The Philadelphia Story (AFI No. 51)

Permanent Link · Posted Jun 13 · Filed under film

The Philadelphia Story opens to the scene of socialite C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) being thrown out of the house by his wife Tracy Lord (Katherine Hepburn). In the process, she breaks one of his golf clubs. He responds by knocking her on her butt—“socking her,” in the words of one of the child characters—in one of the more memorable and well-known scenes in 1940s screwball comedy.

Flash forward a couple of years—Tracy is getting married again, to pulled-up-by-his-bootstraps, man-of-the-people coal mine foreman George Kittridge (John Howard). C.K. agrees to get reporter Macauley Connor (James Stewart) and photographer Elizabeth Imbrie (Ruth Hussey) of Spy Magazine into the wedding so the magazine doesn’t run dirt on Tracy’s philandering father.

What follows is a fast-paced comedy with some absolutely fantastic witty repartee. There’s “class warfare” spoofing some of the class-driven, socialist dramas popular through the Great Depression, there are some biting jabs—“Have you forsaken your beloved whisky and whiskies?”—and, yes, there’s also a love story.

Jimmy Stewart won his only Acadamy Award for his performance, and the screenplay (adapted from the Philip Barry play of the same title by Donald Ogden Stewart) also won an Oscar. In addition to being ranked no. 51 overall by the AFI, they rank it their no. 15 comedy. This is truly a great comedic film, with the pacing, wit and star power to remain enjoyable to this day.

Previously · Subsequently

1. Great film! I also enjoy the musical version of it—”High Society”—with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly. Probably not as tightly wound as “The Philadelphia Story,” but with a score by Cole Porter and a Greek-chorus type role by Louis Armstrong, it’s pretty good. Some of the dialogue is taken from the originial verbatim.

   — MattNats    1102 days ago    #

2. Once I saw it, I was clustered by a different sense of excitement. I was really surprised with the domestic violence in rich homes. It is an inspiring tale filled with emtions. In addition it shows how people should stand up after falling hard.

   — Wong PoKér Hu    968 days ago    #

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