Using Sex to Get Ahead: Commentary on The Palm Beach Story (1942 film)

Legendary film critic and author Molly Haskell joins Aliece Pickett to look beyond Screwball Comedy’s escapist froth to its challenge of Romantic Comedy’s “happily ever after” trope. And they examine the parallels between writer-director Preston Sturges’ film The Palm Beach Story (1942 film) and his personal life.
Sources:
From Reverence to Rape, The Treatment of Women in the Movies, by Molly Haskell (Univ of Chicago, rev 2016).
Pursuits of Happiness, The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage, by Stanley Cavell (Harvard 1981).
Crooked, but Never Common: The Films of Preston Sturges, by Stuart Klawans (Columbia Univ Press, 2023).
“Let’s Misbehave” (1927) music and lyrics by Cole Porter, performed by Irving Aaronson and his Commanders (1928).
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