The Philadelphia Story

Rating:
Summary: The Making of Katharine Hepburn.
Review: Tracy Samantha Lord (Katherine Hepburn), a 'High Society' millionairess, is about to be married to George Kittridge (John Howard) a self-made mining executive, when, unannounced, her first husband, C.K. Dexter-Haven (Cary Grant), who she hasn't seen for two years, appears on the scene. He has brought with him a scandal sheet reporter, Macauley Conner (James Stewart), and his photographer-cum-girl friend Elizabeth Imbrie (Ruth Hussey), who want to do a insider, expose piece on the family. Under duress he explains that he was forced into bringing them a long by the magazine's editor who had threatened, if he refused to comply, to publish a scandalous story about her father's liaison with a Parisian dancer. Outraged, Tracy and her young sister Dinah (a very funny performance from Virginia Weidler) put on a show and present themselves as deranged eccentrics, leaving Conner and friend baffled and bemused. Later, he comes across Tracy in the local library reading a book of his short stories and they both see each other in an entirely fresh light.

We are given an insight into the character of George Kittridge at the beginning of the film when he comes along immaculately dressed in jodhpurs looking like a tailor's dummy. Tracy, repelled, immediately pushes him over into the dirt just to make him look more human. And then his blundering attempts to get astride a horse are hilarious. He is handsome and well-spoken and by normal standards attractive, but with Dexter and Macauley in the vicinity he appears stolid, self-important and humourless. We just know that Tracy will not marry him.

It's ironic that Grant, here as ever playing the sophisticate, should himself have come from a poor, lower-middle-class family and been poorly educated. Yet, he still managed to create for himself this marvellous screen persona. And in this film we have the quintessential Grant. He was here at his peak; suave, smooth, unruffled, in control, always amused and amusing and with a repertoire of gently mocking facial expressions. And he made it seem so easy - too easy, which is probably why Stewart beat him to the Oscar. Hepburn got a nomination and so did Hussey and yet neither were more deserving than Grant.

Hepburn as always gives a great performance, although it seems to me remarkable that starting out with such physical disadvantages she was able to achieve star status. Her character is cruelly criticised in the film for thinking of herself as a Goddess and behaving like one; cold distant and hardly human. But, physically, with her thin face and slight figure, she is a long way from being anyone's idea of a Goddess. Nor, until you get used to it, is her hard, high-pitched voice easy on the ear. Little wonder then that up to this point she was thought to be box-office poison.

There are a few other occasions in the film when I had difficulty suspending disbelief and when the film seemed to take itself too seriously resulting in stagy artificial dialogue, but on the whole it is an enjoyable film, well acted, well scripted and well worth seeing. Up to the last minute we are made to wonder who will marry whom. But all our expectations and wishes come true with a nicely satisfying happy ending - despite Macauley's bit of cruelty. To tell someone you love them when someone else who loves you is standing at your elbow is surely cruel is it not?

Rating:
Summary: The Philadelphia Story
Review: This movie is entertaining and fun for everyone. I found it to be heartwarming, a favorite of mine.

Rating:
Summary: High Praise For Hepburn, Grant, Stewart, And Hussey
Review: Katharine Hepburn stars as a socialite about to marry self made man John Howard. Her ex-husband, Cary Grant, brings a couple of reporters, James Stewart and Ruth Hussey, to her wedding to cover it for a tabloid. She hates any invasion of her privacy, but begins to get over it when she discovers Stewart's talent for writing. As the film progresses, it becomes apparent that a lot of the characters are in love with each other, and by the end, you're not quite sure who will be getting married. The characters also learn that perfecton is a lot to ask of someone, and it's really the flaws that we all have that define who we are and make us so interesting. This film has become a classic of comedy for a number of reasons. The dialogue and screenplay are first-rate, with a tremendous amount of wit, sophistication, and humanity thrown in, as characters reveal themselves by both words and sometimes by just the look on their faces. This is greatly aided by a dream cast of actors. Hepburn has fun playing the tough, demanding socialite in the beginning, but then goes deeper into the insecurity of the woman underneath with a lot of honesty. Grant is at his usual classy best, delivering one liners with ease, while also demonstrating his true feelings underneath it all. But it's the reporters who come off the best. Stewart is witty, cynical, and surprisingly romantic in a performance that is not what you would usually expect from him, and Hussey is dryly funny and wise as his patient photographer more interested in him than the story. Young Virginia Weidler, as Hepburn's little sister, is terrific and very natural. George Cukor expertly weaves it all together, and topped with the usual M-G-M production values, it's a class effort all the way.

