Discuss The Palm Beach Story
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Opening credits: an entire movie in 3 mins
posted by rooprectSTAFFMOD on January 10, 2023 at 7:44 AM
This Preston Sturges masterpiece begins with a bizarre, heart-pounding mystery shown to us under the opening credits. It is never fully explained.
Palm Beach Story opening credits
The actual plot of the movie begins years later, totally ignoring everything we were just shown. The movie only alludes to the opening, obliquely, at the very end (which I won't spoil). At the end of the movie we learn 1 piece of critical information that puts the opening in context--but still doesn't fully explain what the heck it was all about.
I think it's frickin genius.
By the time the movie ends, it feels like the whole thing was a setup for a spectacular prequel which never happened. Makes you want to watch the movie again & again picking up different clues and imagining what those title scenes were about. I bet a creative writer/filmmaker could actually attempt to make a prequel, 80 years after the fact. This was my 1st Preston Sturges experience and I gotta say it was a big hit.
Reply by genplant29
on January 10, 2023 at 8:06 AM
I've never been an enthusiast of the overall movie, but definitely am a fan of that wild opening sequence!
Reply by rooprect
on January 10, 2023 at 8:33 AM
I know right? At first you think it's just a preview of what'll happen in the movie, but by the end you realize it was an entire story by itself. Crazy. It's that opening teaser + the outta-left-field ending that really wakes up the whole story!
Reply by genplant29
on January 10, 2023 at 11:11 AM
So true!
By the way, if you haven't seen it yet, next watch 1939's Midnight, also starring Claudette Colbert. It's absolutely hilarious!
Reply by rooprect
on January 10, 2023 at 1:47 PM
Thanks for the tip! I'd never heard of it but I'm up for a CC movie any day. Also I see the screenplay was by Billy Wilder so that's another bonus
Reply by genplant29
on January 10, 2023 at 3:48 PM
Yes, it's a winner. And the great John Barrymore's scenes-stealing comedic performance is not to be missed!
Reply by bratface
on January 11, 2023 at 8:51 PM
Try: She Married Her Boss (I'm watching it right now). Very funny, CC is so good.
Reply by rooprect
on January 12, 2023 at 7:40 AM
Settled then, I'll make it a CC binge weekend 🍿 I haven't seen her big one It Happened One Night so I got a lotta catching up...
Reply by bratface
on January 12, 2023 at 2:15 PM
There are so many good scenes (laugh-out-loud ones especially) in the movie I recommended.