THE PALM BEACH STORY

Rudy Vallee and Claudette Colbert

THE PALM BEACH STORY (1942). Written and directed by Preston Sturges.

"Men don't get smarter as they get older, they just lose their hair."

Geri (Geraldine) Jeffers is married to an engineer, Tom (Joel McCrea), who can't seem to get a break. Geri figures that they would be better off if they divorced, and if she married someone wealthy she could get him the $100,000 he needs for his dream project, a "suspended" [!] airport. Although broke, she manages to make her way to Florida via the zany members of the "ale and quail club" and meets a man named J. D. Hackensacker (Rudy Vallee), who is fabulously rich. Tom flies down to stop Geri from getting a divorce and winds up in the clutches of J. D.'s man-hungry sister, the Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor), who thinks he's Geri's brother... The Palm Beach Story is a delightful comedy with fine performances and some hilarious dialogue. Colbert and Astor come off best, and McCrea and Vallee are quite good although they are not especially gifted comic actors. Robert Dudley almost steals the show as a sweet old man who wants to rent the Jeffers' apartment and winds up giving Geri money for the back rent. There's a riotous scene when the Ale and Quail Club shoot up the club car with Fred "Snowflake" Toones [Seventeen] comical as the nervous and then horrified bartender. Other notables in the cast include William Demarest, Mantan Moreland (dining club waiter); Franklin Pangborn [The Bank Dick] as an apartment manager; and Sig Arno as Toto, the princess' latest, unintelligible boyfriend. This is a charming and very funny movie. You may be confused by the frenetic credit sequence, in which there seems to be two Claudette Colberts, but all is explained (more or less) at the conclusion.  Sturges also wrote and directed Unfaithfully Yours, which is vastly inferior to this.

Verdict: A classic comedy. ***1/2.

SEVENTEEN (1940)

SEVENTEEN  (1940). Director: Louis King.

Based on Booth Tarkington's novel, albeit very loosely I imagine, this is the story of one Willy or William Baxter (Jackie Cooper), who is nearly 18 and wants his family and friends to treat him like a man. He tells everyone he hasn't got time for girls, as he has too much studying to do for his future, but his attitude changes when he meets a supposedly sophisticated young lady from Chicago named Lola (Betty Field). Before long his whole life centers around this spoiled, silly creature, and his future doesn't matter half as much as having proper clothing for a swank night club and the right car to take his girl out for a spin in. In some ways this slight film seems modeled more on the Andy Hardy or Henry Aldrich series than on Booth Tarkington. [The Hardy series began in 1937, while Cooper starred in what would turn out to be the first of the Henry Aldrich films, What a Life, in 1939.] But as easy as it would be to dismiss Seventeen, it's so well-acted by Cooper, as well as Ann Shoemaker and Otto Kruger as his parents, that they help the film's sentimental charm come through; Cooper is really excellent as the young, proud sap who gets his first taste of heart break. Betty Field affects a strange irritating voice and makes much less of an impression as Lola. Peter Lind Hayes plays George, a rival for Lola's affections, and "Snowflake" Toones is cast as Genesis, the likable handyman.

Verdict: Good-natured, with a winning Cooper. ***.

HAWK OF THE WILDERNESS

HAWK OF THE WILDERNESS (12 chapter Republic serial/1938). Directors: John English; William Witney.

Lincoln Rand (Lane Chandler) and his wife and baby set sail in hopes of finding a lost race from which the American Indians may have descended on an island north of the Arctic circle. Land and his wife are lost during a storm while their baby boy is raised on the aforementioned island by a faithful retainer. Decades later Dr. Munro (Tom Chatterton), his daughter Beth (Jill Martin AKA Harley Wood), and others -- including a gang of cutthroat sailors hoping to find treasure -- mount a new voyage to the island wherein they discover that the son of Lincoln Rand is a strapping loin-clothed man named Kioga (Herman Brix AKA Bruce Bennett). The natives on the island aren't too crazy about Kioga or his handsome buddy Kias (Mala), and the sailors prove to be treacherous at every turn as well. As serials go, Hawk of the Wilderness is mediocre, with mostly unexceptional cliffhangers, colorless villains, and a fairly bland cast. Harley Wood is so plain (by Hollywood standards) that when you first see her you think she's the middle-aged Dr. Munro's wife and not his daughter, and her acting isn't so hot, either. Brix is a touch stiff as Kioga; he appeared in a number of serials -- Daredevils of the Red Circle is one of the better ones -- but made more of a mark as "Bruce Bennett" in more prestigious Hollywood productions such as Mildred Pierce. Fred Toones, AKA "Snowflake" is hard to watch as he plays the stereotypical stupid and cowardly "negro" of the past., but "Tuffy" turns in a good performance as Tawnee the courageous dog. The final chapter, set in credible caverns inside the Valley of Skulls, is exciting, but a serial needs more than one good chapter to succeed. 

Verdict: Even Republic studios is allowed an occasional stinker. **.