"The Palm Beach Story" (1942)

There’s often been this unstated rule for telling stories in television or film: once two people are coupled up there isn’t a dramatically compelling story to tell about them. Television series will often resort to insane, damaging twists to make couples, married or dating, have compelling story arcs and conflicts, and films tend to avoid that side of storytelling altogether, instead focusing on the swooning romance of love’s first blush. The Palm Beach Story makes fun of this very idea by beginning at the end of what would typically be the big wedding finale of another film, before stating, “And they lived happily ever after … or did they?” For most films, marriage is the answer to all of life’s problems, but that ignores how relationships have to keep growing and changing to survive; they’re not suddenly and always perfect. Gerry Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) and Tom Jeffers (Joel MeCrea) have hit the post-honeymoon slump. Struggling to make it by on the low-wages Tom makes and dealing with the fact that Gerry is hopeless when it comes to being a homemaker, they’re coming up against the realization that things aren’t as easy or romantic in their relationship as they seemed like they might always be. Gerry feels like she’s just being a burden for Tom and comes up with a scheme to divorce him so he can focus on making his career take-off. She never stops loving him, but rather she does this out of love for him. She means it as a grand romantic gesture, but Tom doesn’t see it as anything but foolishness. Gerry is running away from their marital problems rather than confronting them. She heads to Palm Beach, a prime divorce locale, on a train, while Tom, two-steps behind, scrambles to catch-up to Gerry and prevent her harebrained scheme. The Palm Beach Story is part of a tradition of screwball comedies. There’s never really a question Gerry and Tom will work things out but writer-director Preston Sturges keeps throwing daffy and delightful problems that push them to be honest and open about what they really want from one another. To modern eyes some of this might appear wacky, but there’s a commitment to the material that makes it lively and Sturges always keeps reminding us of the real emotions underneath the goofiness. Plus some of this is just too entertaining to be denied; the quality of the dialogue, for instance, is so sharp and witty and it is so well-delivered by the performers. 

Grade: A