Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Prior to the release of The Philadelphia Story, Katherine Hepburn had a string of failures (including the classic 1938 screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby) that labeled Hepburn as box office poison. In order to get rid of the career-ruining label, she decided to get to work on her own film. In 1939, she was starring in a very popular Broadway show from Philip Barry. She convinced MGM to buy the rights with her having control on everyone who was brought into the cast and crew. She chose George Cukor to direct this film whom she worked with before and David Odgen Stewart who was a friend of Barry's and had experience turning plays into movies. For the cast, she chose Cary Grant and James Stewart as her main co-stars. She worked with Grant previously three times (including the aforementioned Bringing Up Baby). Taking control of the production was a very smart business move for Hepburn. In addition to this romantic farce being the fifth highest box office hit of 1941, the quality of the film is very good. George Cukor directed the heck out of the film by getting top-notch performances from his entire cast, had perfectly-timed scenes with perfectly-timed jokes, and so on. Stewart's screenplay is a masterpiece (for its time) thanks to the sharp, witty dialogue. The fantastic acting is also on display. I complained about Hepburn's performance in her 1938 film, Bringing Up Baby. It was clear that she was new to comedy and she wasn't really that funny. Boy, do several years make a difference! She was fantastic here as she delivered her witty dialogue with ease and she made me chortle many times. Cary Grant does Cary Grant things here so it is no surprise he turns out another fantastic performance. James Stewart reportedly was hesitant during filming about doing several scenes, but he really comes up big here. He received his only Academy Award with his portrayal in this movie. Two Philadelphia socialites, Dexter (Cary Grant) and Tracy (Katherine Hepburn) were lifelong acquaintances who ended up marrying each other. But that marriage did not last long due to Tracy's icy cold mannerisms towards Dexter which may have turned him into an alcoholic. Two years after the stormy end to the marriage, Tracy is getting married to a politician, George Kittredge (John Howard) who seemingly has an ordinary and rather boring personality. Meanwhile, Dexter was living in South America working for a tabloid named Spy. On the day of the wedding, Dexter shows up unexpected with two reporters from the magazine, Mike Connor (James Stewart) and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Imbrie (Ruth Hassey). Tracy quickly sees the ruse and Dexter tries to convince her that it is best for the family if this happens as their publisher is planning on running a damaging story about Tracy's father. From there, a bunch of well-timed comedy happens!As much as I enjoyed and I laughed while watching The Philadelphia Story, I could not help thinking about how much times changed. The film came out in December 1940, and obviously morals were different back then. Way different. One of the messages I have noticed is that despite the shortcomings of men and the trouble they put people through, it is up to the women to delicately handle the events. I got the sense that the film believes that it is okay for women to be pushovers. It easily stood out considering in today's world, women are very strong and equal to men in every single way as it should be. I know times were different, but I was rubbed the wrong way just a little bit. On that note, I really enjoyed The Philadelphia Story. The movie is very funny and wacky, the performances are top-notch especially those from Katherine Hepburn and James Stewart. This is the movie that threw Hepburn's label as box office poison in the trash. I definitely give this film a recommendation, especially if you are in the mood for some wacky hijinks. My Grade: B+

Producer: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Copyright 28 November 1940 by Loew's Inc. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. New York opening at Radio City Music Hall: 26 December 1940. U.S. release: 17 January 1941. U.K. release: March 1941. Australian release: 17 April 1941. 12 reels. 10,087 feet. 112 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Society girl's ex-husband plans to wreck her upcoming marriage because he still loves the girl himself.NOTES: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards: Best Actor, James Stewart (defeating Charles Chaplin as The Great Dictator; Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath; Raymond Massey as Abe Lincoln in Illinois and Laurence Olivier in Rebecca). Donald Ogden Stewart, Best (Adapted) Screenplay (defeating The Grapes of Wrath, Kitty Foyle, The Long Voyage Home, and Rebecca). Other Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Award nominations: Best Picture (won by Rebecca); Best Actress, Katharine Hepburn (won by Ginger Rogers for Kitty Foyle); Supporting Actress, Ruth Hussey (won by Jane Darwell for The Grapes of Wrath); Directing (won by John Ford for The