The Philadelphia Story (1940)

The Philadelphia Story (1940)


Prior to the release of The Philadelphia Story, Katherine Hepburn had a string of failures (including the classic 1938 screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby) that labeled Hepburn as box office poison. In order to get rid of the career-ruining label, she decided to get to work on her own film. In 1939, she was starring in a very popular Broadway show from Philip Barry. She convinced MGM to buy the rights with her having control on everyone who was brought into the cast and crew. She chose George Cukor to direct this film whom she worked with before and David Odgen Stewart who was a friend of Barry’s and had experience turning plays into movies. For the cast, she chose Cary Grant and James Stewart as her main co-stars. She worked with Grant previously three times (including the aforementioned Bringing Up Baby).



Taking control of the production was a very smart business move for Hepburn. In addition to this romantic farce being the fifth highest box office hit of 1941, the quality of the film is very good. George Cukor directed the heck out of the film by getting top-notch performances from his entire cast, had perfectly-timed scenes with perfectly-timed jokes, and so on. Stewart’s screenplay is a masterpiece (for its time) thanks to the sharp, witty dialogue.



The fantastic acting is also on display. I complained about Hepburn’s performance in her 1938 film, Bringing Up Baby. It was clear that she was new to comedy and she wasn’t really that funny. Boy, do several years make a difference! She was fantastic here as she delivered her witty dialogue with ease and she made me chortle many times. Cary Grant does Cary Grant things here so it is no surprise he turns out another fantastic performance. James Stewart reportedly was hesitant during filming about doing several scenes, but he really comes up big here. He received his only Academy Award with his portrayal in this movie.



Two Philadelphia socialites, Dexter (Cary Grant) and Tracy (Katherine Hepburn) were lifelong acquaintances who ended up marrying each other. But that marriage did not last long due to Tracy’s icy cold mannerisms towards Dexter which may have turned him into an alcoholic. Two years after the stormy end to the marriage, Tracy is getting married to a politician, George Kittredge (John Howard) who seemingly has an ordinary and rather boring personality. Meanwhile, Dexter was living in South America working for a tabloid named Spy. On the day of the wedding, Dexter shows up unexpected with two reporters from the magazine, Mike Connor (James Stewart) and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Imbrie (Ruth Hassey). Tracy quickly sees the ruse and Dexter tries to convince her that it is best for the family if this happens as their publisher is planning on running a damaging story about Tracy’s father. From there, a bunch of well-timed comedy happens!



As much as I enjoyed and I laughed while watching The Philadelphia Story, I could not help thinking about how much times changed. The film came out in December 1940, and obviously morals were different back then. Way different. One of the messages I have noticed is that despite the shortcomings of men and the trouble they put people through, it is up to the women to delicately handle the events. I got the sense that the film believes that it is okay for women to be pushovers. It easily stood out considering in today’s world, women are very strong and equal to men in every single way as it should be. I know times were different, but I was rubbed the wrong way just a little bit.



On that note, I really enjoyed The Philadelphia Story. The movie is very funny and wacky, the performances are top-notch especially those from Katherine Hepburn and James Stewart. This is the movie that threw Hepburn’s label as box office poison in the trash. I definitely give this film a recommendation, especially if you are in the mood for some wacky hijinks.



My Grade: B+

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Image
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.” Ah, wise words from our new young friend, Ferris Bueller. In John Hughes’s 1986 film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , all Ferris wants to do is take a day and have fun. That is the most simplistic theme the movie has. You can go deeper, but the main takeaway is that it is okay to have fun. That is a motto I have taken to heart. I really loved the film. People consider The Breakfast Club to be Hughes’s best and most important movie. That’s a fine statement to make, but I would personally rank the film number two behind this particular one. The teen characters are instantly relatable, it has a memorable antagonist for the children, and this is basically a thirty-year-old travel guide for Chicago. Just how Woody Allen creates his movies as love letters for New York, this is applicable for John Hughes. A Chicago love letter!   Like all of his films, Hughes wrote...
Read more

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Image
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) The James Bond franchise is one of those franchises that will never die. It has been going strong since the first movie rolled out in the early 1960’s, and new James Bond movies are still produced today. What makes this series unique is they use multiple actors to play the titular character over the years. They all bring their own gravitas to the role, and each Bond is a different man when compared to each other (although the martini, shaken not stirred and the beautiful women among other things remain a constant.) So my first James Bond review for this blog is 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me. This wasn’t my first look at the series, but it was my first look at the older movies. I really liked what I saw. This is an old-fashioned story that combines a spy drama and an action-packed war movie into one package. Like many of the older Bond movies, the story can get borderline preposterous. The cheesiness of the plot did come to grow on me after awhile, even...
Read more

Table for Five (1983)

Image
Table for Five (1983) I can guarantee that ninety percent of my readers here have not seen this tear-jerking melodrama 1983’s Table for Five , yet alone heard of it. Hopefully after reading my kind words, you will be somewhat intrigued by this movie. When doing my research for the film, I was shocked to see how vastly underrated the movie is. There are only a few reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, hardly any information on Wikipedia or Google-hardly anything out there in this vast Internet landscape. Then, why on earth is this movie so good? Sure, maybe some folks will say the movie is just a predictable Lifetime TV movie, but honestly it is much more than that. There are some elements that makes this film seem destined for the television at times, but to me it is much more than that. I consider the movie to be an honest, emotional portrayal about fatherhood and family. Directed by Robert Lieberman, this film is about a man named J.P Tannen (Jon Voight) who fails at being fathe...
Read more