The Palm Beach Story (2005)
The Palm Beach Story Image Cover
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Director:Preston Sturges
Studio:Universal Studios
Producer:Paul Jones, Buddy G. DeSylva
Writer:Preston Sturges
Rating:2
Rated:Unrated
Date Added:2014-09-02
UPC:025193112620
Price:$12.98
Awards:Nominated for Oscar.
Genre:Comedy, Romance
Release:2005-02-01
IMDb:0035169
Location:1394
Duration:85
Picture Format:Academy Ratio
Aspect Ratio:1.33:1
Sound:Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Languages:English
Subtitles:Spanish, French
Features:Box set
Preston Sturges  ...  (Director)
Preston Sturges  ...  (Writer)
 
Claudette Colbert  ...  Gerry Jeffers
Joel McCrea  ...  Tom Jeffers
Mary Astor  ...  The Princess Centimillia
Rudy Vallee  ...  J.D. Hackensacker III
Sig Arno  ...  Totò
Robert Warwick  ...  Mr. Hinch
Arthur Stuart Hull  ...  Mr. Osmond
Torben Meyer  ...  Dr. Kluck
Jimmy Conlin  ...  Mr. Asweld
Victor Potel  ...  Mr. McKeewie
William Demarest  ...  First Member Ale and Quail Club
Jack Norton  ...  Second Member Ale and Quail Club
Robert Greig  ...  Third Member Ale and Quail Club
Roscoe Ates  ...  Fourth Member Ale and Quail Club (as Rosco Ates)
Dewey Robinson  ...  Fifth Member Ale and Quail Club
Summary: As for the opening reels, the principal motivating factor is money. After a deliberately confusing pre-credit sequence (not explained until the film's punch line), Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea) and Gerry Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) are married. "And so they lived happily ever after," exults a title card, "...or did they?" Well, they didn't. After five years of marriage, Tom hasn't raised a dime with his pie-in-the-sky inventions. Using the sort of logic common to Sturges heroines, Gerry decides that the only way to help her husband is to divorce him, marry a wealthy man, and use the second husband's money to finance Tom's schemes. Borrowing money from a generous self-made business mogul known only as the Wienie King (Robert Dudley), Gerry boards a train to Palm Beach, FL, where all the rich folk go. En route, she is "adopted" by the Ale & Quail Club, a group of perpetually drunken millionaires whose idea of a good time is to shoot their rifles at everything that moves (among the club members are such Sturges regulars as William Demarest, Robert Warwick, Jimmy Conlin, Robert Greig, Jack Norton, and Dewey Robinson). Taking refuge from this rowdy crew, Gerry makes the acquaintance of likeable stuffed shirt John D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee), who happens to be one of the wealthiest men in the Western Hemisphere. While Gerry spoons with Hackensacker in Palm Beach, the confused Tom (remember him?) dallies with Hackensacker's man-crazy sister, Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor). How all this straightens itself out is better seen than described, which is pretty much the case whenever one discusses Sturges' singular work, and The Palm Beach Story is vintage Sturges with one side-splitting sequence after another.