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“The Philadelphia Story” is one of the best-known and most watched films of the 1930’s, with a great reputation which it wholly deserves. Full of sharp conversation, comic situations and romance, the film grabs you, full speed ahead, and never lets go. It’s not the flighty patter and silly situations of a screwball comedy - which it is wrongly labeled at times. This is a serious film at heart that operates on many levels and in which two of the major characters undergo major transformations which make them more fully human.
Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn), a wealthy member of Philadelphia’s Main Line, is two years divorced from fellow Main Liner C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), whose last disagreement is hilariously shown in a brief flashback that tells you all you need to know. She is about to marry George Kitteridge (John Howard), a self-made man with political aspirations. Haven, her mother, Margaret (Mary Nash) and little sister Dinah (Virginia Weidler) all know he’s the wrong man for her but Tracy is stubborn. Into this impending disaster are thrown two reporters from the tabloid-like Spy Magazine, Macaulay “Mike” Conners and Elizabeth Imbrie courtesy of Haven, who is trying to suppress a scandalous article about Tracy’s philandering father, Seth Lord.
The script has nuances and surprises that an average film wouldn’t. The plot of “the wrong suitor” is old and here John Howard, in a role often played by Reginald Owen, is as stiff, proper and conventional as Tracy is sparkling and full of life. That’s where an average film would stop, though it’s obvious who will get the girl. “The Philadelphia Story” adds a third man in the form of Mike Connor, who for a while seems like the real man for Tracy, who will leave both of the others as also-rans. But Mike is also romantically involved with Elizabeth Imbrie, to what extent is unclear, as she seems to be waiting for him to commit. In addition, they are not just tabloid reporters, which would make them possible lowlifes; he is a published writer and she is an artist.
Every one of the principals is in absolutely top form. Hepburn had played Tracy Lord on stage for the entire run of the hit play on Broadway. The role, and in fact the entire play, had been written for her by favorite playwright Philip Barry, who had written “Holiday”. He had, in fact, based it on a real woman and a real place (I’ll add a bit on this in an Extra Note) Hepburn was at her nadir here with a succession of box office failures that even included “Bringing Up Baby”, and another might end her contract. She IS Tracy Lord, and looks great in a succession of outfits designed by Adrian. This is Heburn in glamorous ‘30’s fashion, a look that suited her. Most of all, Tracy is intelligent and perceptive, something that was easy for Hepburn to embody.
Grant was now in his fourth film with Hepburn, two of them the recent “Holiday” and “Bringing Up Baby”. They liked each other and worked well together, though Hepburn’s first choice had been Clark Gable. Hepburn had the choice because she bought the film rights to the play with the help of then-boyfriend Howard Hughes, lest she not be given the part. She sold it to MGM’s Louis B. Mayer with the clause that she had final approval. Smart, she was. Gable was good at playing self-made men, but I really don’t think he could play as patrician a role as Haven as credibly as Grant could.
Grant was a big star now, a development only a few years old. He asked for and got an enormous salary for the film which he promptly donated to the British War Relief Fund. He had to step back a bit for this role. He’s not truly the main male character. It’s James Stewart who claims that place and who occupies the center and heart of the film with Hepburn. Grant’s role is somewhat like a magical guardian who watches everything, comments knowingly on the various goings on, and is always there to assist at a crucial moment. He seems to know how it will all play out and is just waiting for things to fall into place. He’s also necessary at times to directly confront Tracy with her problems, as when he tells her, “You’ll never be a first class human being or a first class woman until you’ve learned to have some regard for human frailty”.
Mayer wanted two stars in the male roles to assure box office, as Hepburn was still considered “poison” in those terms. She had originally wanted Spencer Tracy for the reporter, but he was unavailable. Stewart was also a new star, playing the lead in “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” the year before. He won the Best Actor award from the Academy for this film but personally thought Henry Fonda should have and that this was partially given with “Mr. Smith” in mind. It doesn’t matter because he’s absolutely wonderful here.
If Tracy is a cold, judgemental perfectionist, he is a dogmatic, ideological judge who sees everything in terms of social theory to the extent that Tracy calls him “Professor”. The ideology fades away until he falls wildly in love with her. This scene, the heart of the film, is set on the grounds of an estate on a moonlit night that has rarely been equalled in its romantic luster; only a similar scene in “It Happened One Night” comes to mind. Tracy finally sums up his journey when she says, “The time to make up your mind about people is never”.