Rating:
Summary: Not All It's Cracked Up to Be
Review: That's my main impression of "The Philadelphia Story", the movie that inspired "High Society", about a headstrong young heiress and her planned second marriage being complicated by a new suitor and an old ex-husband. I'd heard about this for years, and only ever seen that opening shot of Katharine Hepburn breaking Cary Grant's golf club. Gotta admit, it's a great shot--but it's the only good scene in the whole movie! Wow, did that ever surprise me. I thought Cary was doing a very bad job, almost like the "Wink Cary" I described in my review of "That Touch of Mink", serious autopilot. Slow-moving movie about a lot of people who think they're clever.

Rating:
Summary: Hepburn sparkles, Stewart shines
Review: Philadelphia Story is one of my favorite movies ever! Tracy Lord was written with Hepburn in mind and from the opening scene, in which she is knocked down (literally) by Cary Grant until the happily-ever-after all over again ending, the sparks fly. Stewart plays a reporter who falls in lust with her, and between these three gems of the silver screen (Hepburn, Grant, and Stewart) there is little to complain about in this movie. I only wish I knew more about the young lady who plays Tracy Lord's young sister, Dinah.

Rating:
Summary: A Joke Of A Farce
Review: An unmitigated disaster - and I speak as someone with great affection for vintage film, comedy in general and these actors specifically. I'm not entirely surprised that THE PHILADELPHIA STORY garners the absurd high praise that it does, though. Every aspect of the play and film is utterly phony, but in that high-minded, self-congratulatory manner that appeals to middlebrow audiences who point to films like this as emblems of their own good taste. I can't think of another 'classic' that's routinely considered an actor's dream in which the actors have been so ill-served by their roles and dialogue. They're all embalmed up there on the screen - not just stagebound but hidebound. The well-known plot revolves around the imminent society wedding of ice princess Tracy Lord to a self-made prig; in attendance are her archly witty family, her archly witty ex-husband (who pines for her still) and a pair of archly witty tabloid-style reporters (who resent her spoiled ways and vast wealth). The proceedings commence in reasonably lively fashion, but it's not long before the forced mechanics of Philip Barry's conception are audibly creaking, by which point the high-toned literary bons mot start landing with little thuds; the ghastly speechifying, the would-be ironic wisdom and poetic drunk-scenes soon take over the movie and THE PHILADELPHIA STORY becomes an endurance test for anyone who has ever truly enjoyed watching Hepburn, Grant, Stewart et al in anything worthy of their talents. Grant does what he can with his role, which mostly calls for worldly-wise detached bemusement, but Jimmy Stewart is trapped with scenes and dialogue that seem like a deliberate attempt to sabotage his naturalism - his tremendous rapport with movie audiences. His famous 'drunk scene' with Hepburn is so horridly bogus and actorish that you wonder if the Academy gave him that Oscar as a form of combat-pay - you can't not wince hearing him swoon, "There's a magnificence in you, Tracy", bathed in Metro's most gossamer lighting. Ruth Hussey is wasted in a completely thankless role, John Howard's stuffy bridegroom is similarly a stock character/cipher, and Roland Young's old roue, meant to be irresistably irascible, sets your teeth on edge throughout the film. Yet all of these performers get off easy compared to what Barry, and Metro, have done to poor Katherine Hepburn here. The Tracy Lord role is written as a harsh and demeaning caricature of Hepburn's own public persona; she garnered acclaim and a return ticket to the Hollywood A-list for sending up her publicly perceived hyperneurotic brittleness with great good cheer. She must indeed have been desperate to redeem her image by playing a role this insulting: the 'Hepburn' being spoofed never once exhibits her fierce intelligence, dramatic intensity or even her basic decency or humanity. 'Tracy Lord' is a spoiled, smug, self-centered and utterly insufferable stick-figure whose entire dramatic purpose is to be told by every other character how cold and fraudulent and incapable of human emotion she is, over and over, until the audience is fairly salivating for the cleansing humiliation and comeuppance that will render her, at last, a 'real' woman. She gives her lines more feeling and intuition than they deserve (when she's not forced to read dialogue expressly designed to make her look foolish or hateful). In the end, though THE PHILADELPHIA STORY did renew Hepburn's Hollywood career, it reinforced the audience's distrustful perceptions of her, so that generations of moviegoers have come to think of Tracy Lord and Katherine Hepburn as one and the same. But there's a reason THE PHILADELPHIA STORY is rarely, if ever, revived as a stage property: it's horribly false and condescending, and one could single out the phonies in the audience with ease - they'd be the only ones laughing, while the majority of the attendants would punctuate their long silences with nervous coughing between impatient glances at their watches. Thank the Lord at least for Virginia Weidler in this movie, as the kid gives the only unaffected performance in the whole show. Lucky for her that Philip Barry didn't think enough of the character to devote the same 'care' he took with the lead roles.

