Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post: The Palm Beach Story

 

The first Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post of the New Year is about a movie that had a wide release on New Year's Day in 1943.  It's a fast paced mad cap screwball comedy written and directed by a master of the form, Preston Sturges. 

 

Starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallée, here is The Palm Beach Story.

Fate has not been kind to inventor Tom Jeffers and his wife Gerry after five years of marriage.  Tom's got all sort of ideas for inventions but none are bringing IN any money and the couple are on the verge of being kicked OUT of their apartment. 

Until Gerry meets the Wienie King.

She meets the who now?

The Wienie King!

The Wienie King?

Yes, the Wienie King. He's a very strange old man who has made a crap ton of money from... wienies.

Anyway, the... Wienie King is sympathetic to Gerry's plight. She is quite charming and (since she's played by Claudette Colbert) very beautiful so the... Wienie King just gives her a wad of cash which is more than enough to pay up the back rent and other bills with enough left over for a new dress and a night out for a nice (no wienies) dinner.  

And Gerry announces to Tom her plan: she loves him so much,she is going to divorce him. 

Wait! Who is going to do what to who for why? 

Gerry is going to Palm Beach, Florida, get a divorce, meet and marry a wealthy man who can provide the money to help  Tom get his inventions off the ground. 

Tom is against this plan so therefore, Gerry is going anyway.   

On the train ride to Palm Beach, things look like they may be falling place for Gerry's plan when she meets John D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallée), an eccentric but amiable  (and rich as hell!) fellow who falls hard for Gerry.  

Back in New York, Tom has his own encounter with the... Wienie King who is moved by Tom's tale of woe and just hands him a wad of cash, admonishing Tom to get on a plane to Palm Beach and go win back Gerry. 

(The Wienie King may look and sound weird but that's the kind of rich I wanna be, just going around solving the problems of random people with wads of cash!)  

Tom reaches Gerry but she's determined to stick to the plan and introduces Tom to John D. Hankensacker III as her brother, Captain McGlue. 

Captain... McGlue? Look, Gerry was under a lot of pressure to come up with something but...  McGlue?

Because this is a Preston Sturges comedy, things need to get more complicated so enter Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor),  John D. Hackensacker III's oft-married, man-hungry sister who (you guessed it!) falls hard for Tom.  

Yikes! 

Then things get weird.

It's not much of a spoiler to say that Tom and Gerry work things out and get back together. That's how this sort of movie is supposed to go.  

But where does that leave poor love struck Princess Centimillia and John D. Hackensacker III?

Now THIS is a spoiler so move past the blue line and on to the red line to avoid it.

___________________

...

...

...

Gerry has an identical twin sister.  Who is single.

Tom has an identical twin brother. Who is single.

What the hell? Really?!?!?

In a real twist, Princess Centimillia marries Gerry's sister and John D. Hackensacker III gets hitched with Tom's brother!

Of course not! It's 1943 and gay people have not been invented yet.  

John D. Hackensacker III marries Gerry's sister and Tom serves as best man.

Princess Centimillia marries Tom's brother with Gerry as matron of honor.

And everyone will work all this out in therapy.  

I wish I could say the affair was catered by the Wienie King but alas, no.   

____________________

So that was a thing that happened.

The original title Preston Sturges came up with was Is Marriage Necessary?

The Hays Office censors had a problem with that. Yes, marriage is very much necessary if you want to engage in legally sanctioned hetero-normative sexual intercourse.

The Hays Office has a problem with Sturges poking fun at John D. Rockefeller in the form of John D. Hackensacker III.  Me, I liked John D. Hackensacker III and did not perceive him as a vehicle of ridicule.  

Preston Sturges originally wrote that Princess Centimillia was  divorced eight times. He negotiated with the Hays Office to bring the number of divorces down to three plus two annulments.  

The Hays Office apparently had no problem with the... Wienie King.  

All in all, The Palm Beach Story is a wackadoodle screwball comedy that perhaps labors a bit under the weight of a slightly too convoluted premise and perhaps making our star (Claudette Colbert as Gerry) less than a likeable character. She's pulling a con on someone and yes, let's screw the rich but damn, John D. Hackensacker III is actually a nice guy and doesn't not deserve to be the object of such games. 

_________________________________

Tomorrow is a Doctor Who themed post and I'll be back next week with another film for another edition of Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post.