Anyway, men don't get smarter as they get older. They just lose their hair.
Don't you know that the greatest men in the world have told lies and let things be misunderstood if it was useful to them? Didn't you ever hear of a campaign promise?
I don't begin and end with a smelter, you know.
You have no idea what a long-legged gal can do without doing anything.
You're married to me; that's like saying, you're blind to me. For a long time, I've been a part of you, just something to snuggle up to and keep you warm at night, like a blanket, but you can't see me any more than you can see the back of your neck.
You're not being rude, dear, you're just being yourself.
Chivalry is not only dead, it's decomposed.
No, I'm not my grandfather, of course. He's dead, anyway.
Staterooms are un-American.
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 Palm Beach Story is a 1942
romanticRomantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...
screwball comedyScrewball Comedy is an album by the Japanese band Soul Flower Union. The album found the band going into a simpler, harder-rocking direction, after several heavily world-music influenced albums.-Track listing:...
film written and directed by
Preston SturgesPreston Sturges , originally Edmund Preston Biden, was a celebrated playwright, screenwriter and film director born in Chicago, Illinois...
, and starring
Claudette ColbertClaudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
,
Joel McCreaJoel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
,
Mary AstorMary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...
and
Rudy ValléeRudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
.
Victor YoungVictor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...
contributed the lively musical score, including a fast-paced variation of
William Tell OvertureThe William Tell Overture is the instrumental introduction to the opera Guillaume Tell by Gioachino Rossini. William Tell premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, after which he went into semi-retirement, although he continued to compose cantatas, sacred music and secular vocal...
for the opening scenes. Typical for a Sturges movie, the pacing and dialogue of
The Palm Beach Story are very fast.
Plot
Tom and Gerry Jeffers (
Joel McCreaJoel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
and
Claudette ColbertClaudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
) are a married couple in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
who are down on their luck financially, which is pushing the marriage to an end. But there is another, deeper problem with their relationship, one that is hinted at in the prologue of the movie as the opening credits roll and then explained near the movie's end.
In the prologue Claudette Colbert appears bound and gagged in a closet, but then a second later in a wedding dress, seen by a maid who faints at every disturbance. The movie reveals much later that Colbert is playing identical twins, both of whom are in love with the intended groom played by Joel McCrea. The sister of the bride has just tied her up in an attempt to steal the wedding for herself. The pantomime is cross-cut with action showing McCrea hurriedly changing from one formal suit to another in the car as he rushes to the church. McCrea also is playing twins and the sibling is likewise in love with the tied up sister. He too is trying to steal the wedding. The end result is that the two siblings, not the original bride or groom, are married, and those two were not in love with each other.
The two remain married from 1937 until 1942 where the film resumes. Gerry decides that Tom would be better off if they split up. She packs her bags; takes some money offered to her the Wienie King (
Robert DudleyRobert Dudley , born Robert Y. Dudley in Cincinnati, Ohio, was a dentist turned film character actor who, in his 35-year career, appeared in over 115 films.-Career:...
), a strange but rich little man who is thinking of renting the Jeffers' apartment; and boards a train for
Palm Beach, FloridaThe Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...
. There she plans to get a divorce and meet a wealthy second husband who can help Tom. On the train, she meets the eccentric John D. Hackensacker III (
Rudy ValléeRudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
), one of the richest men in the world.
Because of an encounter with the wild and drunken millionaire members of the Ale and Quail hunting club, Gerry loses all her luggage; after making do with clothing scrounged from other passengers, she is forced to accept Hackensacker's extravagant charity. They leave the train and go on a shopping spree for everything from lingerie to jewelry – Hackensacker minutely noting the cost of everything in a little notebook, which he never bothers to add up – and make the remainder of the trip to Palm Beach on Hackensacker's yacht named
The ErlKing.
Tom follows Gerry to Palm Beach by air, also with the impromptu financial assistance of the Wienie King. When Tom meets Hackensacker, Gerry introduces him as her brother, Captain McGlue. Soon, Hackensacker falls for Gerry, while his often-married, man-hungry sister, Princess Centimillia (
Mary AstorMary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...
), chases Tom, although her last lover, Toto (
Sig ArnoSig Arno was a German-Jewish film actor who appeared in such films as Pardon My Sarong, and The Mummy's Tomb...
), is still following her around. To help further his suit with Gerry, Hackensacker agrees to invest in Tom's scheme to build an airport suspended over a city by wires.
