Preston Sturges is considered one of the screens great comedic directors. I’ve seen four of his films, including SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS, LADY EVE and UNFAITHFULLY YOURS and have enjoyed them all. LADY EVE succeeds by tying the pratfalls with the characters reactions and feelings. Sometimes why a person falls down is what makes the pratfall funnier. THE PALM BEACH STORY has a decent balance, but lacks the character perfection that Fonda and Stanwyck brought to EVE.
In PALM BEACH, we are introduced to Gerry (Claudette Colbert, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT) and Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea, SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS) as they are frantically trying to get to their wedding. After they make it, a title reads: and they lived happily ever after... or did they? We quickly discover that -- now five years into their marriage -- Gerry and Tom are broke. Tom is a straight-laced inventor with no means of raising money for his revolutionary airport and Gerry is a pampered poodle who spends all their money and can’t do anything around the house. So Gerry decides that for them to get what they want in life she will divorce him, marry a millionaire and then give Tom the money he needs to build the airport.
This idea was inspired by an incident earlier in the day when the rich Texas Weenie King (Robert Dudley, SON OF DRACULA) arrives at Gerry’s apartment looking to rent it because the landlord is throwing the Jeffers out. Smitten by Gerry’s beauty, he gives her the money she needs to pay off her bills. Despite Tom’s protests, Gerry sets out on her mission to go to Palm Beach to find a rich new husband. Along the way she uses her feminine skills to get the millionaires' group, The Ale and Quail Club, to give her a ticket to get her on the train and then woos billionaire oil heir J.D. Hackensacker (Rudy Vallee, UNFAITHFULLY YOURS) into buying her a whole new wardrobe.
Many of the interaction between Hackensacker and Gerry are the funniest in the film. The best line in the film is Hackensacker’s. After asking Gerry if her husband is big, he says, “That's one of the tragedies of this life, that the men who are most in need of a beating up are always enormous.” The Ale & Quail Club is also a riot as they wreck havoc on the train. Shotguns and alcohol do not mix well. Sturges also has an ingenious way of weaving parts of Tom and Gerry’s early arguments into the things that happen later in the film.
But the crucial part of a romantic comedy is understanding why, or even if, the characters love each other. This film left me wondering why. But in the end, I still enjoyed the film enough and found some of its subtle pokes at the idle rich and the sanctity of marriage insightful. See for yourself, because comedy is a very subjective thing.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
