The Palm Beach Story
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Actor: Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee, Sig ArnoBrand: Universal Studios
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 88 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-02-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of The Palm Beach Story
DVD Review: The Palm Beach Story: Madcap, Surreal Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
A definite, certifiable classic. Impressed with writer/director Preston Sturges's 1941 film "Sullivan's Travels," Claudette Colbert - then at the height of her fame - told Sturges that she was interested in working with him. In response Sturges wrote The Palm Beach Story for her, thus giving Colbert one of her most popular roles ever - a movie in its day that was, finally, as big a hit as her 1934 turn in "It Happened One Night."
In a way Colbert's character here, Gerry Jeffers, is a twisted funhouse reflection of her character Eve Peabody from the 1939 classic "Midnight" (a movie, by the way, which did not receive the instant acclaim Palm Beach Story did, and only gathered it over the ensuing decades). But whereas Eve Peabody was a social-climber only in that she scampered from one locale to the next, searching without realization for Mr. Perfect (who somehow turned out to be...Don Ameche!!), Gerry is a manipulative schemer who just wants a better life for herself. She leaves her hardworking but financially-strapped husband (Joel McCrea, as good as ever) because she wants to live in opulence, opulence he can't provide. So what that she loves him, and that he loves her? Gerry leaves him anyway. She wants the life he can't provide. Indeed, the character is the most base Colbert ever played, right there alongside her turn as Empress Poppaea, from the 1932 DeMille extravaganza "The Sign of the Cross." Only The Palm Beach Story is played as a comedy, and with her snappy banter and cute expressions, you never realize that Gerry's as soulless and calculative as Nero's empress.
But anyway - this is a rip-roaring movie that doesn't let up from the opening to the ending credits. Indeed, the opening credits themselves are a delight - a surreal, fast-paced montage of unexplained situations...a montage that goes unexplained throughout the course of the ensuing film, only to be rekindled at the very end, in one of the greatest "a ha - so THAT'S what that was all about!" moments in film history. The entirety of The Palm Beach Story is like this. While the Second World War rages (unmentioned) in Europe and Asia, the characters in this wacky film bumble about in a world ungrounded in reality. The clues are everywhere - for example, what city in the world would buy, let alone build, Joel McCrea's "steel hammock" airstrip landing? But this is just one example of the movie's irreverence. Sturges excelled in madcappery; he could write witty barbs as good as Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, but he also gelded the dialog with hijinks to match. The Palm Beach Story is a spoof of the screwball comedies that were so popular at the time. Whereas those movies featured unexpected and unexplained coincidences in an otherwise "normal" world, The Palm Beach Story is twisted to the core. Twisted in a wonderful way.
So, Gerry leaves husband Tom (McCrea) and bounds off for Palm Beach, Florida, where she can get a quickie divorce. (How much simpler it is these days, when one can visit a simple website and do the same thing.) Along the way she encounters a trainful of drunk, shotgun-wielding club-members, a mega-wealthy bachelor (Rudy Vallee) and his jet-setting sister (Mary Astor), and an incredibly annoying foreigner of uncertain background who speaks an uncertain language (Sig Arno). And along the way she endures a host of baffling, surreal, and hilarious experiences. At the same time husband Tom sets out after her - his ticket paid for by a wealthy octogenarian who has made his millions selling hot dogs, of course. It all builds into a sequence of characters pretending to be someone they aren't, culminating in one of the most staggering, "HUH?" climaxes of all time. The first time you watch this movie you'll be shaking your head and rubbing your eyes when the end credits roll, slackjawed by the unexpected ending - unexpected AND unexplained, that is, until you recall the dizzy flurry of those opening credits, ninety minutes ago.
We should all be glad Colbert enjoyed "Sullivan's Travels" and let her opinions be known to Sturges. If not, The Palm Beach Story likely wouldn't have happened; Sturges wrote the film specifically with Colbert in mind. And she delivers in spades; the lady never, not even once, gave a bad performance. She was always good, usually great, and here she's fantastic. As mentioned, you don't even realize how heartless her character is, so delightful and personable is Colbert. And yet Gerry Jeffers is the kind of woman who would giggle as she carved the heart out of your chest. That Colbert made the character so likeable (indeed, you fall in love with her just as much as do McCrea and Vallee's characters) is just one more example of how gifted an actress Colbert was.
But then, everyone's at the top of their game in The Palm Beach Story. McCrea, fresh from "Sullivan's Travels," is dashing and handsome; it's hard to believe this movie was made a decade after "The Most Dangerous Game," as he looks nearly the same here. Rudy Vallee excels as a mega-wealthy Rockefeller-type who regardless is as naïve as a newborn. And Mary Astor, as usual, turns in a delightful performance. The rest of the cast is composed of the usual Sturges crew, a host of memorable faces and memorable characters. Sturges himself - well, it goes without saying. He was at the pinnacle of his powers, and it's incredible that he not only wrote such an entertaining piece of cinema, but that he directed it with such panache.
The DVD presents a very nice package - both audio and video are sharp. There isn't much grain and the picture appears to be restored. Unfortunately there are no extras - no commentaries, no trailers. But the film itself justifies the price of admission - buy it, watch it, watch it again. Who knows? Maybe on your tenth viewing you'll be able to figure out who's who in the opening credits, and maybe even discern the meaning behind those veiled looks the characters cast from one to another in the final shot of the film (slight spoiler warning: it's possible the wrong twin married the wrong twin!).
Description of The Palm Beach Story
PALM BEACH STORY - DVD MovieBestsellers in DVD
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