Film

The Palm Beach Story

Name: The Palm Beach Story
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Released: 1942
Cast: Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee, Sig Arno

Preston Sturges at his most gleefully cynical about love and money — Claudette Colbert divorces her broke, idealistic husband to marry a hapless tycoon purely to bankroll his invention. It moves at a sprint, stuffed with gun-happy millionaires, a runaway train, and dialogue that outpaces thought. For anyone who wants romantic comedy with real anarchy in it, and doesn't mind logic taking a back seat to velocity.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love screwball comedy at its most lunatic, where sharp, fast dialogue and absurd rich eccentrics pile up until the whole thing feels like a runaway train you are happy to ride.

Skip it if you want your comedy grounded and character-driven, since this one prizes whirlwind gags and farce over emotional depth, and its sly satire can feel thin if you want warmth.

What it asks of you: Under ninety minutes, it moves quickly and needs you to keep up with rapid-fire banter and sight gags, rewarding attention with a light, cheerful tone throughout.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Lady Eve1941

Sturges' other 1941 masterpiece: Barbara Stanwyck runs circles around Henry Fonda in a con-artist romance every bit as verbally dazzling and structurally sneaky as Palm Beach Story — arguably funnier.

But Stanwyck's steel-edged wit is less warm than Colbert's; if you want cozy escapism, this one bites harder.

Bringing Up Baby1938

Howard Hawks' template for the whole genre — Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn colliding at maximum velocity, plus a leopard and the purest distillation of screwball chaos ever filmed.

But Its anything-for-a-laugh pace and Hepburn's relentless character can exhaust rather than delight if you're not already sold on the chaos.

His Girl Friday1940

Newsroom banter fired at conversational machine-gun speed — Grant and Rosalind Russell reunited as ex-spouses who can't quit sparring, proof divorce comedy doesn't need to slow for anyone.

But The dialogue overlaps so relentlessly some viewers need subtitles just to keep up; it's a workout, not a lounge.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Palm Beach Story

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Trading Places1983

Both films treat people as financial instruments — Palm Beach Story's remarriage-for-cash scheme finds its glossy inverse here, where two strangers' lives get swapped as a wager, exposing how money warps identity and love alike.

Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd trade places in a rich men's bet about class and luck, and the film is just as merciless — and just as funny — about what money does to people.

But Some 80s-era gags about race and class land awkwardly now, even where the underlying satire is sharper than it first appears.

It Happened One Night1934

Colbert again, this time hitchhiking cross-country with Clark Gable in the film that basically invented the runaway-heiress romantic comedy Sturges was riffing on.

But Gentler and more earnest than Sturges' anarchic style; the jokes land softer and the stakes feel lower.

My Man Godfrey1936

A screwball comedy of manners about eccentric rich people and the outsider who sees through them — William Powell is dry perfection amid the Bullock family's glorious lunacy.

But Its class satire is gentler and more sentimental underneath the farce, less breathless than Sturges' machine-gun pacing.

Sullivan's Travels1941

Sturges again, but turned inward — a Hollywood director chasing 'real' suffering for art, funny and then suddenly, devastatingly not. The other side of his range.

But The tonal swerve into genuine hardship midway through surprises people expecting pure comedy start to finish.

The Awful Truth1937

Cary Grant and Irene Dunne out-maneuvering each other through a messy divorce, endlessly inventive and packed with comic set-pieces that reward rewatching.

But Leo McCarey's looser, more improvisational style feels less polished than Sturges' tightly wound dialogue.

Twentieth Century1934

Carole Lombard and John Barrymore chew up a train car with theatrical fury in this predecessor to the genre's train-set farce, all ego and desperate scheming.

But Barrymore's performance is huge, bordering on grotesque; the theatricality can feel dated next to Sturges' naturalism.

Midnight1939

Colbert again, this time in a Billy Wilder-scripted farce about a broke showgirl passing herself off as nobility among the European rich — similarly giddy, similarly cynical about money.

But Less famous and slightly less sharp than her Sturges outing; the middle stretch sags compared to the sprint of Palm Beach Story.

Le Million1931

Years before Sturges' train sequence, René Clair sent a broke painter chasing a lottery ticket through a farce of mistaken identity and marriage panic — the same breathless money chase, in operetta form.

An early sound-era French farce that moves like clockwork, mixing operetta, slapstick and a manic chase for a winning lottery ticket — it's Palm Beach Story's screwball DNA a decade earlier, sung instead of spoken.

But Silent-adjacent pacing, subtitles, and sung dialogue take real patience if you're only used to Hollywood's rapid-fire delivery.

Marriage Story2019

Sturges plays divorce as a farcical escape hatch that ultimately saves a marriage; Baumbach's film takes the same institution — the paperwork, the money, the performative civility — and shows what it looks like when none of it is a joke.

Everything Palm Beach Story treats as a punchline — the mechanics of divorce, the money fights, the performance of amicability — gets its unflinching, devastating flip side here, with career-best Driver and Johansson.

But There's no farce to cushion the blow; it's raw and often painful, closer to grief than to comedy.