Change Your Image
ruscianowski
I have a great sense of style, but it�s thoroughly impractical.
I have a hopelessly random tendency to walk around barefoot. It never makes me feel like Audrey Hepburn.
I don't believe in God but I do believe that Katherine Hepburn is a goddess.
I have two tattoos. They cost way more money than they were worth, but I love them all the more for it.
I used to collect rubber frogs, but you probably didn't need to know that.
What do you need to know?
Well, I get this inexplicable joy from seeing images of light move around on blank screens.
Some people like to call this phenomena film watching, but I call it wonderful.
I don't have a favorite film- favorite is too limiting a word- but the Labyrinth has been known to make me smile on many an occasion.
So has the sight of Paul Newman laughing into the wind as he cycles through the field with Katherine Ross on his lap and an angry bull charging behind him. If youth can be defined by a single image, then that one comes pretty damn close.
My birth certificate seems to think that I was born in 1989, but I think it must be wrong because the world looks more real when Franklin Roosevelt is president and Jimmie Stewart is still 31 and fighting the good fight.
Reviews
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Doesn't hold up to the best screwball comedies of the 30s, but definitely worth a viewing
**** CONTAINS SPOILERS **** I found the Palm Beach Story to be a wonderful film, but a little unbalanced. It advances far more smoothly during the second half of the film (after Colbert, McCrea, Astor and Vallee all come together) than it does up till that point. Up till the four meet up on the princess' island and the mistaken identity hilariously ensues, the comedy seems forced. The Ale and Quail club scenes, although delightfully madcap and slapstick don't seem to fit in very well with the rest of the film. Although they play a necessary role in the film by allowing Gerry to board the train and causing her clothes to become lost, I think they fall a bit flat as comic relief. The same can be said for the extended joke regarding the old man who's hard of hearing.
The awkward situation created after the four main characters come together creates a much stronger comic base. When Gerry passes her husband off as her brother in order to marry Hackensacker and set up her husband up with the rich but careless Princess, it is the absurdity of the situation and the fact that we know more than the characters do that makes it so funny. It was this same imbalance between what the audience knows and what the characters do (and the extent to which it was milked) that made other great Screwball comedies like Bringing up Baby so funny. In comparison, the comedy created by characters like the Ale and Quail club members and Toto seems forced and silly.
Despite this critique, I did enjoy the film overall and loved the exuberance and confidence of Mary Astor who absolutely stole her scenes with her quick dialogue and commanding body language. I was also moved by the romance between Colbert and McCrea, especially during the scene where Vallee sings in the background. I was genuinely touched by the irony that his affections for Gerry only worked to bring her closer to her original husband. It is the pathos of scenes like that and our affection for Gerry and her husband that grounds this film and keeps it going despite scenes where the comedy may waver.