When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I am really at a loss to understand how this movie gets the reputation it has earned. Just because Preston Sturges' name is involved doesn't make it profoundly funny or profoundly insightful. Claudette Colbert was a charming cutie and all that. But born in 1903 and at nearly 40 years old when this picture was made, the motivations and emotional responses she is asked to exhibit in Palm Beach Story are way too immature for who she actually is. IMO, that can be said of nearly everyone involved in this coarsely unfunny movie. Mary Astor, another lovely and wonderful actress, is also made to act the complete noisy air-head. When the film was made there no doubt were other criteria to judge her character by. These days however, again IMO, Astor's constant screeching and especially her relationship with Toto, her annoyingly unattractive hanger on, who understands nothing, is actually offensive. Cringe-worthy to be honest. (Toto's character and how he is treated reminds me of the part played by Asta or one of those other terrier dogs that were popular in screwball comedies.) Only Rudy Vallee, who later in his career perfected the Teflon-coated stooge role, seemed to me to almost transcend the material. Everyone is entitled to enjoy whatever movie or star or whatever they like. As for me,I'm darned if I know what the attraction is in Palm Beach Story.

Writer-director Preston Sturges' "The Palm Beach Story" (1942) posits that people are so unused to good fortune that when it's dropped right into their laps, they have no idea what to do with it. And those people include the movie's audience.The movie begins with a whirlwind sequence of exposition (set to a cockeyed version of "The William Tell Overture") which seems to explain absolutely nothing. It's Sturges' nose-thumbing at movies which have nothing *but* exposition. He seems to be saying, "Must we explain everything from the get-go? Have some patience on this trip, and I'll get you there." Soon enough, we meet Tom (Joel McCrea), a frustrated construction designer, and Gerry (Claudette Colbert), his equally frustrated wife. They live in a posh apartment but are constantly dodging bill collectors, until Gerry's chance run-in with a meat mogul known as "The Weenie King." (You think that's flouting the censors? Wait until you see Sturges' The Miracle of Morgan's Creek [1944].) Gerry tells The Weenie King of her financial plight, and he gives her a wad of money to help her, just because she's so darned cute. (Once you see Claudette Colbert, this will seem a little more plausible.) Far from feeling relieved, Tom is displeased that Gerry can solve their financial woes with only a little flirting. Gerry counters that everything in life is "about sex" (Note to censors: Flout-flout),and eventually she leaves Tom to set out on her own, solely to prove that she can get whatever she needs whatever she needs in life just by being a woman.It's never shown whether Gerry proves this to herself or not. But along the way, she meets some memorable characters: the members of The Ale and Quail Club (headed by Sturges veteran William Demarest); an oft-married millionairess (delightful Mary Astor) and her foreign-speaking boyfriend of the moment; and a soft-spoken yachtsman (Rudy Vallee), who patiently endures Gerry's systematic breaking of his every pair of pince-nez's. All of these people love to talk, and Sturges obliges them with enough epigrams for a swank New Year's bash.And for those who think Sturges couldn't direct as well as he wrote, I recommend the scene where a tipsy Tom and Gerry discuss their impending divorce. The scene begins with Tom trying to unzip the back of Gerry's dress for her, and it ends as one of the swooniest love scenes it has ever been my pleasure to witness.And just when you think the movie has run out of steam, Sturges pulls a happy ending out of his hat that has you laughing through the closing credits. Smart and smarter--now, *there's* a trend Hollywood should have pursued.

Shortly after the US entered the second world war this dynamite 86 minute black and white screwball was pure nonsense entertainment. Comic geniuses Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea are often edited in curvy poses while musical star Rudee Vallee and first time brilliant nutcase comic Mary Astor shine in stiff posture poses, one edited shot with Colbert and MacCrea curved at the edges of the frame with Vallee and Astor straight as rods in the center of the frame as good as it gets in movie making. The characters are all nut cases who believe they are behaving responsibly yet are utter dopes likely to do the unexpected and glory in it. The story rolls along with enough physical comedy, certainly the ale and quail club, to keep the laughs flowing while the illogical storyboard makes no sense and the happy ending comes out of nowhere.

The opening credits were rather confusing, showing little bits of the story, like a lady tied up in a closet. The movie had some rather dramatic characters and also held a lot of qualities of a silent film, with the big over exaggerated facial expressions and hand gestures. The music was also very similar to that of a silent film. The journey the lead woman goes on to help her poor husband is incredible. The train scene was definitely my favorite. The passion between the Gerry and her husband as they try to face getting a divorce and the money for her husbands airport project is nothing short of modern, with a few classic touches.