{ "id": "epgae05vgb", "slug": "the-palm-beach-story", "title": "The Palm Beach Story", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1940s", "label": "Comedies of the 1940s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1940s" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945: Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Palm Beach Story: 1942 Paramount screwball comedy written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, and Rudy Vallee; released 10 December 1942.", "snippet": "The Palm Beach Story: 1942 Paramount screwball comedy written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, and Rudy Vallee; released 10 December 1942.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1940s", "markdown": "# The Palm Beach Story\n\n**The Palm Beach Story** is a 1942 American screwball comedy written and directed by [Preston Sturges](https://www.edgepedia.org/preston-sturges) and produced by [Paramount Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/paramount-pictures), in which a broke married woman leaves her husband to find a wealthy second husband who can finance the husband's projects.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALM-BEACH-STORY) It stars [Claudette Colbert](https://www.edgepedia.org/claudette-colbert) and Joel McCrea as Gerry and Tom Jeffers, with Mary Astor as Princess Centimillia and Rudy Vallee as the millionaire John D. Hackensacker III.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALM-BEACH-STORY) It was Sturges's fifth feature as director, released a year after his hit *The Lady Eve*.[2](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3438-the-palm-beach-story-love-in-a-warm-climate)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and writer | Preston Sturges, for Paramount Pictures, Inc.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALM-BEACH-STORY) |\n| Release | United States premiere 10 December 1942; New York opening the same day[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALM-BEACH-STORY) • [3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALMBEACHSTORY) |\n| Principal cast | Claudette Colbert (Gerry Jeffers), Joel McCrea (Tom Jeffers), Mary Astor (Princess Centimillia), Rudy Vallee (J.D. Hackensacker III)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALM-BEACH-STORY) • [4](https://www.criterion.com/films/28103-the-palm-beach-story) |\n| Runtime and format | 88 or 90 minutes, black and white, 9 reels (8,356 feet), Western Electric Mirrophonic sound[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALMBEACHSTORY) |\n| Production | 24 November 1941 to 13 January 1942; final costs about $950,000[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALMBEACHSTORY) • [5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/615700/behind-the-camera-the-palm-beach-story) |\n| Working titles | *Is Marriage Necessary* and *Is That Bad?*[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALM-BEACH-STORY) |\n| Censorship | The Production Code Administration initially rejected the script for \"sex suggestive situations...and dialogue\" and protested its \"light treatment of marriage and divorce\"[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALM-BEACH-STORY) |\n| Critical standing | 94% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (32 reviews); AFI has counted it among the funniest films of all time[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/palm_beach_story) • [7](https://www.afi.com/news/the-palm-beach-story-afi-movie-club-2/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nThe film opens with a wedding montage in which a bride and groom are inexplicably prevented from attending their own wedding by their exact doubles, who then marry each other. A written inscription after the wedding sequences at both the beginning and the end reads: \"And they lived happily ever after/or did they?\"[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALM-BEACH-STORY) The montage is only partly explained by the final wedding scene, and its significance has been debated at length in modern sources; one critic called it \"a bigger puzzle than *Last Year at Marienbad*.\"[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALM-BEACH-STORY) • [8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jul/03/palm-beach-story-film-review)\n\nFive or six years into the marriage, Tom and Gerry Jeffers are behind on the rent for their [Park Avenue](https://www.edgepedia.org/park-avenue) apartment. An elderly, nearly deaf sausage manufacturer known as the \"Wienie King,\" viewing the apartment, is so smitten with Gerry that he gives her $700 to pay the bills.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALMBEACHSTORY) Gerry, tired of being broke and convinced that she has held back Tom, a struggling architect who keeps rejecting her attempts to use her beauty to attract backers for his projects, leaves him to seek a divorce.