Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Some of the best things in life really ARE old movies! How would you like to see a movie with impeccable performances, the best comic timing and some of the most interesting dialog you've heard in some time? Got your interest yet? This movie, The Philadelphia Story (1940) offers all those things and more.

This films includes a trio of surprising superstars, although none of them was considered a "superstar" at the time. Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart and Katherine Hepburn make a fantastic team. Their performances were directed by George Cukor, a brilliant director that has gathered less glory than his contemporaries. Interested in why?

Cukor was known as a so called "woman's director". This was Hollywood shorthand for being gay. Cukor was already a great Broadway director when "talkies" got popular in 1929. He came to Hollywood as a dialog coach, helping with All Quiet in the Western Front , and gained some fame with directing Hepburn in her first film in 1932, A Bill of Divorcement.

When assigned to Gone with the Wind , Cukor was allegedly fired because Clark Gable didn't want to work with a "women's director", although it was probably because Vivian Leigh was upstaging him, with Cukor's help. It didn't stop him, but it sure did slow him down. In spite of superb direction on several films, he did not win an Oscar for best director until 1964, for My Fair Lady.
He directed his last film Rich and Famous at the age of 82 . In a gesture that could only be Hollywood, Sam Goldwyn's wife Frances was buried close to him at her request, having carried a torch for him all her life.


Cukor's strength was as a director of performances, both men and women. He made it all work, with impeccable timing, and pacing the film with uncanny precision. Scene Transitions are seamless, and it all comes together well at the end.

Cinematography is pretty much standard issue, with no gimmicks. One-to-one dialog scenes were filmed perfectly. Other shots are perfunctory set-up Hollywood linear plot shots, giving minimum emphasis to the surroundings except as location markers.

The times and the genre

The story was written by Philip Barry, with help from Donald Ogden Stewart. He claims to have created the'Tracy' character based on Hepburn's Hollywood reputation as a woman of some fierceness.

The story comes through as a genre that would slowly fade away, a comedy of manners, where the wit is the war and the dialog is the weapon of choice. It is in the banter of words, that this movie sparkles. All the characters develop in depth, based on their exchanges with each other. Certainly the contrasts in values and habits of the rich and the poor are shown and mocked from every angle. At first, it seemed that it was merely the effete rich, and the lives of people of means that were viewed with disdain. However, as the story develops, the facades are peeled away, until we see the real people underneath their carefully constructed public faces.

The cast

Cary Grant as C.K. Dexter Grant. Everyone knows "I would walk with my lips on busted glass." (to quote Don Henley) to watch his films, and he is at his suave and sophisticated best here. Dashing and low-keyed performance, with moments of great pithy wit as well. It's hard not to like him. He starts as being somewhat of a cad.

Katherine Hepburn as Tracy Samantha Lord, the object of affection (and affectation as well). Rich , assertive young woman, a willful spoiled brat, affected and annoying, she transforms by removing layers, one at a time, to show a girl who looks deeper to find what she is all about, and what she REALLY wants. It was a brilliant performance, full of Katherine Hepburn fire and passion, with a winning vulnerability at the core.

James Stewart as Macauley (Mike) Connor, a reporter assigned to cover a society wedding. He is the cynic, the biting sarcasm visited on the lifestyles of the rich and famous. As a novelist, he aspires to greater things. He is resentful of the life of privilege, but he too, reveals much by the end of this movie. This is Stewart at his boyish best. He is pretty adorable, really.

Ruth Hussey as Elizabeth (Liz) Imbrie , the photographer for the story. Although her role is much smaller, she is in love with Mike, and her wry comments at times, are well worth hearing. She is the one person who enters and exits the film with the same character, a woman of talent and integrity. Her performance is rarely mentioned in the three-star line-up, but she was wonderful in this role.

Viginia Weidler as Dinah Lord, Tracy's kid sister. This is a delightful performance by this young lady, who is blunt, funny, sarcastic, truthful and extremely talented as well. She is great friends with C.K. Dexter Hanley, from the start. She tells her sister exactly what she thinks. Watch for her little "French" performance when she meets the reporters.

Henry Daniell as Sidney Kidd. Every movie needs a bad guy, and this is the one. Kidd is the publisher, slick and unethical. It was a small but important role.

John Howard as George Kittredge, the intended groom at the start of the movie. His part is even smaller, and interestingly enough, I never felt he was a contender for the hand of the fair Tracy Lord. Some pretty interesting developments evolve with his character as well. He starts as a "poor boy" who made good, an admirable accomplishment in the American tradition. And then, something else appears as well. I'll leave it to you to discover it.

Other performances of note were by Mary Nash, John Halliday, and Roland Young as Tracy's mother, father and uncle respectively.

The Plot

(Maragret Lord) "The course of true love....

(Mike Connor) "...gathers no moss."

The movie begins with Dex (C.K. Dexter Haven) leaving with bags packed. Tracy comes to the door with his golf clubs, throws them down and breaks one. Dex does the unthinkable and shoves her away from the door. She lands in a heap on the floor, still burning with anger.

Cut to two years later. Tracy is about to be remarried, to George Kittredge, once a coal worker, but now the boss, a young man with aspirations, and dreams. He plans a political career.

Tracy is shown to be a woman of means, from an old money family, with a will of her own, a temper and an unforgiving nature. Her father has been philandering, and this may be the key to the developing plot. There is also an Uncle Willie, who is known as the "pinching" Uncle Willie.

Tracy's sister Dinah is a precocious and energetic adolescent, who often seems to understand the real situation much better than the adults. The first husband (Dexter)is a long time friend of the family, in the same social circles, divorced by Tracy for his drinking problems.

C.K. Dexter Hanley is now working for a "gossip" magazine, as a writer, and manages to get another writer and his photographer into the house as guests of Tracy's absent brother Junius, to write up a story on the upcoming nuptuals. They arrive a few days before the wedding.

Waiting in the parlor, they look at the phone, with extensions to various places including the stables.

(Ruth Imbrie) "That's so they can talk to the horses without having them in the house"

The writer, Mike Connors, would clearly rather be somewhere else, and the photographer, Ruth Imbries is clearly in love with him, something that has never occurred to him. Dex, meanwhile, warns Tracy and her family that they are reporters, and says the editor has some incriminating photos of the philandering father to use as blackmail to insure that the society scoop is written. So the Lords family for a while, play the charade. They play with great wit and humor!


This is enough to set up the story. The plot becomes quite complex by the end, with a lot more fun to be had-with everyone.

THE DVD

This is bare bones, just the movie, with subtitles. It is a clear copy, and the movie plays well without any further explanation.

Final Recommendation

This is a wonderful movie, full of wit and charm. Terrific performances from an amazing cast! You'll probably like the ending as well! Don't miss this one!





Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older