Rating:
Summary: Superior Fun
Review: This 60-year-old film is better than 99.999% of so-called movies released in the past decade. Seen in a drop-dead gorgeous print on DVD, the perfectly played comedy of Grant, Hepburn, Stewart and company gives as good a two hours of entertainment as you will find anywhere. Not only do the story and production hold up after a dozen viewings, you'll begin to see new things every time: for instance, I just noticed this week that there's a tremendous story of painful self-discovery under Hepburn's sophisticated comedy, and lots of class-struggle innuendos under Stewart's and Hussey's. If you don't yet own this DVD, order it immediately. Cannot recommend any movie more highly; this is perfection.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful movie
Review: This was the first movie on my "older film" list to see, and it certainly was the best! The movie was wonderfully witty and charming and had a fabulous plot.

The film is about Philadelphia heiress Tracy Lord (glamorous Katharine Hepburn) preparing for her second marraige to George Kittridge, a man who worked his way to the top. Although George may be the working class hero, he is described as "below Tracy in mind and spirit." Two years earlier, Tracy threw out her first husband, C. K. Dexter Haven (the charming Cary Grant), because of an alcoholic addiction. Now Dexter wants revenge, and with the help of a blackmail article about Tracy's father, he gets in tabloid reporter Mike Connor (the FABULOUS Jimmy Stewart) and photographer Liz Imbrie (The witty Ruth Hussey) to do a piece on Tracy's wedding. However, with only a day to the alter, Tracy's happy marraige plans spin out of whirl when its a race to the alter that anyone may win!

The highlights of the film I thought, was the comedic scenes. Tracy's little sister Dinah is hilarious, and several scenes including a drunk Jimmy Stewart and Katharine Hepburn are terribly funny. Full of memorable one liners (I'm just a photographer, I can't afford to hate anyone!), its the perfect quotable movie. Sequences are brilliant, and the ending is EXTREMELY hard to predict! Its romantic, witty, and easy to fall in love with. I was totally in love with the movie after seeing it the first time.

Acting is superb, a wonderful comeback for Katharine Hepburn. Cary Grant plays his suave sophisticated part better then ever, and Jimmy Stewart is DELIGHTFUL! With 3 such famous names, its impossible to loose. Stewart won an Academy Award, and it is well deserved. The part, with Hepburn in mind, is perfect for her, classy and chic, yet still remaining human and goddess at the same time. Cary Grant is perfectly matched in the movie with his debonaire looks and mild attitude. Jimmy is strongly comedic in a drunk scene, as well as singing us a hilarious rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Ruth Hussey is just as magnificent as Liz Imbrie, the top of the supporting cast. Everyone is amazing, and the timing is fabulous.