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALMBEACHSTORY)\n\nAt Pennsylvania Station, Gerry uses her charm to get members of the Ale and Quail Club, a men's hunting club that has reserved an entire train car, to buy her a ticket to [Palm Beach, Florida](https://www.edgepedia.org/palm-beach-florida). The club proves so rowdy that after the men shoot out the windows the conductors disconnect their car, leaving Gerry without her suitcase. She shares a sleeper with John D. Hackensacker III, one of the wealthiest men in the world, whose spectacles she breaks while climbing into the upper berth. John takes an interest in her, and in Jacksonville the normally frugal multimillionaire buys her an entire wardrobe of extravagant clothes.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALMBEACHSTORY) Tom follows by plane to talk her out of the plan, and both become entangled with John and his husband-seeking sister, Princess Centimillia.[8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jul/03/palm-beach-story-film-review) • [6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/palm_beach_story)\n\n## Production\n\nSturges went into production on 24 November 1941 and wrapped on 13 January 1942, seven days behind schedule, with final costs of about $950,000.[3](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALMBEACHSTORY) • [5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/615700/behind-the-camera-the-palm-beach-story) He wrote parts to the specific talents of his actors, and most required little direction; when [Joel McCrea](https://www.edgepedia.org/joel-mccrea) had to fall down a flight of stairs, Sturges took the fall himself first to show it was safe.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/615700/behind-the-camera-the-palm-beach-story)\n\n**Censorship.** The title *Is Marriage Necessary?*, the name of Sturges's original story, was rejected by the Production Code Administration (PCA), the industry censoring office. According to correspondence in the MPAA/PCA files at the AMPAS Library, the PCA initially rejected the script because of \"sex suggestive situations...and dialogue,\" and despite repeated alterations in November 1941 continued to protest the \"light treatment of marriage and divorce\" and the similarity between John D. Hackensacker III and the industrialist [John D. Rockefeller](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-d-rockefeller). The filmmakers altered suggestive lines and reduced Princess Maud's unsuccessful marriages from eight to three, plus two annulments.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALM-BEACH-STORY)\n\n[Mary Astor](https://www.edgepedia.org/mary-astor), cast as Vallee's flighty sister, found the Sturges brand of comedy difficult; she later wrote that she \"couldn't talk in a high fluty voice and run my words together as he thought high society women did.\" Sturges's perfectionism also slowed production: he refused to move to close-ups until he had a perfect master shot and would redo a take if an actor changed a word.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/615700/behind-the-camera-the-palm-beach-story)\n\n## Release and reception\n\nThe film premiered in England before opening in the United States, and in summer 1942 it was warmly received there as a respite from wartime news. It previewed in the US in October 1942 to audiences who laughed throughout and applauded at the end, an encouraging response after the tepid reception of *[Sullivan's Travels](https://www.edgepedia.org/sullivans-travels)* (1941). Vallee's performance was named one of the year's best by the [National Board of Review](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-board-of-review).[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/615700/behind-the-camera-the-palm-beach-story) Contemporary American reviews were broadly favorable without treating the film as an event; it was received as another Sturges picture in a period when there was another Sturges roughly twice a year.[9](https://sightlines.media/film/32255/the-palm-beach-story-1942)\n\nAccording to the book *Hollywood Goes to War*, the Office of War Information was irked by the film's depiction of nonessential travel during wartime.[10](https://www.nzfilmsociety.org.nz/uploads/4/4/8/5/44856883/palm_beach_story_2016.pdf)\n\n## Themes and interpretation\n\nSturges described the film as \"an illustration of my theory of the aristocracy of beauty,\" a theory Claudette Colbert's character states to Joel McCrea's as \"You have no idea what a long-legged gal can do without doing anything.\"[11](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/preston-sturges-10-essential-films) Critics have read the film as both a parody of the class-based screwball comedies of the 1930s and an indictment of American attitudes about class.[12](https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/21997/chapter-abstract/182054419)\n\n**The remarriage debate.