For me, Palm Beach Story, a screwball comedy written and directed by the great Preston Sturges, is just about as close to perfect as movies can get. Originally released in 1942 and out now in an inexpensive bare bones DVD (only about ten bucks!) of acceptable quality, it’s not to be missed, especially if you like the laughs. Along with Sullivan’s Travels and the Lady Eve, it’s why people still talk about Preston Sturges today. I can’t think of many films that have even come close to matching the relentlessly exciting pacing, inventiveness and damn bright comedy at work in this amazing trio of American films. Palm Beach Story is a picture that rarely stops to catch it’s breath. Its one hour and twenty-eight minutes flash by so fast I’d swear it was more like forty-five. Grumpy Joel McCrea is hilarious and sparkplug Claudette Colbert is even better. Colbert, apparently tired of being flat broke and of being married and to McCrea splits to Palm Beach for a quickie divorce and hoping to meet somebody rich. McCrea, wisely, doesn’t want to see her go and with a loan from the “weenie-king” (don’t ask) sets of to Florida in hopes of dragging her back home. The extended sequence between Colbert and the Ale and Quail club on the train south is especially fantastic. If you haven’t seen this one before, you’re missing out, or if like me, you’ve been lucky enough to see this before, by all means, I think it’s time to give it another spin.

By the way, news on the street is that Criterion has scheduled one of Sturges’s later flicks, 1948’s Unfaithfully Yours for R1 DVD release this July. 12:06 AM >>> 0 comments

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