The secondary players are all absolutely up to the standards of the film in the way that Classic Era character actors usually were. The standout is 13-year-old Virginia Weidler, who was especially good at bratty characters. Here she’s a good brat, hilariously parodying the wealthy set for the two reporters, a bravado scene ending with her singing “Lydia the Tattooed Lady”, a song originally sung by Groucho Marx. Ruth Hussey is almost a principal, but with the three big stars, her role is naturally not as large. She looks a bit like Mary Astor here but is totally different in her role of photographer Imbrie and is able to hold her own with the three stars. She’s the most down to earth person in the film.
Roland Young, the original Topper, is his usually funny self, though the role will probably strike some as creepy today. I can only say that the lecherous old man was an old comic trope that went at least as far back as Ancient Roman comedy and was meant to seem ridiculous rather than offensive. Mary Nash is sympathetic as Tracy’s mother and even gets to have a little fun spoofing the reporters (a welcome role after playing Shirley Temple’s nemesis in two films). She seems to reconcile with her husband, Seth (John Halliday) whose current affair with a showgirl had caused a separation. The situation mirrors that in “The Women” where there is a generational split in how to handle philandering men.
A word must be said for the house, as it too is a bit of a character. It was actually scaled down from the actual house Barry wrote about, a 38,000 square foot Georgian Revival called Ardrossan.(The house in “Holiday” was also used to show character. It was referred to as “The Museum” and was a huge marble palatial sort of place except for a cozy room on the top floor). Here the house is a stone colonial with gables and dormers (a popular style west of Philadelphia), whose interior is all chintz sofas, built-in bookcases and lots of clutter, giving it a warm, friendly feeling.
Hepburn chose her favorite director, George Cuckor, who had already directed four of her films and who could handle the sophisticated, dialogue-filled script effortlessly. There are no slow spots or mishandled scenes. Franz Waxman’s music is very Gershwin-esque, and is right for the time and place. Donald Ogden Stewart’s screenplay won an Academy Award, though he claimed it was the easiest script he wrote because much of the dialogue was retained exactly from the play.
Everything went right with this film and the result was a resounding success. :”Bringing Up Baby” had been pulled from Radio City Music hall after one week; “The Philadelphia Story” set records there. Hepburn’s career was saved, at least for the moment. She’d had a hit film but what next? It was teaming her up with Spencer Tracy that really sealed it. He was able to balance her persona, which some had found strident, on screen. More than that, she had previously come off to many Americans as simply an odd person. But once she became a symbol of women’s abilities and rights she had found a real purpose and with it an enthusiastic audience.
EXTRA NOTE:Philip Barry based Tracy Lord on Helen Hope Montgomery Scott, a real Philadelphia woman known as beautiful, vivacious and as “the Queen of Main Line Society”. She went everywhere and knew everyone from Josephine Baker to the Duke of Windsor. She gave extraordinary parties and was a notable horsewoman, also noted for her charities. She was the wife of a friend of Barry’s from Harvard, Edgar Scott, heir to the Pennsylvania Railroad fortune and an investment banker. She had debuted at the Philadelphia Assemblies Ball, an event which had such patrician roots that George Washington had attended it .
The one thing that does not ring true about the play and film is Tracy marrying Kitteridge, a man who worked his way up to General Manager of a coal company. Main Line society was notoriously exclusive, far more than other wealthy areas, and they wouldn’t have accepted someone like that. They didn’t accept Grace Kelly. It was all about old money and old families.
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Reviews with images
A Rare Gem
Rare opportunity to see three of the best actors together – plus, in an Oscar-winning screenplay. Jimmy Stewart shines and wins his first and only Oscar for this (outside of honorary). This was the Oscar ceremony the year after "Gone with the Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz" won awards, so it was a good time for Hollywood. One highpoint in the film, I'd say, comes when he crashes the pad of Dexter Haven and dictates while drunk an article on his boss, still talking while someone's at the door...[The only bad message was the celebration of booze as the tonic of love and partying. No wonder so many drink when movies like this are around. Booze was the silent killer of so many people in the USA in the 1900's. Actors, especially – William Holden, Lon Cheney Jr., Monty Clift, Eva Gardner, and even Louise Brooks was a boozer on the side. A deadly vice.]
Top reviews from other countries
Mr. Nicholas Storer
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 29, 2014