Grapes of Wrath). New York Film Critics Award, Best Femi¬nine Performance: Katharine Hepburn. Film Daily Poll of U.S. film critics: 3rd best picture of 1941 (after Gone With The Wind and Sergeant York).Philip Barry's play opened on Broadway, 28 March 1939. It starred Katharine Hepburn, Joseph Cotten and Van Heflin and ran for 415 performances and then took to the road. Miss Hepburn took time off to make the movie, returning to the road company well before it finally closed on 15 February 1941. Shooting from 5 July 1940 to 14 August 1940. Remade in 1956 as "High Society", a musical version with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly.COMMENT: So much praise has been heaped on this delightfully witty comedy of manners, it seems superfluous to add more. Let me just say that the dialogue sparks, the characters fascinate, the plot entertains and the players excel. "The Philadelphia Story" is one of the most successful transitions of Broadway to Hollywood ever made, a perfectly flawless gem of wit and sophistication that is, if anything, even funnier, more acidic, more biting, yes, even more clever on the screen. We have Katharine Hepburn to thank for this. She owned the screen rights and made sure MGM did the play proud. She hired the director, the screenwriter, the other players and all the technicians. A great pity she missed out on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Award she so richly deserved. (Who remembers Kitty Foyle today?) James Stewart gives an equally scintillating performance, while Cary Grant (a master of cut-and thrust dialogue) is brilliantly cast as the sly C.K. The supporting players are so perfect, it seems less than just to single out one or two, but I must draw attention to John Howard's magnificently dull fiancé (Walter Pidgeon himself could not have done the role more proud), and John Halliday's vibrantly quirky roué father-of-the-bride. And how we vigorously applaud Roland Young!Thanks to the director and his behind-the-camera team, the movie is always as attractive to look at as to listen to. A double pleasure indeed! "The Philadelphia Story" is indeed one of the sharpest, most amusing comedies MGM ever made.

The witty characters and situations of Philip Barry's play doesn't hide the fact that everyone of these people is pretty close to certifiably nuts. Katharine Hepburn's Tracy Lord has her charms, but there's a motive behind that charm that brings on suspicion. She's on the verge of her second marriage, having already divorced the allegedly constantly drunk Cary Grant, probably tipsy all the time during their marriage because of her obviously selfish disposition. Now she's engaged to the stuffy John Howard, on the verge of a huge society bash, and Grant shows up with the idea of pointing out her mistake in choosing a replacement. Along with him are Spy magazine reporters James Stewart and Ruth Hussey who want all the dirt, although Stewart hates being put on a story that he would obviously like to see utilized as a bird cage liner.A biting commentary on the idiocy of high society and its domination of much of the press, this spoofs the lives of socialites like Barbara button (ironically one of Grant's wives), Doris Duke and Brenda Fraser, all "poor little rich girls" whose lives became daily copy for society columns and really not worth much. Barry gives it good to these ladies through leading lady Hepburn who us in denial of her image as a "goddess", claiming that she wants to be loved, not worshiped, but entirely one dimensional in her definition of what love is. Barry makes it clear that it us through the fault of society for creating these images, and the individual families for allowing them to believed. At first, Tracy leads Stewart on in that goddess image, but his direct approach with her opens her eyes to the ridiculousness of her life. So by the night before her wedding, she's got three men after her, all for different reasons.When her father arrives and eventually describes to his daughter's face her lack of a loving heart, the look on Hepburn's face is pure destruction even though she responds in denial. She's got a rather dizzy mother (Mary Nash), a directly honest, trouble making sister (an outrageously hysterical Virginia Weidler) and a fight to the death for her honor uncle (Roland Young) who takes a fancy to the sardonic Hussey. What a swell party indeed this will be, especially under the direction of George Cukor.While Stewart won the Best Actor Oscar for this, I would have preferred to see him nominated in the supporting actor category. He's brilliant in his performance, but it is not a focus in the story in spite of some terrific scenes. Grant scored in this and two other comedies ("His Girl Friday" and "My Favorite Wife") and deserved the leading nomination with Henry Fonda the deserving winner. Hepburn gave quite a different performance than her earlier RKO work, and this is a step above in sophistication her almost as brilliant work in Barry's "Holiday" remake. But overall, this is classic screwball romantic comedy at its best, pretty much flawless, and it's unfortunate that Hepburn never worked with either Grant or Stewart again.

