The evening screening on Tuesday 18 August will be introduced by Professor Lucy Bolton.
This wild tale of wacky wedlock from Preston Sturges takes off like a rocket and never lets up. Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert play Tom and Gerry, a married New York couple on the skids, financially and romantically. With Tom hot on her trail, Gerry takes off for Florida on a mission to solve the pair’s money troubles, which she accomplishes in a highly unorthodox manner. A mix of the witty and the utterly absurd, The Palm Beach Story is a high watermark of Sturges’s brand of physical comedy and verbal repartee, featuring sparkling performances from its leads as well as hilarious supporting turns from Rudy Vallee and Mary Astor as a brother and a sister ensnared in Tom and Gerry’s high jinks. - The Criterion Collection
Lucy Bolton is Professor of Film Philosophy at Queen Mary University of London where she specialises in feminist film philosophy and film stardom. Her most recent book is The Feminist Film Philosophy Reader - out in March 2026 - and she is currently writing a book on ‘Philosophies of Film Stardom’.
