Rating: NR
Genre:
Comedy
Release Date: 02/01/2005
SubTitles: French/Espanol
Dubbed: English
Sound: DDM2.0
Run Time: 88 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Suitable for Children
Distributor/Studio: Universal Studios
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.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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