Tom finally persuades Gerry to give their marriage another chance, and they confess their masquerade to their disappointed suitors. Even though he is disappointed, Hackensacker intends to go through with his investment in the suspended airport, since he thinks it is a good business deal and he never lets anything get in the way of business. Then, when Tom and Gerry reveal that they met because they are both identical twins – a fact which explains the opening sequence of the film – Hackensacker and his sister are elated. The final scene shows Hackensacker and Gerry's sister, and the Princess and Tom's brother, getting married.
The film ends where it began after the prologue, with the words "And they lived happily ever after...or did they?" on title cards.
Cast
- Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...
as Geraldine "Gerry" Jeffers
- Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years and appearances in over 90 films.-Early life:...
as Tom Jeffers (alias "Captain McGlue")
- Mary Astor
Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...
as The Princess Centimillia
- Rudy Vallée
Rudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
as John D. Hackensacker III
- Sig Arno
Sig Arno was a German-Jewish film actor who appeared in such films as Pardon My Sarong, and The Mummy's Tomb...
as Toto
- Robert Dudley
Robert Dudley , born Robert Y. Dudley in Cincinnati, Ohio, was a dentist turned film character actor who, in his 35-year career, appeared in over 115 films.-Career:...
as Wienie King
- Esther Howard
Esther Howard was a film character actress who played a wide range of supporting roles, from man-hungry spinsters to amoral criminals, appearing in over 100 movies in her 23-year film career.-Career:...
as Wife of Wienie King
- Franklin Pangborn
Franklin Pangborn was an American comedic character actor. Pangborn was famous for small, but memorable roles, with a comic flair. He appeared in many Preston Sturges movies as well as the W.C. Fields films International House, The Bank Dick, and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break...
as Apartment Manager
- Arthur Stuart Hull as Mr. Osmond
- Torben Meyer
Torben Emil Meyer was a Danish character actor who appeared in over 190 films in a 55-year career.-Early career:...
as Dr. Kluck
- Victor Potel
Victor Potel was an American film character actor who began in the silent era and appeared in over 430 films in his 38 year career.-Career:...
as Mr. McKeewie
- Arthur Hoyt
Arthur Hoyt was an American film character actor who appeared in more than 275 films in his 34 year film career, about a third of them silent films. He was a brother of Harry O...
as Pullman Conductor
- Al Bridge
Al Bridge was an American character actor who played mostly small roles in over 270 films between 1931 and 1954...
as Conductor
- Fred "Snowflake" Toones
Fred "Snowflake" Toones was an African-American film actor comedian of the early sound era...
as George, Club Car Bartender
- Charles R. Moore
Charles R. Moore was an African-American actor who appeared in over 100 films in his acting career, and was sometimes credited as Charles Moore or Charlie Moore Moore played small parts such as servants, bootblacks, elevator operators, menial laborers, and, especially, railroad porters and Red Caps...
as Train Porter
- Frank Moran
Charles Francis "Frank" Moran was an American boxer and film actor who fought twice for the Heavyweight Championship of the World, and appeared in over 135 movies in a 25 year film career.-Sports career:...
as Brakeman
- Harry Rosenthal as Orchestra Leader
The Ale and Quail Club:
- Jimmy Conlin
Jimmy Conlin was an American character actor who appeared in almost 150 films in his 32 year career.-Career:...
as Mr. Asweld
- Robert Warwick as Mr. Hinch
- Unnamed members played by:
- William Demarest
Carl William Demarest was an American character actor. He frequently played crusty but good-hearted roles.-Early life and career:...
- Jack Norton
Jack Norton , was a mustachio'd American stage and film character actor who appeared in 184 films between 1934 and 1948, often playing drunks, although in real life he was a teetotaler.-Career:...
- Robert Greig
Robert Greig was an Australian-American actor who appeared in over 100 films between 1930 and 1949, usually as the dutiful butler.-Career:...
- Roscoe Ates
- Dewey Robinson
- Chester Conklin
Chester Cooper Conklin was an American comedian and actor. He appeared in over 280 films, about half of them in the silent era.-Early life:...
- Sheldon Jett
Cast notes
- This was Sturges' second collaboration with Joel McCrea, following Sullivan's Travels
Sullivan's Travels is a 1941 American comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges. It is a satire about a movie director, played by Joel McCrea, who longs to make a socially relevant drama, but eventually learns that comedies are his more valuable contribution to society. The film features...
from the previous year and they would work together again on The Great MomentThe Great Moment is a 1944 biographical film written and directed by Preston Sturges. Based on the book The Triumph Over Pain by René Fülöp-Miller, it tells the story of Dr. William Thomas Green Morton, a 19th century Boston dentist who discovered the use of ether as an anesthetic...