** The philosopher [Stanley Cavell](https://www.edgepedia.org/stanley-cavell)'s study *Pursuits of Happiness* (1981) canonized seven Hollywood comedies of remarriage but did not include this film, and one commentator argues the omission is instructive because Cavell's remarriage films are about the moral education of a couple, which *The Palm Beach Story* declines to provide.[9](https://sightlines.media/film/32255/the-palm-beach-story-1942) A 2021 scholarly article argues the opposite, that the film epitomizes a Cavellian comedy of remarriage and borrows its plot twists from Shakespearean comedies including *A Midsummer Night's Dream*, *Much Ado About Nothing*, *Twelfth Night*, and *The Comedy of Errors*.[13](https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa03/memoria_di_shakespeare/article/view/17615)\n\nThe film also inverts Colbert's 1934 success *It Happened One Night*: in the earlier film she travels from Florida to New York, while here the trajectory is exactly reversed.[14](https://elcv.art.br/santoandre/biblioteca/_em_ingles/film_and_cinema_eBooks_collection/Overhearing%20Film%20Dialogue.pdf)\n\n## Legacy\n\nThe film is frequently listed among the great screwball comedies, and the BFI includes it among ten essential Sturges films.[11](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/preston-sturges-10-essential-films) [The Criterion Collection](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-criterion-collection) issued it on Blu-ray (spine #742) from a new 4K restoration, with a March 1943 Screen Guild Theater radio adaptation among the supplements.[4](https://www.criterion.com/films/28103-the-palm-beach-story) Its fast-paced opening credit sequence, roughly three minutes long, has been cited as setting up one of the most celebrated climactic payoffs in screen comedy.[15](https://www.tcm.com/articles/021735/tcm-spotlight-screwball-comedies)\n\n## References\n\n1. [The Palm Beach Story (1942), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALM-BEACH-STORY)\n2. [The Palm Beach Story: Love in a Warm Climate, Stephanie Zacharek, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3438-the-palm-beach-story-love-in-a-warm-climate)\n3. [The Palm Beach Story (1942 b 88'), AFI Catalog details and synopsis](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27394-THE-PALMBEACHSTORY)\n4. [The Palm Beach Story, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/28103-the-palm-beach-story)\n5. [Behind the Camera - The Palm Beach Story, Frank Miller, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/615700/behind-the-camera-the-palm-beach-story)\n6. [The Palm Beach Story, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/palm_beach_story)\n7. [THE PALM BEACH STORY (1942) - AFI Movie Club](https://www.afi.com/news/the-palm-beach-story-afi-movie-club-2/)\n8. [The Palm Beach Story, review by Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (2009)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jul/03/palm-beach-story-film-review)\n9. [The Palm Beach Story (1942), Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/32255/the-palm-beach-story-1942)\n10. [The Palm Beach Story, New Zealand Film Society notes](https://www.nzfilmsociety.org.nz/uploads/4/4/8/5/44856883/palm_beach_story_2016.pdf)\n11. [Preston Sturges: 10 essential films, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/preston-sturges-10-essential-films)\n12. [\"These Are Troublous Times\": Social Class in the Comedies of Preston Sturges, Edinburgh Scholarship Online](https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/21997/chapter-abstract/182054419)\n13. [\"He Isn't Exactly My Brother\": Shakespearean Illogic in 'The Palm Beach Story', Lisa Sternlieb, Memoria di Shakespeare (2021)](https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa03/memoria_di_shakespeare/article/view/17615)\n14. [Overhearing Film Dialogue, Sarah Kozloff (excerpt)](https://elcv.art.br/santoandre/biblioteca/_em_ingles/film_and_cinema_eBooks_collection/Overhearing%20Film%20Dialogue.pdf)\n15. [TCM Spotlight: Screwball Comedies, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/021735/tcm-spotlight-screwball-comedies)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1940s*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-palm-beach-story", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-palm-beach-story.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Palm Beach Story\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-palm-beach-story. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Palm Beach Story](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-palm-beach-story)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-palm-beach-story](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-palm-beach-story). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Palm Beach Story\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-palm-beach-story. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Palm Beach Story: 1942 Paramount screwball comedy written and directed by Preston Sturges, starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, and Rudy Vallee; released 10 December 1942." }