January 23, 2012

34 CMBA Comedy Classics Blogathon: The Palm Beach Story (1942)

****
Country: US
Director: Preston Sturges


"Sex always has something to do with it," Geraldine Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) says in exasperation to her husband Thomas (Joel McCrea) in writer-director Preston Sturges's 1942 screwball comedy The Palm Beach Story. She is trying to explain to the suspicious Thomas why she has just been given several hundred dollars by a perfect stranger, an elderly millionaire calling himself the Wienie King of Texas, who took pity on her after learning she was about to be evicted from their Park Avenue apartment for not being able to pay the rent. Thomas is having a hard time believing there isn't more to the unlikely tale than Geraldine is telling, and she has been trying to convince him that nothing improper happened. Like The Lady Eve and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, those other audacious Sturges sex comedies of the 1940s, The Palm Beach Story pushed the strictures of the Production Code to the limit with its sexual innuendo. But then it had to, for the entire film might have been designed to illustrate the truth of Gerry's observation that the tangled relations between men and women are always in some way governed by sex.

The film begins with a mystery. In a silent, stop-and-start slapstick sequence, we see Claudette Colbert rushing out of an apartment in a wedding dress. At the same time, she appears—through the cinematic sleight of hand of crosscutting—to be locked in a closet in the apartment, bound and gagged, while a maid has hysterics and finally faints at the sight of the wedding-gowned Colbert. The meaning of this paradoxical sequence won't be revealed until the last scene in the picture, when it becomes the device used to resolve the plot's multiple sexual entanglements. By that point, though, so much else has happened in this frantically paced movie that most viewers probably won't even remember its puzzling opening.

Flash forward five years. The former bride and groom, Tom and Gerry, are having serious problems in the two areas this movie dwells on—money and sex. Tom, an engineer-inventor, is having trouble raising the capital to finance a demonstration project of his new invention, a stressed-cable mesh airport stretched across skyscraper rooftops. (Is this idea intended to be as loony as it sounds?) Not only are the couple broke and about to become homeless, but the pizazz has gone from their marriage—at least for Gerry, who tells Tom, "We don't love each other the way we used to." When Tom seems reluctant to believe her story about the Wienie King's largesse, it's the last straw and she heads for Palm Beach to get a divorce. Tom, however, isn't ready to give up on the marriage and takes off in pursuit to change Gerry's mind.

On her journey to Palm Beach, Gerry takes the viewer along on what can only be described as a frenetic spree, with one hilarious episode after another coming at a furious pace. Gerry starts her journey with no money, no luggage, no train ticket, nothing but the clothes she is wearing, and before long she has lost even those, showing up for breakfast in the train's dining car wearing a Pullman blanket for a skirt and the top of borrowed pajamas as a blouse, with the pajama pants wrapped around her head as an impromptu turban. This gal is nothing if not inventive. She manages to inveigle her way aboard a Florida-bound train, where she is adopted as a female mascot by the wacky Ale and Quail club, hooks up with a millionaire, J. D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee), acquires an expensive new designer wardrobe and a diamond and ruby bracelet, is wined and dined aboard Hackensacker's yacht for the final leg of the journey, and arrives in Palm Beach engaged to him.

Gerry being serenaded by the Ale and Quail Club

The plot of The Palm Beach Story seems not so much to unfold deliberately as to be improvised as we watch the film. From an initial premise, the picture keeps evolving in unexpected ways, snowballing from one episode to the next, not with any conventional causality, but with its own delirious narrative momentum. If you haven't seen this movie before, trying to predict what will come next is a futile exercise that will only end up keeping you flummoxed. All you can do is surrender yourself to the frenzy of Sturges's relentless comic invention and hold on to your seat for the duration of the ride. One farcical situation seems to follow another spontaneously, in the tradition of sublime narrative anarchy found in the great silent comedies, the Marx Brothers, and the zaniest screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby. It's only in retrospect that it becomes apparent how carefully engineered the entire edifice is, held together by its own self-generated narrative logic.

