Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

JohnHowardReid Many of the movies made by Preston Sturges could be classed as "comedies of error." The Palm Beach Story is no exception. The credit titles are alarmingly and delightfully interspersed with daringly abbreviated clips of Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea rushing around madly, evidently priming themselves for their wedding. As each title card credit appears, the action suddenly freezes briefly. Although these clips are all brief, they do show us some alarming scenes. For example, we see Colbert getting herself primped up for the wedding in one shot, and Colbert, bound up with rope and imprisoned in a closet in another. Every time I see this film I seem to like it better. When I first saw it at a cinema, I was about 20 years old. I was disappointed. Was this the comedy riot I had been led to expect? I thought it was strained and artificial and far too talky. 15 years later I saw it on TV and a few months after that I enjoyed it at a theater. In fact, this third time, I liked it enormously."Palm Beach Story" is the comedy of manners par excellence. The dialogue crackles with wit and sophistication and the premise of the film (that a pretty woman can get anything anytime, anywhere, from any man for no payment whatever other than a wistful or helpless glance) is as cynical as it is true. The film follows the adventures of a young wife dedicated to proving that proposition correct — and she does just this, through contact with some of the most delightful eccentrics ever to people a Sturges comedy.For full impact, however, these larger-than-life characters must be seen on a theater screen — the Ale and Quail Club is a case in point.There are the usual long but effective Sturges' takes, mostly in medium shot, showing the characters standing full-length. And I like the witty way the plot conclusion is foreshadowed in the sharply cut, old- time, send-up credit titles.

Bill Slocum F. Scott Fitzgerald told Ernest Hemingway "the rich are different from you and me." For Preston Sturges, "different" hardly covers it. In his "The Palm Beach Story," they are out of their minds.Rich people can't wait to give Geraldine Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) their money. Sure, she's beautiful, but she's also married to the possessive if indigent Tom (Joel McCrea). Deciding that he's better off without her as a "milestone" around his neck, and that she's certainly better off finding more crazy rich guys to give her dough, she leaves for a quickie divorce in Palm Beach, Florida, with Tom in hot pursuit.Perhaps Sturges' dizziest comedy, "Palm Beach Story" is a clever, grown- up entertainment, feet quite detached from the ground. Just imagine how the Paramount brass reacted after screening the first two-and-a-half minutes of this, a galloping credit sequence having nothing to do with the plot of the next 80 minutes. It's certainly amusing, but even knowing what Sturges was setting up here doesn't make me sure it was the right approach.Sturges is called the anti-Capra for the way he played with the Frank Capra formula where little people win against the mighty with equal parts pluck and sentimentality. If Capra was the enlightened communitarian, Sturges was the eccentric patrician, and "Palm Beach Story" his paean to capitalist endeavor at its warped and wackiest.The capitalists with whom the Jeffers come across are a cross-section of craziness that proves money talks loudest when it makes the least sense. There's the "Wienie King" (Robert Dudley) who gives Gerry $700 and a warning to lay off his product if she wants to live longer. There's the Ale And Quail Club, who gift her passage to Florida on their train and then scare her away by holding target practice in the club car. Finally, you have the Hackensackers, a brother and sister whose oil fortune has completely divorced them from any practical reality, and who settle upon the Jeffers as ideal companions for their cloud-cuckoo land.As John D. Hackensacker (Rudy Vallée) tells his sister (Mary Astor), "You know Maude, somebody meeting you for the first time, not knowing you were cracked, might get the wrong impression."Whimsy predominates over everything else in "The Palm Beach Story;" the one quality everyone possesses equally. "I like peace but I ain't morbid about it," is how a cop warns Tom to watch his step. Thanked for his "chivalry" by Gerry, a ticket attendant replies: "Anytime from 8 to 12."Watching all this zaniness is pretty charming, even if the story it decorates is somewhat undernourished. Neither Jeffers is that engaging as personalities go; hard enough as it is to believe, the richie-rich Hackensackers come off more vulnerable and worth your time, what with their personality quirks and their weird need for love.Sturges' taste for story detours is on full display here; the Ale And Quail Club taxes your patience with non-stop singing, barking, and shooting, not to mention all the Sturges stock players putting in their appearances. Sturges found William Demarest funny for some reason, giving him center stage in the movie's trailer. At least his part in the film isn't so much as that.But what a clever ending, all the more so for being so utterly random! There's a line of thinking that "The Palm Beach Story" is screwball comedy, but it's way beyond that to me. Sturges throws so many balls in the air there's a bit of wonder when he manages to catch a few.The object is entertainment, and it succeeds in that well enough. It also seems there's a lesson about capitalism tied up somewhere, that leaving people to make their own ways in life is the best course to take, no matter how mixed up they are. Does it work in life? No idea, but it certainly seems to here!

k-deeb The opening scene tells it all. Well not really, as we don't understand it all until the end, but it begins the comedy, and this opening scene is one for the ages. Colbert is simply funny and quite the character. And she is surrounded by quite a cast of comedians and wonderful actors in Rudy Vallee, Mary Astor and Sig Arno. When they separate you realize that they are made for each other, despite their naiveness in the beginning. They realize through an air of comedy and are finally brought back together in a twist of romance. Through their acting and change of character they bring it together in the end, and make it work. It wasn't funny all the way through out, but the parts that were funny were quite the knee-slappers. Keep up with the quick one-liners and you'll enjoy yourself. Palm Beach Story, definitely not a favorite, but not bad at all.

kenjha After his wife leaves him for an eccentric millionaire, an inventor pursues her to Palm Beach and laughs follow. This was Sturges's follow-up to "The Lady Eve" and "Sullivan's Travels" from the previous year. That's a hard act to follow for any director. Although this is generally enjoyable, it is not at the same level of brilliance as the preceding pair. There are funny bits but the comedy is not sustained. It gets off to a hilarious start but sort of runs out of steam. Scenes go on much too long after they have been mined for comic effect. Still, Sturges is always worth watching. McCrea, Colbert, Vallee, and Astor lead a capable cast.