Katharine Hepburn spoofs her blue blood image as the spoiled bride-to-be in the definitive high society romcom. Sardonic ex-husband Cary Grant and scandal-mongering journo Jimmy Stewart vie to divert her from the altar.
Utterly beguiling, funny and romantic… The fun and wit rise like champagne bubbles, but there is a deceptive strength in the writing and performances.
Screened as part of Autumn Events 2016
The Philadelphia Story 1940
“George Cukor and Donald Ogden Stewart's evergreen version of Philip Barry's romantic farce, centring on a socialite wedding threatened by scandal, is a delight from start to finish, with everyone involved working on peak form. Katharine Hepburn's the ice maiden, recently divorced from irresponsible millionaire Cary Grant and just about to marry a truly dull but supposedly more considerate type. Enter Grant, importunate and distinctly sceptical. Also enter James Stewart and Ruth Hussey, snoopers from Spy magazine, to cover the society wedding of the year and throw another spanner in the works. Superbly directed by Cukor, the film is a marvel of timing and understated performances, effortlessly transcending its stage origins without ever feeling the need to 'open out' in any way. The wit still sparkles; the ambivalent attitude towards the rich and idle is still resonant; and the moments between Stewart and Hepburn, drunk and flirty on the moonlit terrace, tingle with a real, if rarely explicit, eroticism.” — Geoff Andrew, Time Out