In addition to its hilarious situations and frequent physical comedy ("I happen to love pratfalls," Sturges writes in his autobiography), the film is propelled by its clever dialogue and its characters. Sturges, who began as a playwright and later turned to writing movies, knew the value of dialogue and loaded the picture with rapid-fire conversations generously spiked with quips, bons mots, and witticisms. And as the writer as well as the director of the picture, he made sure to get the maximum effect from his expertly crafted dialogue, using long takes and being careful to avoid distracting the viewer with gratuitous directorial flourishes. This, of course, requires the expertise of actors perfectly attuned to Sturges's approach, and in The Palm Beach Story he has assembled a cast that might contain some surprising choices but would be difficult to improve on.

Preston Sturges flanked by his stars

As well as his regular character actors like William Demarest and Franklin Pangborn in smaller roles, mostly as members of the Ale and Quail club, Sturges casts Rudy Vallee as the stodgy, sexually naive millionaire Gerry becomes engaged to. The colorless and rather enervated Vallee is an inspired choice for the boyish J. D. Hackensacker III. Standing in complete contrast is his unconventional sister, the manic, wisecracking Maude, the Princess Centimillia. Married and divorced five times and clearly possessing a powerful sex drive, Maude sets her sights on Tom, by this point masquerading as Gerry's brother, the moment she sees him. Mary Astor, cast against melodramatic type, plays the man-hungry Princess with a superb comic flair I haven't seen her display in any other picture.

As the on-again, off-again Tom and Gerry, Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert are a great team. He's single-minded, humorless, and sexually possessive, the straight man to Colbert's Gerry. It's a great role for the usually laid-back McCrea, who plays Tom with the same intensity as he played the movie director in Sturges's Sullivan's Travels, released earlier the same year. But the film really belongs to Claudette Colbert. Her Gerry is a woman with a clear and realistic view of herself and others, a woman who makes no bones about her mercenary nature, a great improviser who lives by her wits, using in a benign way what Sturges has described as "the aristocracy of beauty"—in other words, the power of her sexual attractiveness to men—to get by.

Yet there doesn't seem to be anything manipulative about her, beyond the fact that she knows what she wants and is uncommonly shrewd about how to get it. For Gerry, her sex appeal is merely a practical way to navigate her way through life. She's no guileful seductress; she doesn't go out of her way to vamp men. Nor is she a child-woman, playing dumb and pandering to helpless little-girl male fantasies, but a mature, intelligent, and unaffected woman. When men respond to her attractiveness, she simply goes along with it as a serendipitous opportunity.

This happens time and again—with the Wienie King, the cab driver who takes a shine to her and drives her to Penn Station for free, the rowdy Ale and Quail Club, J. D. Hackensacker. It is exactly this quality in Gerry's personality, her guilt-free willingness to use her natural advantages to get results, that maddens Tom and arouses his jealously. I can't think of a more appropriate choice to play such an original character as Gerry—with her combination of femininity, brains, and playfulness—than Claudette Colbert. For me it's her best role and her most delightful performance.

As a director, Sturges had a brief but illustrious run. Remarkably, he produced his two greatest films in the space of just one year: Sullivan's Travels, which makes a serious statement on the subject of humor, and The Palm Beach Story, which takes the serious subject of sex and makes it as funny as it's ever been in a movie.

This post is part of the Comedy Classics Blogathon sponsored by the Classic Movie Blog Association. The event runs January 22-27. For a complete list of participants and to learn more, click here.

34 comments:

  1. An excellent post on a most excellent subject! This is a great film - and so funny! It's hard to improve on the cast and director (and yes - the supporting players really do make this film just so extra special). A wonderful appreciation, your post makes me want to go and see it right now!

