Rating: 
Summary: YES, BUY THIS ONE, YOU WON'T REGRET IT.
Review: This is my absolute favorite performance by the great Katherine Hepburn. She is breathtaking and absolutely wonderful. Brilliant performances all across the board, an especially funny performance by James Stewart is just the icing on the cake. Cary Grant,one of my faves, also delivers a magnificent performance. Also worth mentioning is the very beautiful Ruth Hussey, whose potrayal of Liz is stunning. She was one of the most attractive actresses at the time, in my humble opinion. This movie is very funny and the sets and costumes are among the best Hollywood has ever offered. I highly recommend this as a must own.
Rating:
Summary: Probably the best romantic comedy ever
Review: George Cukor's "Philadelphia Story" is the story of Tracy Lord, a spoilt, rich socialite marrying George Kittredge, the manager of their estate. It has a cast of Cary Grant, James Stewart and Katherine Hepburn. It was the best movie made of the 1940 with a lot of the supporting cast including Seth Lord, Uncle Willie (his brother), her sister do an outstanding job. As romantic comadies, this ranks in the top of the list.Jimmy Stewart got his Best Actor Oscar, a richly deserved one, as he plays the part of a sarcastic reporter. The way he treats Tracy Lord, a combination of superciliousness and adulation is wonderful. So is the role of Cary Grant as C.K.Dexter Haven, who officially comes there to get revenge on his ex-wife, but is there actually due to blackmail. The interaction between him and Tracy Lord is fantastic, either they like each other, or they are at each other's throats. Katherine Hepburn plays her role as the haughty, socialite wonderfully and the way she changes her acting when she is sober to when she is drunk is well brought out. After a lot of flops, she finally had a success with this movie. The role was almost made for her. The dialogue is hilarious and intelligent. It also mocks at some of the obvious ideas about the class system. George Cukor manages his cast very well right upto the end. This is a movie for all generations. I was disappointed that Cary Grant was not nominated for an Oscar for his role in this, it was very well done. The end of the movie is beautiful.
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: The course of true love gathers no moss
Review: At age 45 I'm just getting around to seeing a lot of the classics I'd always ignored. All I knew of "The Philadelphia Story" until this week was that it was a high society comedy with James Stewart. Sounded a bit blah to me. Imagine my surprise to find a screwball romantic comedy that happens to take place in high society, and to find Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant as well. I guess I never paid the film much attention because of its boring title; sounds like a Revolutionary War film about the history of the city.
Instead we have a hilarious picture based on a stage play. It ends just as I expected it would from the opening scene, but, with all the glorious twists and turns in between, who cares if it's ultimately a bit predictable? The joys of the film include some unexpectedly fall-down funny moments of both verbal and physical comedy, wonderful lighting (it seems films in color can never quite get the lighting to be a character in the way they could in these old B&W flicks), and the wonder of how director George Cukor managed to make this stage play look quite un-stagey.
Other Amazon reviewers may grouse about the Oscar awarded to Stewart (I agree that had to be a make-good), but the film was nominated in several other categories, including a Best Actress nomination for Hepburn. This is a lady who deserved every bit of attention she ever got; history has borne out her brilliance even in the days when she wasn't appreciated. Kudos to Warner Home Video for such a great package, with all the extras attached, to maintain the status of "The Philadelphia Story" as one of the greatest films ever made. Just wish that title had even 1% of the pizzazz of the movie itself.
Rating: 
Summary: "I'm testing the air. I like it but it doesn't like me."
Review: George Cukor's "The Philadelphia Story" features a cast that is a filmlover's dream. One can only gape in awe at seeing Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and James Stewart all together in the same production.
Reporters Mike Connor (Stewart) and Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey) infiltrate Philadelphia high society in order the get the scoop on the high profile wedding of Tracy Lord (Hepburn). Tracy's former husband, C. K. Dexter Haven (Grant), who has not completely gotten over her, also starts making his presence known around his ex-wife once more in the hopes of getting back in her good graces. As Tracy comes to closer the moment of her wedding, she starts to doubt whether a conventional marriage is the right choice for her after all.
"The Philadelphia Story" is another of those well-done energetic comedies that were so common in Thirties and Forties. While less chaotic than many of its screwball comedy contemporaries due to its stage play origins, this film is still a breezy and delightful treat. Hepburn is her usual wonderful self and Stewart and Grant are hilarious are the two men stalking her every move in the moments leading up to her wedding. Also of note is the performance turned in by Ruth Hussey. She more than manages to keep pace with the three screen giants and has her own fair share of memorable scenes. All in all, "The Philadelphia Story" is an entertaining cinematic work that all film enthusiasts should take a look at just to witness the tremendous star power on display.
Rating:
Summary: A classic among the classics!
Review: You will adore this fabulous and splendidly acted comedy of romances in Philadelphia with a towering performance of Mrs. Hepburn , a clever acting of Cary Grant and the winner James Stewart in this smart and delightful film plenty of irony , tastefully written and best directed for George Cukor.
Rating: 
Summary: I've never been able to get the magic
Review: I am a pre-war comedy enthusiast. Since the directors were restricted by the Hays code, many of the 1930s comedies depended on wit, goofy physical comedy, double ententres, and a manic energy to get the laughs. The result: comedies that are still funny and smart today. Some famous examples include Capra's It Happened One Night, the newspaper comedy His Girl Friday, the enchanting Shop Around the Corner, the Carole Lombard comedies, Bringing Up Baby ... The last comedy had the Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn pairing. It's a good cinematic match: Grant's cruel humor and elegance mix well with Hepburn's brittle, patrician charm. Bringing Up Baby was a box-office failure, but it's funny, warm, and absurd.
