IMDb plot summary: A New York inventor needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire with a capricious high-society sister.
Directed by Preston Sturges. Starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, and Mary Astor.
The Palm Beach Story is a screwball comedy by Preston Sturges about a woman who decides everyone would be better off if she and her husband divorced and she found a wealthy man to marry (and maybe even help financially support her then-ex). She doesn't want to leave her husband, but their financial woes have been putting a strain on their relationship. So off she goes, and off he goes after her to try to convince her not to. This lands more solidly for me than a lot of Sturges' work. The stakes still seem relatively light, even within the world of the comedy itself, and it meanders more than I like, but I did smile a lot at the sort of quirky resignation Claudette Colbert brings to the character of the wife. I still can't pinpoint exactly what it is that keeps Sturges' films at a distance for me, but there's less of that here than there usually is, and as a result I had a pretty good time and would recommend it to anyone who's a fan of the genre.
How it entered my Flickchart:
The Palm Beach Story > The Misfits
The Palm Beach Story > The Game
The Palm Beach Story < The Goodbye Girl (1977)
The Palm Beach Story < Booksmart
The Palm Beach Story < The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
The Palm Beach Story < Before Sunset
The Palm Beach Story < The Pirates of Penzance
The Palm Beach Story < The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
The Palm Beach Story < My Name Is Joe
The Palm Beach Story < Long Day's Journey Into Night
The Palm Beach Story > Munich
The Palm Beach Story < Till Death
Final spot: #892 out of 3578, or 75%.
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