Thescrewball comedy genreis innately pastiche, which explains why we love them and why they’ll never make a comeback in their original form. After all, we’re lucky enough to have a studio comedy, especially one that infuses slapstick with romantic bickering, released in theaters these days. The highly mannered, theatrical, and zany back-and-forth between conflicted romantic partners would merely play as a throwback rather than a reflection of modern times.
The best screwball comedies during the genre’s golden age in the 1930s and ’40s, particularly by the genre’s master,Preston Sturges, commented on the buffoonery of upper-class folks and societal frauds ineptly attempting to swindle everyone around them. In a time whena new “Eat the Rich” movie or showis released every six months, Sturges' films feel more timeless than ever. One of his best films,The Palm Beach Story, isworthy of a viral reclamation among younger audiences due to its wild, absolutely bonkers twist ending.
Preston Sturges Redefined Screwball Comedies in the 1940s
Preston Sturges, a pioneer in Hollywood, is recognized as one of the first writers (if notthefirst) to break the barrier between screenwriter and director. He managed to negotiate control of directing duties on his first film,The Great McGinty, by selling hisscript for a lowly $10. By 1941, a watershed year for movies that includedCitizen KaneandThe Maltese Falcon, Sturgesredefined the screwball comedy for generationsto come with the dual release ofSullivan’s TravelsandThe Lady Eve. Just a year later, he followed up his two masterpieces withThe Palm Beach Story,another screwball comedy set in a similar milieu of socialites partaking in a romantic facade for financial gains.The film follows a married couple, Gerry (Claudette Colbert) and Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea), an inventor. Gerry, desperate to fund Tom’s ambitious project, divorces him so that she can marry an eccentric millionaire from Florida, J.D. Hacksensacker III (Rudy Vallée). Outraged that his wife views him as a charity case, Tom follows Gerry down to Florida and becomes romantically entangled with Hackensacker’s volatile high-society sister, Maud, or “The Princess Centimilla” (Mary Astor).
‘The Palm Beach Story’ Is Preston Sturges at His Most Absurd
Sturges' films gleefully defy logic in their narrative construction. He understood that, while he was making salient points as a satirist of American culture, the elaborate concepts of his films exist to serve the screwball set pieces and comedy of manners. The unnaturalistic circumstances ofThe Palm Beach Storywork in favor ofSturges' finest attribute: his convergence of low-brow slapstick gags with rich, sophisticated dialogue. The rhapsodic dialogue includes various nuances that you’ll miss on the first watch, from the overlapping chatter between principal characters to a subtle malapropism.
With each exchange and set piece,one can sense Sturges testing the limits of the genre and the film medium itself.Running at a non-stop pace across its runtime,The Palm Beach Storyshows Sturges firing on all cylinders, constructing a new gag and sharp-tongued exchange at every stop. Even when it’s time for narrative closure, he never takes a breath. The film’s highlight comedic gag is an inexplicable but brilliant sequence on Gerry’s train ride to Florida, where a group of raucous drunken hunters launch a hailstorm of bullets inside a train car. It holds little logic on paper, but in Sturges' world, all people, especially the upper class,are understood as sheer fools.
Playing the couple of Tom and Gerry (presumably not an homage to the famous cat-and-mouse cartoon) were two veterans of the screwball genre, Joel McCrea, previously working with Sturges as the titular role inSullivan’s Travels, and Claudette Colbert, who went on a cross-country trip alongsideClark GableinIt Happened One Night. Both excel at carrying the weight of a couple that has lost all its romanticism. Colbert, playing the screwball female archetype to a tee, has a plucky drive to fix her compromised marriage at any cost, and it gets her caught up in sticky situations. McCrea hits all the right notes of the bumbling, exasperated male lead who often becomes too overwhelmed to understand the absurdity of the events unfolding with his wife’s elaborate plan in Florida.There is an undercurrent of elegant sexiness in Gerry’s manipulationof her temporary ex-husband and courted millionaire that meshes with the breathlessly funny rapid-fire dialogue. Sturges fleshed out his female characters to a well-rounded degree that remains a rarity even 80 years later.
The Bonkers Ending of ‘The Palm Beach Story’ Will Leave Viewers Appalled
To break down the unhinged twist endingofThe Palm Beach Story, we need to first look at its opening moments. A packed wedding awaits the arrival of the bride and groom, who are running late. Colbert is playing two characters, one rushing to the wedding and another tied up and trapped in a closet. She manages to break through the door and begin her escape. Moments later, Gerry and Tom convene at the altar as a text reads,“And they lived happily ever after…or did they?”
At the end ofThe Palm Beach Story, when the divorced couple reveal their intentions and drop their scheme, the Hackensacker and Maud are shocked, left utterly disheartened that they’ll be left without romantic partners. In a last gasp of desperation, Hackensacker asks Gerry if she happens to have a sister, who reveals, to the overwhelming surprise of the characters and audience, thatshe has a twin sister.Furthermore, Gerry confirms that she became acquainted with Tom because he also indeed has a twin sibling. This immediately piques their interest. In a flash, Hackensacker inquires about Gerry’s twin sister and Maud inquires about Tom’s twin brother. As they interrogate the couple, Sturges flashes forward to the wedding in the opening credits.We see the entire principal cast of the film standing at the altar, featuring two identical versions of Gerry and Tom, with their respective twin siblings marrying Hackensacker and Maud.It’s an ending so bafflingthat the film can’t even answer the mystery proposed in the opening, which is repeated at the end, “and they lived happily ever after…or did they?”
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ThisM. Night Shyamalan-level stunning twist is an affront to traditional cinematic sensibilities. How could Preston Sturges wrap up thenarrative with such an abrupt and forced coda? If Sturges weren’t such a sardonic and razor-sharp writer-director, we would denote this ending as the most flagrant cop-out imaginable. Because of Sturges' tongue-in-cheek cynicism,we can appreciate the ending toThe Palm Beach Storyas a masterclass in subversive comedy and storytelling.Having the revelation of twin siblings as a deus ex machina mocks the notion of a “happily ever after” ending that romantic comedies of all generations aspire to attain, no matter how unfeasible it may be, proving that the film is way more prescient than anyone could have telegraphed in 1942. Sturges' knack for absurdist humor showed his eager willingness to try anything to provoke laughter, but it also tapped into the absurdity of humanity and film language that disguises itself as customary.
The Palm Beach Story
The Palm Beach Story follows the comedic journey of Gerry Jeffers, who plans to raise money for her husband’s invention by divorcing him and seeking the affections of a wealthy Florida magnate, J. D. Hackensacker III. As misunderstandings and whimsical encounters ensue, love and intentions are tested.
The Palm Beach Storyis available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.
