film's finale), the usual Sturges suspects wrecking a train as the hilarious Ale and Quail Club, and the unforgettable Wienie King, my nominee for most endearing supporting performance in any classic movie, and this DVD is a real bargain. If you know the film, you'll be happy with this transfer. If not, sit back and relax -- visiting Paramount's blissfully loony Manhattan and Palm Beach, you're in the hands of masters.Movie Review: "Chivalry is not only dead, it's decomposed."
Summary: 5 Stars
Preston Sturges's wonderful comedy about a woman (Claudette Colbert) who is married to a poor inventor (Joel McRae) who wants to divorce him and become a "kept" woman of a rich man so she can send her ex money for his inventions. It starts in NYC and works its way south to Florida by train, on which we meet the incomparable Ale & Quail Club, and on which she encounters a wealthy bachellor (Rudy Vallee) who begins to court her. McRae flies down to head her off at the pass and acts as her brother. Total lunacy results! The characters are just perfect in their looniness, from the near deaf weenie king (Robert Dudley) through the main characters to Vallee's crazy sister (Mary Astor). Madcap and screwy - and terrific all the way. Definitely worth a watch - lots of watches, actually.Movie Review: Preston Sturges' "The Palm Beach Story"
Summary: 5 Stars
Quite simply, one of the finest film comedies ever, one of a handful of comic masterworks from this great director. Claudette Colbert has never been better, and Joel McCrea, aside from being an outstanding cowboy hero ("Colorado Territory," "Ramrod," "Ride the High Country," etc.)shows himself to be highly skilled at farce, as well. (Watch him in Sturges' equally splendid "Sullivan's Travels," not to mention Alfred Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent.") Let us not forget Mary Astor and Rudy Vallee, nor the wonderful members of The Ale and Quayle Club. Okay, the beginning and finale don't make sense. Nonetheless, a must for any discriminating DVD library!