, which was filmed in 1942 (but released in 1944). Although Claudette Colbert and Sturges had both worked on The Big PondThe Big Pond is a 1930 American romantic comedy film based on a 1928 play of the same name by George Middleton and A.E. Thomas. The film was written by Garrett Fort, Robert Presnell Sr. and Preston Sturges, who provided the dialogue in his first Hollywood assignment, and was directed by Hobart...
(1930) and the 1934 version of Imitation of LifeImitation of Life is a 1934 American drama film directed by John M. Stahl. The screenplay by William Hurlbut, based on Fannie Hurst's 1933 novel of the same name, was augmented by eight additional uncredited writers, including Preston Sturges and Finley Peter Dunne...
, The Palm Beach Story was the only time they worked together on a movie Sturges wrote and directed.
- The Palm Beach Story was Rudy Vallee's first comedic role, and it garnered him a contract from Paramount, as well as an award for Best Actor of 1942 from the National Board of Review. He would go on to appear in Sturges' The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
The Sin of Harold Diddlebock is a 1947 comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring the silent film comic icon Harold Lloyd, and featuring Jimmy Conlin, Raymond Walburn, Rudy Vallee, Arline Judge, Edgar Kennedy, Franklin Pangborn and Lionel Stander...
, Unfaithfully YoursUnfaithfully Yours is a 1948 American screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges and starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee and Barbara Lawrence. The film is a black comedy about a man's failed attempt to murder his wife, who he believes has been unfaithful to him...
and The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful BendThe Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend is a 1949 romantic comedy Western film starring Betty Grable and featuring Cesar Romero and Rudy Vallee...
.
- Many members of Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors appear in The Palm Beach Story, among them Al Bridge, Chester Conklin, Jimmy Conlin, William Demarest, Robert Dudley, Byron Foulger, Robert Greig, Harry Hayden, Arthur Hoyt, Torben Meyer, Frank Moran, Charles R. Moore, Jack Norton, Franklin Pangborn, Victor Potel, Dewey Robinson, Harry Rosenthal, Julius Tannen
Julius Tannen was a comedian – or monologist, as those of his era were known – who had a long and successful career in vaudeville. He was known to stage audiences for his witty improvisations and creative word games...
and Robert Warwick.
- This was the seventh of ten films written by Preston Sturges in which William Demarest appeared.
Production
At least part of the initial inspiration for
The Palm Beach Story may have come to
Preston SturgesPreston Sturges , originally Edmund Preston Biden, was a celebrated playwright, screenwriter and film director born in Chicago, Illinois...
from close to home, since his ex-wife, Eleanor Hutton, was an heiress who moved among the European aristocracy, and was once wooed by Prince Jerome Rospigliosi-Gioeni, among others, and Sturges himself had shuttled back and forth between Europe and America as a young man. Indeed one incident in the film is based on something which happened to Sturges and his mother while traveling by train to Paris, when the car with their compartment was uncoupled while they ate dinner two cars away.
The story Sturges came up with had the title
Is Marriage Necessary?, and this, along with an alternative,
Is That Bad?, became a working title for the film.
Is Marriage Necessary? was rejected by the censors of the Hays Office, who also rejected the script that
ParamountParamount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
submitted to them because of its "sex suggestive situations...and dialogue." Changes were made, but the Hays Office continued to reject the script because of its "light treatment of marriage and divorce" and because of similarities between the John D. Hackensacker III character and
John D. RockefellerJohn Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...
. More changes were made, including reducing the number of Princess Centimillia's previous marriages from eight to three (plus two annulments), before the script finally was approved.
Claudette Colbert received $150,000 for her role, and Joel McCrea was paid $60,000.
The film went into production on November 24, 1941 and wrapped on January 13, 1942. The second unit did background shooting at Penn Station in Manhattan. The film premiered in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on 2 November 1942 and went in to general release on 7 November. The film was released on video in the U.S. on 12 July 1990 and re-released on 30 June 1993.
Awards and honors
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
recognition
- 2000: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs
Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs is a list of the top 100 funniest movies in American cinema. A wide variety of comedies were nominated for the distinction that included slapstick comedy, screwball comedy, romantic comedy, satire, black comedy, musical comedy, comedy of...
#77
See also
- Dialogue from The Palm Beach Story
External links