The Philadelphia Story" is one of the best-known examples of a "comedy of remarriage", a genre which dealt with a divorced or separated couple getting back together again. Such films are normally associated with America in the 1930s and 1940s, where they were popular because they allowed screenwriters to flirt with daring themes without breaching the requirements of the Production Code relating to the depiction of adultery. There were, in fact, occasional examples from other countries, such as the British-made "The Divorce of Lady X", and the format has sometimes cropped up in recent 2years. ("Sweet Home Alabama", "Did You Hear about the Morgans?) The couple here are Tracy Lord, daughter of a wealthy, aristocratic Philadelphia family, and her ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven. Dexter turns up at Tracy's family home on the eve of her scheduled marriage to George Kittredge, a self-made businessman, and makes it clear that he would be interested in renewing their relationship, even though Tracy is less than pleased to see him. To add to Tracy's difficulties a third man has fallen in love with her- Macaulay "Mike" Connor, a journalist sent to cover her wedding.It quickly becomes clear whom Tracy will not marry. Poor George never stands a chance. Part of America's national mythology is "log cabin to White House", the idea that in America anyone can succeed if he has the "right stuff" and that there is therefore always something admirable about a self-made man. "The Philadelphia Story" subverts this myth with a vengeance. It is not that George is a vulgar parvenu- indeed, if he had a streak of healthy vulgarity about him he might cut a more attractive figure. He is stiff, pompous and physically unattractive; we never understand why Tracy ever got engaged to him, unless as a reaction to the handsome, charming and amiable (albeit flawed) Dexter, who comes from a similar social background to her own.As between Dexter and Mike the outcome is not so obvious. The normal rule in romantic comedies involving a love-triangle is "first name above the title gets the girl", but here both men are played by major stars, Cary Grant and James Stewart, who received equal billing. Intellectually, of course, we know how matters will end (or at least we do if we are familiar with the conventions of the "remarriage" genre), but emotionally we feel that Mike might just be in with a chance.The film was remade in 1956 as the musical "High Society". Now there was nothing wrong, in principle, with remaking it as a musical, but I have always regarded "The Philadelphia Story" as far superior to "High Society". The reason for this has nothing to do with the music- the songs are tuneful and the lyrics witty- and nothing to do with the story, which is much the same in both films. The reason for the difference lies in the acting in the main roles. I exempt from my criticism Frank Sinatra, who played Mike in the remake and wisely did not try to copy Stewart's interpretation of the role, realising that their styles of acting were completely different. Sinatra's Mike, therefore, is hard-bitten, cynical and wisecracking whereas Stewart's, an aspiring writer, is gentler and more idealistic. This film brought Stewart his only competitive acting Oscar, and a well-deserved one it was too.Between, Grant and Bing Crosby, however or between Katharine Hepburn and Grace Kelly, there is no comparison. Grant and Hepburn are both on top form here. Watching their battle-of-the-sexes duels you realise not only just why they found it so difficult to live together first time around but also just why both cannot live without the other. The main obstacle they need to overcome is Tracy's perfectionism. She sets high standards for himself and demands impossibly high standards of others, especially Dexter who complains that he was less Tracy's husband than "High Priest to a virgin goddess". Dexter, who is fond of a drink, has his faults, and doubtless tried Tracy's patience severely during their first marriage, but we realise that beneath it all he loves her deeply.Crosby, by contrast, is so laid-back that he is quite unable to make Dexter seem interesting; we never understand why Kelly's Tracy might have wanted to marry him in the first place. With Kelly we have the opposite problem; she is so heart-meltingly beautiful, and so soft and gentle in her manner, that we never understand why Dexter might ever have wanted to end their marriage. (In Hepburn's case her occasional flashes of temper make this quite obvious). It doesn't help that Kelly did not have a particularly good singing voice- unusually for the leading lady of a Hollywood musical, she only sings one song- or that Crosby was old enough to be Kelly's father, which lessens the chemistry between them. (The age difference between Grant and Hepburn was only three years).Two other good performances come from Ruth Hussey as Mike's attractive lady photographer Liz and the child star Virginia Weidler, who as Tracy's younger sister Dinah steals every scene she is in. Weidler had appeared in another film directed by George Cukor, "The Women", the previous year.Not all comedies of this period hold up well today. This was the third "comedy of remarriage" Grant made in 1940, the others being "My Favourite Wife" and "His Girl Friday". The first of these can today seem very dated, as well as overly sentimental. The second is a lot better, although much of its appeal lies in the way in which it combines its romantic plot with a good deal of satire aimed at the American press and political system. "The Philadelphia Story", however, is like a fine vintage wine, as good today as when it was first made. 9/10