Movies - The Palm Beach Story

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	Movies - The Palm Beach Story

The Palm Beach Story is a 1942 romantic screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges.

Plot synopsis

Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert play Thomas and Geraldine Jeffers, a married couple in New York City who love each other, but are down on their luck financially. Gerry decides they would both be better off if they split, so she goes to Palm Beach, Florida to establish residency in anticipation of a divorce (in the hopes of gaining funds from a wealthy second husband to help Tom).

In the antic manner of their namesakes in the popular Tom and Jerry (MGM) cat-chases-mouse cartoons, Tom chases Gerry to Florida, where they become involved with the very wealthy John D. Hackensacker III (a take-off of John D. Rockefeller, played by Rudy Vallee) and his nymphomaniac sister, Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor). Posing as brother and sister themselves, the Jeffers find themselves romantically entangled with the oil-rich siblings.

Production notes

This was Sturges' second collaboration with McCrea, following Sullivan's Travels
from the previous year, and they would work together again on The Great Moment in 1946. Typical of a Sturges movie, the pacing and dialogue are very fast. Also notable are the zany side characters, mostly played by members of Sturges' informal repertory company, particularly the elderly sausage magnate known as The Wienie King (Robert Dudley) and "The Ale and Quail Club," a group of drunken wealthy sportsmen (including character actors Jack Norton, Jimmy Conlin, and William Demarest, amongst others). Victor Young contributes a lively musical score (including a fastpaced variation of The William Tell Overture for the strange opening scenes).

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