Directed by:
Preston SturgesScreenplay:
Preston SturgesCinematography:
Victor MilnerComposer:
Victor YoungCast:
Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee, Sig Arno, Jimmy Conlin, William Demarest, Robert Greig, Roscoe Ates, Dewey Robinson, Chester Conklin (more)Plots(1)
This wild tale of wacky wedlock from Preston Sturges takes off like a rocket and never lets up. Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert play Tom and Gerry, a married New York couple on the skids, financially and romantically. With Tom hot on her trail, Gerry takes off for Florida on a mission to solve the pair’s money troubles, which she accomplishes in a highly unorthodox manner. A mix of the witty and the utterly absurd, The Palm Beach Story is a high watermark of Sturges’s brand of physical comedy and verbal repartee, featuring sparkling performances from its leads as well as hilarious supporting turns from Rudy Vallee and Mary Astor as a brother and a sister ensnared in Tom and Gerry’s high jinks. (Criterion)
(more)Cast
Claudette Colbert
France
Best movies:
It Happened One Night (1934)
It's a Wonderful World (1939)
Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954)
Joel McCrea
USA
Best movies:
Union Pacific (1939)
These Three (1936)
Colorado Territory (1949)
Mary Astor
USA
Best movies:
Midnight (1939)
Little Women (1949)
The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
Rudy Vallee
USA
Best movies:
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)
Live a Little, Love a Little (1968)
The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
Sig Arno
Best movies:
Fair People (1930)
The Great Dictator (1940)
It Started with Eve (1941)
Jimmy Conlin
USA
Best movies:
Edison, the Man (1940)
Captains Courageous (1937)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
William Demarest
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
The Mountain (1956)
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Robert Greig
Australia
Best movies:
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Tales of Manhattan (1942)
Roscoe Ates
USA
Best movies:
Gone with the Wind (1939)
City Girl (1930)
Freaks (1932)
Dewey Robinson
USA
Best movies:
Casablanca (1942)
Scarlet Street (1945)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
Chester Conklin
USA
Best movies:
The Great Dictator (1940)
Modern Times (1936)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Franklin Pangborn
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Stage Door (1937)
Carefree (1938)
Arthur Hoyt
USA
Best movies:
Fury (1936)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Al Bridge
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Harry Rosenthal
USA
Best movies:
Birth of the Blues (1941)
The Big Clock (1948)
The Lady Eve (1941)
Frank Faylen
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Edison, the Man (1940)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Mantan Moreland
USA
Best movies:
It Started with Eve (1941)
Birth of the Blues (1941)
Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942)
Bess Flowers
USA
Best movies:
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Rear Window (1954)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Byron Foulger
USA
Best movies:
Song of Love (1947)
Edison, the Man (1940)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Robert Warwick
USA
Best movies:
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
The Power and the Glory (1933)
In a Lonely Place (1950)