Preston Sturges, 1942
After a fight, Gerry Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) leaves her husband, Tom (Joel McCrea), planning to go to Palm Beach and find a new, rich husband whom she could convince to fund Tom's dream of building an airport. Tom follows in hot pursuit, determined to stop her.Not a fan of this one. How Preston Sturges managed to make the terrific The Lady Eve right at the same time as this movie and the better but still not very good Sullivan's Travels, I'll never know. Here, he takes the term "screwball comedy" to heart, filling the whole movie with wacky zaniness, but never manages (despite several more dramatic scenes that are notably bereft of jokes) to insert the necessary element of humanity that holds the best such movies together. Maybe it's just Colbert and McCrea that can't display that humanity, though, because once Rudy Vallee's rich suitor and his sister (Mary Astor) show up, the movie becomes kind of watchable and even funny at times. They almost save the movie - but then there's the ending. I can't even bring myself to describe what happens at the end. I can't tell you about the shit that Sturges tries to pull. You just have to see it for yourself. But don't see it for yourself, becuase it's not worth it.
3/10
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