The Palm Beach Story

The Palm Beach Story is one of the best examples of the wonderful nonsense that Hollywood used to turn out in its best comedies. It's only in the movies that circumstances like these happen and it's quite beyond my powers... Full review

"The Palm Beach Story" is a lopsided comedy (part of it's funny and part of it's not), but the movie is back-ended with all of the funniest bits, so it allows you to forget the slower parts and it sends... Full review

This has been one of my favorites for thirty years, since the Village Voice critics turned me on to Sturges. It's a loony world where loony things happen, and it's important to realize that the central loony joke is that... Full review

Claudette Colbert is a knockout who knows it. She wants the good life, which her inventor husband can't give her. So she leaves him, intending on marrying someone who can support her and finance his invention. Things don't quite work... Full review

As an example of screwball comedy, this wacky film is at times almost breathless in it's storyline and dialogue. Colbert plays the wife of a frustrated inventor (McCrea) who decides to put her own happiness to one side in order... Full review

THE PALM BEACH STORY is not to be confused with reality. It's a zany romantic comedy given full speed treatment by director Preston Sturges who brought screwball comedy to an art form.His script, full of hilarious one-liners that fly by... Full review

Simply stated...one of the funniest, craziest and most brilliant comedies of all-time....for shear laughs....it's Preston Sturges' funniest movies.You can easily read the plot-line from the other reviewers, but I want to make a point about some of the performances.Rudy Vallee,... Full review

Hilarious movie about an unhappily married couple played by Joel McCrea (unbearably handsome) and Claudette Colbert (unbearably beautiful). She goes to Palm Beach to get a quick divorce. While enroute she meets a shy, sweet millionaire played by Rudy Valle... Full review

When commenting on a film as brilliantly constructed and deeply entertaining as The Palm Beach Story, it's hard to know just where to start.Do you tip your hat to the uniformly wonderful performers?Do you pay tribute to the bizarre and... Full review

The "Palm Beach Story" has a poor title but it's a hilarious movie by the sometimes cynical master of comedy, Preston Sturges. "Palm" comes a year after Sturges far lesser comedy, "The Lady Eve", staring Stanwyck and a dull Henry... Full review

One of Preston Sturges' best films, The Palm Beach Story is a fairly simple love quadrangle, not unlike Leo McCarey's The Awful Truth .....What sets this film apart, though, is its frenetic opening sequence, unexplained.....Largely forgotten throughout the film, it pays off amazingly in the very last moments..... ... Full Review

Reviewed: June 2nd, 2003 Of the four most celebrated comedies by Preston Sturges The Palm Beach Story is the funniest. Chaos of the funniest order ensues right up to the happy ending. The moral dilemma of this situation is typical of Sturges. ... Full Review

Fortunately for the viewers, the plot device involves sticking Colbert -- a deadly combination of hilarity and beauty -- on a train to Palm Beach that just happens to be filled with millionaires who take a shine to her. One of the few truly great writer/directors of American film, Sturges had more ideas than he knew what to do with; witness the film's credits sequence showing the main characters (Joel McCrea and a wonderful Claudette Colbert) getting married. ... Full Review

Sturges manages to turn out yet another delightfully absurd film which should leave you in stitches. Colbert looks and acts beautifully in one of her best roles with a deft touch for playing some the film's more frantic scenes in addition to her normal light comedy. ... Full Review

It's hard to describe Sturges' special brand of comedy.....They teamed again to snipe at the idle rich with this hysterically funny fairy tale.....Colbert was never lovelier or more energetic than she is here, blithely delivering Sturges's sophisticated dialogue.....He takes a perfectly natural action.... ... Full Review

There's an Oscar for pretty much every aspect of filmmaking, except one: the title sequences. Titles, though, have always played a significant part in motion pictures. ... Full Article

There have been many, many horrible chick flicks created throughout the years that have somewhat tarnished the reputation of all films that involve love stories. ... Full Article

Still some LAFFs to be had! : The Los Angeles Film Festival is still happening!Through Sunday!For a complete list of events and for ticketing information, visit LAFilmFest.com or call Box Office & Information Line: 1-866-FilmFest (1-866.345.6337). ... Full Article

Putting aside for a moment that they're sophisticated, witty and breezy - some of the finest entries of Hollywood's Golden Age - there's something often forgotten about the films of Preston Sturges: They're also totally ridiculous. ... Full Article

Fast and funny from beginning to end Preston Sturges The Palm Beach Story is a must see Hollywood comedy from the 1940's. Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea star as a wife and husband who have reached an impasse in their... ... Full Article

April 15th, 2005 In this day and age of films catered to the lowest common denominator, with skimpy incoherent plots, dialogue that sounds worse than nails on a chalk board, and characters that you'd sooner toss off a building than... ... Full Article