Saw The Palm Beach Story, a screwball. It starts out hard and strong, a maid fainting dead away not five seconds in. The credit sequence takes place over a mad-cap wedding. Brides tied up and gagged, grooms out cold, it's a romp. We then proceed with the years after the triumphant pre-film marriage. (This premise has always struck me as sort of contrived and tortured. It seems like the kind of thing that only sounds good in an elevator pitch.) Anyway, this one pits a scheming and pretty dame against her stolid and jealous husband. She, very practically, points out there's a lot of ways for a pretty woman to make money and even stay pretty chaste. He rebuts that this is the 40s and there's no way in hell they're going to allow that in a movie, even in a farce like this one.
So the dame runs off, effortlessly and delightfully seducing everyone who stands in her way. She's put upon and harried by her adventures, but this is necessary for the audience to like her. He goes after her, bullishly advancing the plot. Normally I hate screwballs like this but I got to liking the main characters. The writing is so damn clever I just wanted to hear what little quip would come out of their mouths next, and what serious double-meaning it had. I had a lot of fun watching increasingly wealthy men make fools of themselves, even if that very idea (that being toyed with by a pretty woman is to make a fool of oneself) is kind of dated and sexist (what, she didn't have anything to do with it?) There's also a good bit of racism (the black servants are both wise and wise-cracking, god help us) so be warned.
A good, funny film, very tame by today's standards but still quite strong. Good show, you screwballs.
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