The absurdity of marriage in 'Palm Beach Story'

Preston Sturges' Palm Beach Story (1942) is an excellent example of the American screwball comedy and it is an absolute hoot. The screwball comedy is a predecessor of the modern rom com but watching a great film like this makes you realise how lame our contemporary romantic comedies are. I compare it to a film like Made of Honor, starring a charmless Patrick Dempsey, attempting cringe-worthy moments of physical comedy and generally lacking an engaging plot. On the other hand, Palm Beach Story strikes a perfect balance of witty repartee, slapstick and well-developed characters you revel in sharing an outrageous journey with.

The screwball genre is often considered subversive in film studies, allowing women to engage in transgressive behaviour. Laura Mulvey’s famous theory of the gaze posits that women are passive and men are the instigators of the narrative. Screwball comedies open a space for women to challenge conservative ideology by playing up. They are characterised by an unruly woman who turns the world of the man who loves her on its head. It features opinionated women who cause havoc by not accepting traditional values and men who are made to look ridiculous. Furthermore the genre allows female sexuality to be explored in a highly conservative time. You’d be right to wonder how some of these films made it through the censors with their not-so-subtle sexual innuendos!

Palm Beach Story is wonderfully subversive. It begins with a frenetic wedding ceremony and the words “They lived happily ever after…or did they?” Don’t you always wonder why rom coms end when the couple gets together? This is because that’s where the married bliss ends!

The women rule this film. There is Gerry (significantly her name is shortened from Geraldine as she takes on male characteristics), who decides one night she is leaving her husband. Though her motives are initially hazy, in the madness of the film it all seems to make sense. She takes flight to Palm Beach for an immediate divorce. On her journey she gets drunk, she flirts, she uses men to pay her way. Claudette Colbert gives a delightful performance as Gerry – vivacious, impulsive and strangely believable. One particularly memorable moment is the facial expression she gives at one of Hackensaken’s attempts at a lame joke.

The other dominant female is Princess Centimillia who is a serial divorcee, treating marriage like buying a new pair of shoes. One of her great lines is “Of course, I’m crazy. I will marry anyone!” The film is full of hilarious one-liners including:
“You have no idea what a long-legged woman can do without doing anything.”
“That's one of the tragedies of this life - that the men who are most in need of a beating up are always enormous.”

While the women dominate, the men are portrayed as ridiculous or ineffective. The ridiculousness of men epitomized by the character of the Frenchman, who haplessly trails after the Princess and speaks jibberish. She ignores him, dismisses him and unashamedly tells him to shut up. The impotence of Gerry’s husband is evident with his inability to tame her (except by exploiting her sex desire). Hackensacken III is mocked for his awkwardness around females and his traditional values (like wanting to trial marriage before entering into it). In one hilarious moment he says “You don't marry someone you just met the day before; at least I don't.” To which the Princess quips back “But that's the only way, dear. If you get to know too much about them you'd never marry them!” The Princess overshadows her brother in every scene.

There are comical misunderstandings worthy of a Shakespearean comedy, as Gerry pretends her husband is her brother. Palm Beach Story is a celebration of the ridiculous. Certainly reality doesn’t get in the way of good fun! It is epitomized by the absurd ending when the united couple suddenly remember that they both have twins which Hackensacken and the Princess can marry. Thus the film ends as it began, with a wedding (and of course the Frenchman still hanging around). The final words “…or did they?” flash across the screen once again. The ending resists domesticating the females with the open ended finale and exposing the absurdity of marriage as an institution.