Review of The Palm Beach Story (1942) by Paul J — 06 Apr 2009

"That's one of the tragedies of this life: that the men who are most in need of a beating up are always enormous!".

Having come to the conclusion that her struggling entrepreneur husband (Joel McCrea) would be better off without her, Claudette Colbert heads for Palm Beach in search of a quick divorce and a rich new husband to bankroll his predecessor's pipe dream. One of the problems I have with The Great McGinty is that I'm more concerned for Mrs McGinty than her husband at the end of that picture; similarly here, my sympathies for Mary Astor and, especially, poor Rudy Vallee exceed my happiness for Colbert and McCrea. Ever the craftsman, Sturges does make provision for Astor and Vallee's respective future happinesses, but his solution is too preposterously contrived to completely satisfy. Colbert and McCrea play their parts beautifully, but for much of the movie their characters are rather unattractive: he's surly and jealous and she's a gold-digger. Astor and Vallee provide most of the laughs.