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    1. One of my favorite things about the studio pictures is the character actors in supporting parts. In comedies like this one they get to do all the undignified things the stars can't. Sturges had his own group of character actors he used over and over, but he knew how to make each of them distinctive even in the smallest "bit" part. Many of them I can't even put a name to, but it's always a treat to look for the familiar faces in all of his pictures.

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  2. Very well written post, and I love your choice of movie. Your description of the architecture of the script, and of the sex-as-screwball theme is great.

    "...Can't think of a more appropriate choice to play such an original character as Gerry—with her combination of femininity, brains, and playfulness—than Claudette Colbert. For me it's her best role and her most delightful performance." I agree.

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    1. Claudette Colbert is one of my very favorites of the studio years. Comic acting usually doesn't get the credit it deserves, especially by actresses. The screwball comedies of the late 30s-early 40s gave comic actresses--including Irene Dunne, Carole Lombard, Katharine Hepburn, Jean Arthur, Colbert--some of their best roles ever. In this picture she is just sublime.

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  3. One of my favorite scenes in the film is while, Colbert is traveling by train to Palm Beach she meets the wonderful Rudy Vallee, who plays the nutty singing millionaire. Great review to a great film!!

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    1. Love it when she keeps stepping on his face while trying to sneak into the upper berth, breaking pair after pair of his pince-nez. Fortunately, he always seems to have another pair on hand!

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  4. Zany, smart and sexy could describe both "Gerry" and the movie. Thanks so much for reminding me of the endless delights of "The Palm Beach Story" with your well written article.

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    1. If you think about it, Gerry is the thing that brings all these diverse people together and makes everything in the picture happen. There would be no movie without her. I guess it's no wonder then that, as you observe, her personality seems to be the "personality" of the film too.

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  5. What would a Comedy Classics Blogathon be without a Sturges picture? My favorite part of this movie is the unexpected twists the plot takes along the way. One never knows what to expect! Sturges's "architecture" analogy is an intriguing one because--when caught up in the "world" of a movie--I usually forget that what I'm watching has been precisely "built"...down to the words coming out of the characters' mouths, the furniture in a room, and the viewpoint of what I see. While this is true of all cinema, it's especially intriguing in a quick-paced, jig-jag film like THE PALM BEACH STORY (as well as BRINGING UP BABY, which you referenced). This is probably my favorite Claudette Colbert film, but Rudy Vallee's performance is the biggest surprise. As you wrote, Sturges knew just how to play to Rudy's strengths. Lastly, I'm consistently amazed with what Sturges got away with in Hollywood. Did any other director fare as well with the Hays Code?

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    1. Sturges made the interesting comment that he found directing easy because he did all his directing while he was writing the screenplay. Even the generally accepted "auteurs" of the studio years like Howard Hawks and John Ford didn't write their own screenplays, and Billy Wilder always worked with a collaborator. So I suppose this makes Sturges the most auteurish of the studio directors. He wasn't as cinematic a director as Orson Welles, but to me his films have the greatest unity of all those things you mentioned, not just the best professionals doing their jobs, but his personal stamp everywhere. He was such a multi-talented man that I guess this isn't surprising. As for Vallee, this movie created a film career for him, but I don't think he was ever this well matched to a role again.

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  6. I like this one alot too, with one caveat. I don't like Joel McCrea's character. I like him tremendously as an actor, and he does fine here, but his character is an awful grouch. Granted, he's frustrated that no one is paying attention to his inventions, but I never quite got what Colbert's character saw in him. Perhaps Sturges wanted a character that was somewhat more grounded in reality in his movie when its already loaded with the Weenie King, the Ale & Quail Club, etc.

    Hardly enough to mar the movie though, but it always nags at me each time I see it.

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    1. McCrea does seem rather grim in the midst of all these high-jinks, doesn't he? But if he weren't, there wouldn't be enough clash of personality between him and the happy-go-lucky Colbert to set the film in motion. I thought the expressions on their faces in the picture I chose for the beginning of the post shows very well the difference in their temperaments. I think of them as one of those couples where the sexual chemistry is there but where the friction between their different outlooks on life creates tension in the relationship that must be overcome, a common premise of romantic comedy.

