The Philadelphia Story.

Review #1355: The Philadelphia Story.

Cast: 
Cary Grant (C.K. Dexter Haven), Katharine Hepburn (Tracy Samantha Lord), James Stewart (Macaulay "Mike" Connor), Ruth Hussey (Elizabeth Imbrie), John Howard (George Kittredge), Roland Young (William Q. Tracy), John Halliday (Seth Lord), Mary Nash (Margaret Lord), Virginia Weidler (Dinah Lord), and Henry Daniell (Sidney Kidd) Directed by George Cukor (#479 - Travels with My Aunt and #974 - A Star is Born)

Review: 
There are films that are born to be classics. This is one of those movies, pure and simple. Who better to headline this film than three prime stars of Hollywood's Golden Age: Grant, Hepburn, and Stewart. Each had their own way of finding success, which they would utilize for several decades, with a combined five Academy Awards on 18 nominations between them, with the latter two receiving the most benefit from the film in their own ways. had found herself drawn to acting while in college, with her debut in theater occurring in 1928. She spent four years with mostly small roles, but she was noticed in The Warrior's Husband by a scout that led to subsequent screen-testing for RKO for A Bill of Divorcement (1932). Director George Cukor was impressed, and the two would become friends that would do ten films together. She proved a success with the film, and she subsequently won an Academy Award for her third film in Morning Glory (1933). However, her career soon went through a series of setbacks in terms of audience appeal (both in film and theater) that would enclose the rest of the decade, which led her to be dubbed "Box office poison" in one film journal. There were a few moderate successes among slight flops, with a good deal of those films now being held in better respect, such as Mary of Scotland (1936) and Bringing Up Baby (1938). In 1939, she starred in the comic play The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry. Inspired by the antics of socialite Helen Hope Montgomery Scott, Barry wrote the play directly for Hepburn, who took on the lead role alongside funding it, which ran for over a year to success. When it came to film rights, Hepburn was given the films rights as a gift by Howard Hughes, which she soon sold to Metro Goldwyn Mayer for the chance to star and choose her own team to direct, write and star. This led to the hiring of Cukor, Donald Ogden Stewart (with un-credited help for the award winning work by Waldo Salt), and the aforementioned two sides of the dynamic triangle for the film in Grant and Stewart, who had just found success in leading roles through You Can't Take It With You (1938) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939).

It is easy to see why this proved to be Hepburn's resurgent comeback. Beyond the fact that she has two dynamic leads to go alongside a game script, she proves her ground with allure, where one sees her vulnerability alongside a good sense of humor that has tremendous chemistry with the other leads. Grant does just as well, having a good sense of timing and debonair nature. Stewart provides some offbeat everyman charm that generates the kind of warmth one would expect from him while delivering a few laughs in one notable scene where he is carrying Hepburn home after a midnight dip, while singing bits of "Somewhere over the Rainbow". Hussey and Howard also prove to be quite interesting in comparison to the others, both lending their own kind of depth (whether fawning or cynical, respectively) that keep them from being just in the background. Young, Nash, and Weidler also keep the support moving with their contribution to the depth the film has in compelling entertainment. The film is generally listed under the genre of romantic comedy with the subgenre of "comedy of remarriage", in which a couple divorces and flirts with others before remarrying (in a time where affairs were not allowed by the Production Code). It has plenty of passion along with moments of amusement, starting right from the opening scene, with an friendly exchange of broken golf clubs and a shove to the ground from the newly divorced leads. Cukor is certainly the right director for this kind of material, one that is smart with where it wants go in romance and amusement, keeping a steady pace of 112 minutes with plenty of heart that makes it a seminal picture of its genre and for the decade as a whole. It is a tremendous achievement for its iconic stars and its director that is definitely worth a look anytime.

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.