The Palm Beach Story

"That's one of the tragedies of this life, that the men who are most in need of a beating are always enormous"

Screwball comedy takes on some edgy material (for its time) by pitching this quirky story of divorce fraught with laughter. Joel McCrea plays Tom, a ham-fisted and hotheaded big dog on the skids. Claudette Colbert is Gerry, his charming, opportunistic and talentless wife - a magnet for the financial attention of men. As she's stuck with a bristly schlub though (McCrea), she takes it upon herself to get a divorce, matter-of-factly informing him that she's out of love. Tom isn't too happy about this, prompting a cross-country chase as he tries to win her back in his own awkward way.

The film memorably starts out with a dumb-show, moving at breakneck speed to depict a series of baffling events that go unmentioned for the bulk of the film. It's a setup though, paving the way for a gloriously ridiculous ending for which the film has become well known. Along the way we're introduced to a variety of comedic characters and set pieces - a trainride with a drunken millionaire's gun-club, possible romance with a mysterious well-to-do man (Rudy Vallee), a deaf old eccentric who made a fortune in sausages, a put-upon foreigner named 'Toto', etc, etc.

I think The Palm Beach Story stands the test of time for two reasons. The first is Claudette Colbert; her comic timing is impeccable and she never misjudges the tone of a scene. The second is the perfect script construction... if you look beyond the gimmicky beginning and end, you'll see a series of repeated moments and motifs that hold the film together. A good example is the early scene where Tom unzips Gerry's dress and she sits on his lap - the way it's written and the way they play the scene tells you where these characters are at. Later, towards the end of the film, the same actions are repeated but things have changed inbetween so the scene has a completely different tone. It also has added meaning and resonance due to the repetition. We know this when we watch (we recognise the repetition and how it affects us) but we aren't always aware that it's been consciously constructed that way. These scenes are like magnets at either end of the film's emotional scale, and they're the sort of thing that makes a great comedy (or a great film from any genre) work so well.

I guess the one thing that will stand out for most people with this film is the crazy beginning and the way that the true meaning behind this introduction can be missed if you don't watch carefully enough. I missed it, I didn't really get it until the very end of the film, so I'll warn anyone who intends to watch this that you should pay very close attention to the start of the film. Certain things make a lot more sense when you understand this opening sequence!

DIRECTOR: Preston Sturges
WRITER/SOURCE: Script by Preston Sturges, with some input from Ernst Laemmle.
KEY ACTORS: Joel McCrea, Claudette Colbert, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee, William Demarest, Sig Arno, Robert Warwick, Robert Dudley.

RELATED TEXTS:
- Director Preston Sturges and actor Joel McCrea also worked together on two other films, Sullavan's Travels and The Great Moment.
- Sturges and Claudette Colbert also previously worked together on The Big Pond and Imitation of Life.
- Other pre-eminent 'screwball' comedies from the late 1930s/early 1940s: The Awful Truth, His Girl Friday, You Can't Take It With You, Theodora Goes Wild, Topper, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Great McGinty and Holiday.