Ray Pride

"You have no idea what a long-legged woman can do without doing anything," Claudette Colbert opines in Preston Sturges' 1942 laugh-a-minute "The Palm Beach Story." The appearance of the Weenie King and the conniptions of the Ale and Quail club are only the highlights in this high-powered tonic from Sturges' most prolific period. "There is a name for such reptiles, but I won't sully this fair ocean breeze by mentioning it. I suppose he's large?" asks Rudy Vallee. Colbert: "Well, he's not small." Vallee: "That's one of the tragedies of this life, that the men who are most in need of a beating are always enormous." With Joel McCrea, Mary Astor. 88m. 16mm.

"The Palm Beach Story" plays Saturday at 8pm at LaSalle Bank, 4901 West Irving Park. (2007-02-06)

Also by Ray Pride

Truth to Power
Festival programmers claimed in advance they'd been more adventurous, more political in their choices than ever and, ironically, 2007 boasted more sales of more diverse movies than any in memory. Guiding light Robert Redford had other things on his mind in opening remarks, when he dismissed the idea that the festival had become merely a market: "There's been buzz about stuff that's tanked." More notably, he positioned himself as "left-handed"
(2007-01-30)

Tip of the Week
A substantive batch of shorts produced in 2006 and presented by Chicago Filmmakers as "Redefining Video," the work of 17-year-old Michigander Kyle Canterbury has hypnotic moments, working with simple abstractions of concrete things, for the most part, almost all rephotographed off of a video monitor to take advantage of the form's still-evolving potential for capturing texture
(2007-01-30)

Mister Dominick, tear down this wall!
The intermittent groaning and bleeping along the half city block of mud and dirt on Chicago Avenue from first light to dusk is no mystery--but the view is gone. The spread of land where the Edmar supermarket stood until summer is now hidden from eastern eyes: a greater-than-story-high pale retaining wall, drab, Soviet, up against the McDonald's on the corner, a gray cement barricade, like a barrier against slurry in mining operations
(2007-01-23)

What Goes Unsaid
So I'm telling a friend about "Catch and Release," the bittersweet romantic comedy that's "Erin Brockovich" screenwriter Susannah Grant's debut as a director. She stops me: "Romantic comedy. Jennifer Garner. You liked it. But is it any good?" (A swift punch to a soft spot.) Why do people want to hate romantic comedies?
(2007-01-23)

Tip of the Week
(2007-01-23)

Iraq 'n' Roll
(2007-01-16)

Tip of the Week
(2007-01-16)

Teenage Wasteland
(2007-01-09)

Tip of the Week
(2007-01-09)

Tip of the Week
(2007-01-02)

Potter's Field
(2007-01-02)

What Screams May Come
(2006-12-22)

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