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  7. I love this movie and can see that you do, too! Astor and Colbert are dynamite. I love Sturges' films because the women in them are so liberated (usually). The train scenes with the quail club were a riot. Loved your post!

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    1. Sturges did conceive some great parts for women. His role for Barbara Stanwyck in "The Lady Eve," for example, is my favorite of Stanwyck's non-dramatic parts. I've been reading his autobiography, and he grew up around women like these and was not only fascinated by them but genuinely respected them. He seemed to see women as appreciating humor and nonconformity more than men. He tended to view men, on the other hand, as either glum or foolish (or both).

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  8. I think it is fair to say this blogathon is as much about sharing old favorites as it is discovering new gems. Your observation that “Palm Beach Story” is a film that invites you to “surrender yourself to the frenzy of Sturges's seemingly improvised comic invention and hold on to your seat for the duration of the ride” is as much evocative as it is sublime. I could not imagine a more unlikely group of people: Colbert and McCrea’s dizzy married couple accentuated and contrasted by the wacky antics of Astor and Vallee, and as you mentioned, the cast is full of familiar faces we’ve grown to love over the years. I think the highlight of the film for me is Mary Astor’s highly sexed Princess and the gentleman from Texas with an unfortunate but hilarious name. Thank you for the wonderful reminder of a film I enjoy watching over the holidays, or anytime of year.

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    1. Astor had a remarkable career. She always seemed so serious, though. This movie was such a change coming right after "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Great Lie." I have no idea how Sturges came up with the idea to cast her in this role or why she accepted a part so different from what she usually did. I have read that there was a certain amount of friction between her and Sturges--I get the impression that he really had to ride her to get her to give the impression of being so uninhibited. Of course, she was apparently a very intelligent and headstrong woman. Whatever went on during the filming, though, for me her Princess Centimillia is scatterbrained, sex-crazed perfection. And the scenes between the Wienie King and Gerry at the beginning where he does all that philosophizing had me in stitches. What he tells her should be horribly depressing, but somehow it comes off as hilarious.

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  9. R.D.
    You know you're in for an hour of fun when you have Colbert getting approached by "The Wienie King of Texas!" This film is nothing like what you expect from the title. It's a funny adventure from beginning to end. Proof that Preston Sturges gets it spot on if he's writing or directing.

    A truly enjoyable review of a very funny film. I prefer Colbert in comedies, just wish she had starred in even more during that time.

    Thanks for making me remember just how entertaining this classic was.
    Page

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    1. I like Colbert in both her serious and her comic roles, but like you I prefer her in the comedies. My next favorites after this are "Midnight" and, of course, "It Happened One Night." And she managed to steal "The Smiling Lieutenant" from its putative stars, Miriam Hopkins and Maurice Chevalier. In her serious roles, I thought she was especially good in "Since You Went Away" and "Three Came Home." I think it's interesting that sometimes she managed to sneak humor into some of the serious parts, like in "Cleopatra" and a pre-Code called "Torch Singer" which I'd like to write on sometime.

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  10. Only Claudette Colbert could look so smashing clad in a Pullman blanket and pajamas. Your insights on Sturges' use of the sex motif remind me of the producer in 'Sullivan's Travels' who keeps urging Joel McCrea to make sure that "a little bit of sex" is added to the film. Sturges had a rare, adult understanding of, shall we say, the divine pash in his own movies, as demonstrated by 'The Lady Eve' and 'The Palm Beach Story.' Amazing he was able to get it past the Breen office. Terrific read on one of Sturges' funniest.