Two years later, Hepburn chose as a comeback "vehicle" of sorts (she was labeled box office poison after a string of failures) The Philadelphia Story, starring Cary Grant, James Stewart and John Howard. The story is of an heiress, Tracy Lord, and her remarriage to the respectable George (Howard). On the eve of her wedding, reporter Mike Connor (Stewart) and Tracy's ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven (Grant) crash the festivities, with the predictable results. Connor and Tracy also have a brief flirtation.
The movie has a reputation as a "classic" and I hate to sound grouchy but I think it's overrated. For one thing, director George Cukor was known as an actress's director but this is a case where he might have given too much leeway to his actress, Hepburn. She indulges in all her mannerisms (the arch looks, the halting scratchy voice, the head-shaking "vulnerability") and except for a few funny moments takes herself way, way too seriously for this type of comedy. The famous scene where Tracy breaks Dexter's golf clubs is an exception in the movie -- mostly it's her talking a LOT. Hepburn doesnt have the natural rapidfire wit of a lot of screwball actresses and plus I just dont think the screenplay is all that funny. Unlike Bringing Up Baby, Hepburn here seems afraid to play for laughs. Her Tracy is haughty and tough-tender like a lot of Hepburn heroines, but she's not funny.
James Stewart won an Oscar for this movie, and that might be the worst Oscar call in history (they passed over Henry Fonda in Grapes of Wrath). Mike Connor is a small role, and his flirtation with Tracy Lord in the end is inconsequential to the movie. And plus, Stewart is funnier in a lot of other movies (like Shop Around the Corner). As for Grant, his character is a cipher. He has his usual charm and zaniness, but without really good lines, he's wasted.
The movie is also, at 112 minutes, overlong. In fact, the movie on the whole falls into a lot of "star vehicle" traps -- arch dialogue, overlength, and a general feeling of "tries too hard" to be a masterpiece. And it's not really funny. In the end, it's like who the hell cares who Tracy ends up with? I just want the movie to be over.
Rating: 
Summary: Deserves Better
Review: This film is famous enough--justifiably, I might add--that I need not provide a synopsis. IMHO, it would be pretty hard not to enjoy the delicious antics played out in this Broadway-hit-turned-Hollywood-classic unless, like a previous reviewer, you have an extreme aversion to any of its cast members. No, my complaint is with the print itself.
Little or no restoration has been done, leaving images somewhat flickery and not very sharp with fairly poor contrast. Warner has done fine work on some of its other releases but I'm now inclined to wonder if it only applies to non-MGM titles--perhaps a little unresolved rivalry in evidence? There are subtitle and caption options and the lone extra is the original trailer which looks no worse in quality than the film itself. Sound is clear, plain-vanilla mono which is fine since that's how it was originally released.
This film was remade as a musical, High Society, in 1956 starring beautiful Grace Kelly who was, coincidentally, the daughter of Philadelphia parvenus before retiring to become Princess of Monaco. I personally prefer the original and would add that, predictably, Hepburn provides more convincing depiction of Yankee royalty as she was closer to the genuine article (I believe she was a DAR). My advice is that if you're a fan for whom this is a must-own (and I include myself among these numbers), try not to pay list for this no-frills release and hope for better things in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: OVERRATED FILM!!
Review: First let me say this: I AM NOT A KATHARINE HEPBURN FAN. I find her mannerisms, rapid fire speech, twittering high pitched voice and her hyperactive personality too much for me! She gets on my nerves and the best scene in this movie is when Cary Grant pushes her through the door and she falls flat. I only wish when she had fallen she wouldn't have gotten back up and the film would have ended right there. For this reason I have never been able to sit through an entire showing of this film, despite the star power of Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart who make up for what is lacking in its leading lady...(Just my opinion). I know I'm in the minority here and we all have different tastes, so please, no offense to Hepburn admirers. I actually have two movies of hers that I love her in...(Stage Door (1937) and Dragon Seed (1944). Its because in those films she toned down her mannerisms and wasn't unlikeable. Perhaps its just the hyperactivity that gets to me, I don't know. I can't give this film an honest critique because I've never been able to sit through an entire showing of it. I either fall asleep or get too much of Hepburn (who in my opinion was severely overrated as an actress....of all the golden era actresses, needless to say she is my least favorite....). So this review of "The Philadelphia Story" may be unfair and biased. One thing is certain....the Oscar that Jimmy Stewart won for this was given to him because the Academy overlooked him the year before in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". His role is truly secondary to Hepburn's and Grant's. The Oscar that year by Stewart's own admission should have gone to Henry Fonda for "The Grapes of Wrath". As I said, I'm in the minority here but we all have different tastes. If you're like me and don't like Hepburn, then stay away from this one.
Rating:
Summary: YES, BUY THIS ONE, YOU WON'T REGRET IT.
Review: This is my absolute favorite performance by the great Katherine Hepburn. She is breathtaking and absolutely wonderful. Brilliant performances all across the board, an especially funny performance by James Stewart is just the icing on the cake. Cary Grant,one of my faves, also delivers a magnificent performance. Also worth mentioning is the very beautiful Ruth Hussey, whose potrayal of Liz is stunning. She was one of the most attractive actresses at the time, in my humble opinion. This movie is very funny and the sets and costumes are among the best Hollywood has ever offered. I highly recommend this as a must own.
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