The Palm Beach Story [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

The Palm Beach Story [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Preston Sturges Cast: Victor Young
Victor Young
, Joel McCrea
Joel McCrea
, Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert
, Rudy Vallee
Rudy Vallee
Preston Sturges
The Palm Beach Story [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

The Palm Beach Story [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Preston Sturges Cast: Victor Young
Victor Young
, Joel McCrea
Joel McCrea
, Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert
, Rudy Vallee
Rudy Vallee
Preston Sturges

Blu-ray (Black & White)

$39.99 
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Overview

As for the opening reels, the principal motivating factor is money. After a deliberately confusing pre-credit sequence (not explained until the film's punch line), Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea) and Gerry Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) are married. "And so they lived happily ever after," exults a title card, ."..or did they?" Well, they didn't. After five years of marriage, Tom hasn't raised a dime with his pie-in-the-sky inventions. Using the sort of logic common to Sturges heroines, Gerry decides that the only way to help her husband is to divorce him, marry a wealthy man, and use the second husband's money to finance Tom's schemes. Borrowing money from a generous self-made business mogul known only as the Wienie King (Robert Dudley), Gerry boards a train to Palm Beach, FL, where all the rich folk go. En route, she is "adopted" by the Ale & Quail Club, a group of perpetually drunken millionaires whose idea of a good time is to shoot their rifles at everything that moves (among the club members are such Sturges regulars as William Demarest, Robert Warwick, Jimmy Conlin, Robert Greig, Jack Norton, and Dewey Robinson). Taking refuge from this rowdy crew, Gerry makes the acquaintance of likeable stuffed shirt John D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee), who happens to be one of the wealthiest men in the Western Hemisphere. While Gerry spoons with Hackensacker in Palm Beach, the confused Tom (remember him?) dallies with Hackensacker's man-crazy sister, Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor). How all this straightens itself out is better seen than described, which is pretty much the case whenever one discusses Sturges' singular work, and The Palm Beach Story is vintage Sturges with one side-splitting sequence after another.

Product Details

Release Date: 10/28/2014
UPC: 0715515135917
Original Release: 1942
Rating: NR
Source: Criterion Collection
Region Code: A
Presentation: [B&W]
Language: English
Time: 1:28:00
Sales rank: 10,947

Special Features

New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; New interview with writer and film historian James Harvey; New interview with actor and comedian Bill Hader; Safeguarding Military Information, a 1941 World War II propaganda short written by Preston Sturges; Screen Guild Theater radio adaptation of the film from March 1943; PLUS: an essay by critic Stephanie Zacharek

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits
Joel McCrea Tom Jeffers
Claudette Colbert Gerry Jeffers
Rudy Vallee J.D. Hackensacker III
Mary Astor Princess Centimillia
Sig Arno Toto
Robert Warwick Mr. Hinch
Arthur Stuart Hull Mr. Osmond
Torben Meyer Dr. Kluck
Jimmy Conlin Mr. Asweld
Victor Potel Mr. McKeewie
William Demarest Members of Ale and Quail Club
George Anderson The Gent
Jack Norton Members of Ale and Quail Club
Robert Greig Members of Ale and Quail Club
Roscoe Ates Members of Ale and Quail Club
Dewey Robinson Members of Ale and Quail Club
Chester Conklin Members of Ale and Quail Club
Sheldon Jett Members of Ale and Quail Club
Robert Dudley Wienie King
Franklin Pangborn Manager
Arthur Hoyt Pullman Conductor
Alan Bridge Conductor,Conductor
Fred 'Snowflake' Toones Bartender
Charles B. Moore Porter,Porter
Frank Moran Brakeman
Harry Rosenthal Orchestra Leader
Esther Howard Wife of Wienie King
Howard Mitchell Man in Apartment
Harry Hayden Prospect
Monte Blue Doorman
Esther Michelson Near-Sighted Woman
Edward McNamara Officer in Penn Station
Harry Tyler Gateman at Penn Station
Mantan Moreland Waiter in Diner
Keith Richards Shoe Salesman
Frank Faylen Taxi Driver
Byron Foulger Jewelry Salesman
Max Wagner Rough-Looking Comic
Wilson Benge Steward
John Holland Best Man
J. Farrell MacDonald O'Donnell
Julius Tannen Proprietor of Store

Technical Credits
Preston Sturges Director,Screenwriter
Paul Jones Producer
Walter Oberst Sound/Sound Designer
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