The Palm Beach Story

The Palm Beach Story (1942) is a screwball comedy you can watch online on iFILM, written and directed by Preston Sturges with Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea in the leads.

Gerry Jeffers decides her husband Tom's big invention will never get funded — so her solution is to divorce him, ride a train to Palm Beach, and find a millionaire to back the project. Enter J. D. Hackensacker III, played by Rudy Vallee: an eccentric, accordion-playing heir with a taste for thrift and a very convenient fortune. Tom follows on the next train. What unfolds is a fast-talking tangle of mistaken identities, impulsive decisions, and a finale that bends the rules of screwball logic right to the edge.

Sturges made this during a remarkable creative run — The Lady Eve and Sullivan's Travels came out the same year. The timing is razor-sharp, the ensemble includes Mary Astor and William Demarest, and the script never slows down. Stream The Palm Beach Story online on iFILM.