We
open on Philadelphia socialite C. K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) as he's
being tossed out of his palatial home by his wife Tracy Lord (Katharine
Hepburn). Adding insult to injury, Tracy breaks one of C.K.'s precious
golf clubs. He gallantly responds by knocking her down on her million-dollar
keester. A year after the break-up, Tracy is about to marry George Kittridge
(John Howard), a wealthy stuffed shirt whose principal recommendation
is that he's not a Philadelphia "mainliner," as C.K. was. Still holding
a torch for Tracy, C.K. is galvanized into action when he learns that
Sidney Kidd (Henry Daniell), the publisher of Spy Magazine, plans to
publish an exposé concerning Tracy's philandering father (John Halliday).
To keep Kidd from spilling the beans, C.K. agrees to smuggle Spy reporter
Macauley Connor (James Stewart) and photographer Elizabeth Imbrie (Ruth
Hussey) into the exclusive Lord-Kittridge wedding ceremony. How could
C.K. have foreseen that Connor would fall in love with Tracy, thereby
nearly lousing up the nuptials? As it turns out, of course, it is C.K.
himself who pulls the "louse-up," reclaiming Tracy as his bride. A consistently
bright, bubbly, witty delight, The
Philadelphia Story could just as well have been titled The Revenge
of Katharine Hepburn. Having been written off as "box office poison"
in 1938, Hepburn returned to
Broadway in a vehicle tailor-made for her talents by playwright Phillip
Barry. That property, of course, was The
Philadelphia Story; and when MGM bought the rights to this sure-fire
box-office success, it had to take Hepburn
along with the package -- and also her veto as to who her producer,
director, and co-stars would be. Her strategy paid off: after the film's
release, Hepburn was back on
top of the Hollywood heap. While she didn't win the Oscar that many
thought she richly deserved, the little gold statuette was bestowed
upon her co-star Stewart, perhaps as compensation for his non-win for
1939's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington).
Donald Ogden Stewart (no relation to Jimmy) also copped an Oscar for
Best Adapted Screenplay. The Philadelphia
Story was remade in 1956 with a Cole Porter musical score as
High Society.
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