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    1. She did wear that outfit with flair, didn't she? And I didn't even mention the old-fashioned high-button boots, which she managed to make look chic, sort of a retro touch to her improvised outfit. I've read that Sturges had problems getting this script approved, but I suppose he figured out that if he kept the sex on a notional level, he could put in as much as he wanted and get away with it. Surely only Billy Wilder was this savvy about how to get sex into his films so invisibly but so unmistakably.

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  11. Fabulous review of a fabulous film! Sadly, I think Sturges hit his peak with this one. Follow-ups like The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero were both daring and satirical in their own ways, but Palm Beach Story is just a masterwork of characterization and (as you so aptly put it) "delirious narrative." I do believe this is my favorite of all of his films (with The Lady Eve coming a very close second).

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    1. Sturges did have an incredible few years there. "The Lady Eve," "Sullivan's Travels," "Palm Beach," "Morgan's Creek"--he seemed to be hitting home runs every time. My brain tells me that "Sullivan's Travels" is his masterpiece, but "Palm Beach" is my favorite, one of the funniest movies ever made. He seems to be getting the most attention of anyone in the Comedy Classics Blogathon, and rightly so, with my post and one on "Easy Living" and then the one at True Classics on "The Great McGinty." I am surprised that nobody is doing "The Lady Eve," as my impression is that this is probably the most popular of all Sturges's movies.

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  12. I love Preston Sturges and this one is his zaniest. I agree about Mary Astor -- she nearly steals the film with her head-on comedic performance. And Colbert was such a relaxed, expert comedienne. She made it look so easy and perhaps is underrated because of that.

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    1. Reading about Sturges's boyhood, I couldn't help wondering if perhaps Mary Astor's character was inspired at least in part by his mother. She was a globetrotting bohemian, a nonconformist who believed in free love and the good things in life. Her best friend was Isadora Duncan, whom Sturges knew well as a boy. Like all great film actors who, as you put it, make what they do look so easy, Colbert doesn't get enough credit because she is so expert at giving the impression that she's not working. To me it's hard to overpraise this wonderful actress, and I'm pleased this post has inspired people to say how much they like her too.

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  13. I still need to see this! One of the few Sturges films I still have not seen. "Sullivan's Travels" is one of my favorite films. He was a wonderful writer with such a cleaver and smart way. This caliber of writing is what is missing most to today's movies. Great write up again R.D.!

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    1. John, you must see this ASAP! What more can I say?

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  14. I have just watched this today after seeing that you had reviewed it, RD. I'll admit I haven't seen very much Sturges so far and those I have seen haven't really been my thing - I didn't find 'The Lady Eve' very funny and thought there were far too many scenes where Henry Fonda fell over, though I should probably give it another try in case I was just in the wrong mood for it. I also gave up on 'Hail the Conquering Hero' though again I don't know if I gave it a fair shot.

    However, I really enjoyed 'The Palm Beach Story', and your review of it - Claudette Colbert is wonderful as Gerry and manages to make her far more than just a gold digger. I also thought Joel McCrea's grumpiness and unwillingness to play along were important, as his reactions don't allow us to forget that, seen from another angle, the plot could be nasty and even tragic - with shades of Henry James' 'The Wings of the Dove' (except that Rudy Vallee isn't dying!) Of course, the mood in this is completely the opposite to the James and full of sunshine, but even so I did feel increasingly worried about Rudy Vallee's character. I was glad when the surprise ending twists turned up to take care of him, even though the ending is outrageous and indeed relies on a plot device that is banned in traditional detective fiction! I did think the scenes on the train got a bit much and was pleased when the carriage containing the drunks was set adrift, but really I should have followed your advice to "surrender yourself to the frenzy of Sturges's seemingly improvised comic invention and hold on to your seat for the duration of the ride."

