The Palm Beach Story (88 Minutes)
"Of course, I'm crazy, I'll marry anybody." - Princess Centimillia
This week’s letter is dedicated to 1942’s The Palm Beach Story, starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, and Rudy Vallée. This is a heavy-hitting cast made up of Academy Award winners, a Western star, Hollywood Walk of Fame star holders, and was written by Preston Sturges. According to Sturges’ Wiki (yeah, sorry) he is well-known for dialogue that when heard today, comes across as way ahead of its time. And that is exactly the reaction I had while watching this movie. I kept thinking to myself “They’d say or do that in a 40’s picture?”
The first thing I want to address is an important dichotomy -- the dialogue is ahead of its time and the main characters are engaging in conversations that I can’t remember ever witnessing in a movie of this age before. Sex, multiple divorces, affairs, and more. What is impossible to overlook, however, is the treatment of the Black characters. There’s all this beautiful, inventive dialogue and then the Black bartender and train staff are racist caricatures. As such, it is impossible to say that this movie is truly “ahead of its time”. Those moments make it hard to enjoy the picture as a whole and tarnish what is an otherwise amazing and fun movie. Now, on to our…
Quick Plot Overview!
Tom (McCrea) is a down on his luck inventor. Gerry (Colbert) is his disappointed wife. She decides it's time they get a divorce and flees to Palm Beach to find a new man who can both support the lifestyle she wants to live, and also can buy into Tom’s invention. On her way to Palm Beach via rail, Gerry meets Hackensacker (Vallee) an unassuming man who turns out to be incredibly rich and has a three-times-divorced sister, Princess Centimillia (Astor) who is looking for her next man.
I was a little shocked that this plot and these characters were “allowed” in 1942. It turns out that censors did feel that the movie treated both marriage and divorce too lightly and in order for the movie to be cleared for production, the script had to be toned down from its original version. This included removing additional sexually suggestive lines and changing the number of the Princess’ divorces from 8 to 3 and giving her 2 annulments. It was ultimately greenlit as the version we know today, which is again, a bit racier than the censors would have probably preferred.
Like all great 90-minute movies we jump in fast with a credit sequence, this one surrounds a very suspicious wedding and then we jump ahead five years to find the couple unhappy and broke. Note: The opening sequence was so confusing, we watched it twice at the beginning and then again once we finished the movie. (I’ll get into why in a little bit.)
The movie takes place over a couple of days and is split into easy-to-digest thirds: New York City, the train, and Palm Beach. I really like this method for a short film because you can use the character’s surroundings to amplify and support the story without needing to extend the runtime with additional dialogue and bodies. In this case, New York City is where Tom and Gerry are unhappy. Tom hasn’t struck it rich yet and Gerry is sick of dodging their creditors. (Also I am just now noticing as I type this that they’re named Tom and Gerry which cannot be a coincidence. The cartoon was fairly new at the time.) The train is Gerry’s first dose of freedom. And Palm Beach is where she and Tom both learn that they’d rather have each other than money.
Another really bright thing this script does is move the character arcs forward with small actions that you may miss if you aren’t paying attention. Rather than give the characters long monologues or explanatory conversations, they start to make choices that show they can and will change. Here are a couple of good examples:
In an earlier scene, Gerry says that she is NOT the kind of wife that can just make a dress out of yesterday’s drapes, but while on the train she loses her luggage and in fact fashions herself an outfit out of a blanket and a man’s pajamas.
Early in the film Tom and Gerry joke that their relationship is more like that of a brother and sister. Later, they pose as brother and sister to trick Hackensacker and the Princess.
Hackensacker, the richest man in the world, chooses to travel in a lower sleeper bed than have his own stateroom. He later tells Gerry it is a burden to have so much money.
Funny Invention Break!
A quick pause and tell you that Tom’s amazing invention he is trying to sell throughout the movie is an aerial airport. It is a mesh-like net that goes over all of the buildings in Manhattan and planes can land on it. Right in the center of the city! This invention is just so awfully bad and is a great running joke that is treated with seriousness for the entire movie.
The script also packs a lot in with supporting characters who represent the immorality and downside of Gerry’s wants. And yes, while this movie is “ahead of its time”, it ultimately reflects the conservative values of the time. Princess Centimillia is proof that if you disrespect the sanctity of marriage once, you will continue down that path divorcing everyone you meet and never finding happiness or stability. Hackensacker is proof that you can have all the money in the world and still be lonely. Toto (the Princess’ offensively depicted hanger-on) shows a lack of self-respect and just how embarrassing it is to follow someone around for money. The Ale and Quail Club (Gerry meets this club of rich hunting enthusiasts on the train) represent the distasteful side of having too much money-- getting drunk and shooting up the train out of boredom.
Tom and Gerry are two hustlers who enjoy the hustle. Without saying as much, they’re very American in this way. Even when they find the wealth they have always dreamed of in both Hackensacker and the Princess, they choose one another and continue the hustle instead. In the end, they’re rewarded for this, but I won’t say how as it’s kind of a spoiler and this movie isn’t that widely known across my circles. (Or maybe it is! It is on Criterion after all.)
That brings me to both the end and beginning of this film. Remember how I said we had to watch the opening twice in a row and then once again at the end? The opening credit sequence is Tom and Gerry tricking both of their twin siblings--intending to marry each other-- on their wedding days and marrying each other instead. Even that sentence comes out confusing. And if it doesn’t make sense, I don’t know what else to say, I guess you’ll have to watch it. But the point being is that they’re ultimately two swindlers who belong together and it takes a wild trip to Palm Beach to remind them of that.
Curious to hear from folks that have either seen The Palm Beach Story or are familiar with Sturges’ other work. I am admittedly an amateur when it comes to movies older than the 1960s and I want to continue down my new racy path. Recommendations welcome.
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