The Palm Beach Story (1942) on Netflix

Passed19421h 28mComedy Romance

Tom Jeffers is an inventor who needs money for his suspended airport. His wife Gerry plans to divorce him in Palm Beach and marry a millionaire to finance it.

Netflix3.6/5
IMDb7.4/1013,935 votes
Rotten Tomatoes97%

Trailer

Plot summary

Tom and Gerry Jeffers have been married five years, and money is short. Tom is an architect with a design for a suspended airport, and no investor will back it. Behind on the rent, the couple runs into the Wienie King, a Texas sausage magnate who tours their apartment as a possible tenant and hands Gerry $700. Tom doubts she came by the money honestly, and the two argue. Gerry concludes that the marriage is over. She leaves for Palm Beach, where she intends to get a divorce and marry a wealthy man who can pay for Tom's project. Penniless, she talks her way onto a train heading south. Tom has plans to stop her.

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Palm Beach Story (1942)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

Hays Office censors rejected Preston Sturges's original title and the script Paramount submitted for The Palm Beach Story over "sex suggestive situations" and dialogue, then tabled it again for its light treatment of marriage and divorce and its parody of John D. Rockefeller. Princess Centimillia's divorces were cut from eight to three, plus two annulments, before the script was approved.
One scene in The Palm Beach Story was based on an incident that happened to Preston Sturges and his mother while traveling by train to Paris: the car carrying their compartment and baggage was uncoupled while they were in the dining car.
The movie was Rudy Vallee's first outright comedic role, and it brought him a contract with Paramount plus the National Board of Review's award for Best Actor of 1942.
Mary Astor was uncomfortable with her character's high-speed, slang-filled chatter in The Palm Beach Story and came to resent Preston Sturges's direction of her.