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    1. Judy, I'm relieved you liked this after your disappointment with "Eve" and "Hero." I confess that my enthusiasm for those two films is not so great as some people's. The great cast, including Charles Coburn and Eric Blore, help smooth over the slower spots in "Eve." I've always suspected that those who like "Hero" more than I do like it so much because they respond strongly to the theme. That said, I still think those are excellent, as are "Christmas in July" and "Unfaithfully Yours," but for me Sturges's absolute best are "Palm Beach," "Sullivan's Travels," and "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek." An interesting observation you made about things happening in Sturges movies that in a different context would be serious, even tragic. Somehow he managed to find humor in the most unlikely places.

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  15. Thanks R.D. for analyzing what makes The Palm Beach Story such a classic and always fun to re-watch. Colbert is one reason as you say, but I also especially liked the banter, if you can call it that, between Mary Astor and Sig Arno as Toto. Just one of several comedic jewels in this movie. It's a pity that the pacing of movies like this one and Bringing up Baby and Gal Friday isn't used anymore.

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    1. Christian, this IS a very re-watchable movie, one of those that even if you know in advance what's going to happen, you anticipate every twist with pleasure. When I watched it in preparation for writing the post, it was the second time in a year I'd seen it, and I can honestly say I enjoyed it just as much as the previous time. That's certainly a big reason why it's such a classic. The two movies you named are two of my favorites and definitely in a class with this one--expertly plotted, lightning paced, perfectly cast, and very, very funny. I also enjoyed Maude and Toto. He's like a big pet hound that follows her around everywhere demanding attention

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  16. I'm unfortunately late to this party, but the champagne is still bubbly, as the evening's host has again offers his guests everything but the kitchen sink. In tackling one of the defining work's of American cinema's most celebrated satirist, you have examined the film from all perspectives, behind and in front of the camera. I would possibly agree that SULLIVANS TRAVELS and THE PALM BEACH STORY are Sturges' two greatest film, though THE LADY EVE would contend with the latter. The film is loaded with comic invention, and there's a snappy intensity to the dialogue. It's a manic farce that almost incredible is sustained for nearly the duration of its running time. Of course the plot of this film really means little--it's the characters and the dialogue.

    Again, beautiful piece here R.D.

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    1. Sam, thanks for your as usual thoughtful comments. An interesting observation you offer that the plot is really just the structure to support the characters and dialogue. I'd certainly go along with that as well as your statement that Sturges is "American cinema's most celebrated satirist." About the running time: I could hardly believe it when after watching the movie I saw that the whole thing runs only about an hour and a half. It seems to have enough events and comic invention for a movie much longer than that. I just wish that more modern filmmakers had the capacity to cram this much into such a compact film. In this picture, as in "Sullivan's Travels," Sturges proved himself a real master of narrative concentration, another of those virtues that makes his work so special.

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  17. R.D. - As you might imagine, "The Lady Eve" is for me the standout in the compactly concentrated canon of Preston Sturges. But "The Palm Beach Story" is not far behind. That exhausted adjective "sparkling" comes to mind as a true description of Claudette Colbert's performance. She simply runs away with the picture, tripping the light fantastic as she does so. And Joel McCrea supports her admirably (underrated). Then there's Mary Astor - the jalapeno in this salsa.

    I adore the beginning and end of this tale. It's as if Sturges opened the picture by weaving a ribbon (though unnoticed) around the plot and then, in the end, tying it in a bow. Inspired.

    Wonderful review, R.D., I love your work for many reasons - not the least of which is that you don't miss a thing (including those things that I do miss).

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    1. Eve, I'm glad you found time to read this in the midst of all the work you're doing on the "Month of VERTIGO." I've already said so much about Claudette Colbert in this picture that I'll just add how gratifying it is that so many others adore her too. I like the way you describe the frame of the story. At first it might seem a throwaway gimmick, but in retrospect it's clear that it's really an essential part of the movie, the means for the characters to have their cake and eat it too. And exactly who is doing what to whom provides the viewer with a great puzzle with multiple possibilities, amplified by the expressions on the faces of everyone in the final scene. I found a great photo of this but didn't include it because I didn't want to give away any more than was necessary in order to leave a treat for first-time viewers!

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