The wonderful thing about this movie is that it is so reminiscent of a time that is gone...where you could see an adult movie without over-violence, sex swearing. The closest you can get to any of the above is a swift punch to the jaw, "two kisses and a late night swim", and "dog gone it!" Its a film the whole family can enjoy, the humor is timeless, and the plot is romanticly funny.

A true gem amoung gems, The Philadelphia Story is a wonderful movie with a wonderful cast. I recommend the film to anyone, especially those who are fans of romantic comedy. A must see, this is Hollywood in its heyday!

Rating:
Summary: "With the rich and mighty, always a little patience."
Review: There's a peculiar viewpoint working here. What contemporary movie would position the working class hero, he who pulled himself up by his bootstraps and became a wealthy self-made man, as the titular villain? Or have a cynical writer, seemingly wound up tight by his morals and ethics, wind up falling in love with the stuck up rich girl? Or make its hero an unsympathetic yacht designer, who lives in a mansion and has a history of (violent?) alcoholism? Doesn't sound like a recipe for a successful romantic comedy, does it? Well, damn if it doesn't all just work perfectly here.

The film tackles a plethora of issues. Class differences, human frailty, love, money, power, and identity all get a run through its mill. But it never feels like you're being preached at. The writing is deft, dry, and frequently hilarious. And the story, ostensibly about a man looking to get even with his ex-wife by letting a celebrity tabloid in to her very private wedding, moves along at a crisp pace, managing to turn over surprise after surprise along the way.

Such a story would survive the casting of any number of actors in its three leading parts. But the troika of legendary stars we have here is probably never to be equaled. Katherine Hepburn is quick-witted, self-aware, lithe but powerful as the bride to be. Cary Grant is charming, smart, a tad devious, highly moral, and having heaps of fun playing her ex-husband. And Jimmy Stewart is cynical, armed with a wicked wit, but able to pull off high romance as the tabloid reporter sent to cover the wedding. These three have perfect chemistry together, and are a joy to watch in any situation. Such a team could easily overshadow the ensemble charged with supporting them, but special mention should be given to Ruth Hussey, who plays Stewart's photographer partner/prospective girlfriend. She gets a tonne of superb dry lines, and pulls them off remarkably well with wicked timing and sharp wit.

The middle third of the movie, set in and around a pre-wedding party, offers most of the cast a chance to exhibit some fine drunken acting. Stewart and Grant get a terribly funny scene in Grant's mansion, where Stewart tries to give a piece of his mind through his foggy haze and bad case of the hiccups, while Grant looks on with amusement. Later, Stewart and Hepburn have a midnight picnic, both three sheets to the wind and behaving ridiculously. These sequences are some of the funniest I've ever seen at the movies. It's a joy to watch these actors play silly with such great material.

Every great drunken scene must be followed by a good hangover scene. This film has one up to the task. The sun is shining bright, headaches abound, and the blinds have been opened to reveal the realities of the situation the characters have found themselves in. It's a perfect compliment to the early moments of hilarity. And it nicely sets up the ending, which nearly heaps on too much romantic melodrama (there are -- at least -- two wedding proposals in the quick denouement), but is saved by one final joke that makes one wonder: "What happened after the credits rolled?"

This is surely one of my all-time favourites, the epitome of what I call "Stop-the-Remote" movies. For whenever it pops up on television, I'm compelled to watch it to the end. And smile the whole way through.

Rating:
Summary: It Doesn't Get Any Better
Review: I fell in love with this movie when I was 16 and my love for it just grows and grows upon each viewing. "The Philadelphia Story" was adapted from the play of the same name written by Philip Barry . . . the changes they made were strokes of genius. While the play is rather funny, it can't compare to the beautiful pace and snarling, competetive wit of the movie. Jimmy Stewart, Katherine Hepburn, and Cary Grant were truly masters of their craft at their best. Buy this movie and buy it NOW - you'll reap all the benefits of three amazing actors who just plain know what they're doing.