ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

iamccarthykelley The Philadelphia Story is a brilliant rom com. It's smart, funny, emotional, romantic and so much more. Much of this comes from its brilliant screenplay (its Oscar win was well deserved) and the actors who make it come to life. The story is a creative twist on classic tropes (for example, rather than a love triangle it has an odd love polygon, featuring three potential suitors competing for Katharine Hepburn's Tracy Lord and a sub-triangle surrounding James Stewart's Macaulay Connors), the dialogue is clever and witty, and the humor works extremely well. It is a wild, fast-paced joyride of a film, but it manages to never get the audience lost along the way, even through multiple faked identities and misunderstandings among the characters. Much of the credit for the success of The Philadelphia Story goes to the actors. Its central figures are played Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, and Cary Grant, all undeniable titans of filmmaking. The manic pacing of the film presents a challenge to these actors, as they need to be over the top to meet the demands of the script, but going too far makes the film hokey and unbelieveable. Luckily, the film delivers on the promise of its billing, with each of the three leads delivering a stellar performance. The film is also stocked with scene stealing supporting players such as Ruth Hussey, Roland Young, and Virginia Weidler, each one adding to the merits of an already excellent film. The Philadelphia Story fits into a number of subgenres. While it is most associated the remarriage subgenre, in which a divorced couple rediscovers love, much to the chagrin of their current romantic partners (ex. His Girl Friday), but it also fits into the wedding subgenre in which one of the romantic leads is about to get married to another person and the other lead has to break up the wedding (ex. The Wedding Singer, Made of Honor), and the journalism subgenre, in which one of the romantic leads is tasked with writing a story about the other and in doing so falls in love (ex. It Happened One Night, 27 Dresses). Ultimately, this subgenre transcendence reflects one of the more fascinating traits of The Philadelphia Story: it is a combination of a number of classic romcom themes. It explores the relationship between social class and romance, definitions of manhood and masculinity, the validity of marriage, and female sexual agency, to name a few. Dealing with so many issues often could dilute each of them; however, the confused and manic nature of the film makes this compounded exploration of issues successful. The hectic pace implies that all of these anxieties coming up at once is in itself an anxiety unto itself. To the extent that The Philadelphia Story doesn't get the attention it deserves, it can only be attributed to the fact that it is often overshadowed by its central player's other output. Each of the three leads was incredibly successful both before and after The Philadelphia Story, collectively appearing in films such on the level of Bringing up Baby, His Girl Friday, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It's a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, to only name films from the top of my head. However, The Philadelphia Story is a phenomenal achievement and not one to be missed.

Ivan Lalic Cary Grant, James Stewart and Katherine Hepburn together on the big screen was something you couldn't see quite often even in the era of classic Hollywood. Pretty thin script, average movie and some flat lined acting from the famous threesome was even more exotic movie happening. Yet, the creators of "Philadelphia story" managed to do just that, filming a forgettable flick with megastar casting and that's just a shame. "Philadelphia story" is one of the most overrated oldies in the history of Hollywood.

JohnHowardReid Producer: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Copyright 28 November 1940 by Loew's Inc. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. New York opening at Radio City Music Hall: 26 December 1940. U.S. release: 17 January 1941. U.K. release: March 1941. Australian release: 17 April 1941. 12 reels. 10,087 feet. 112 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Society girl's ex-husband plans to wreck her upcoming marriage because he still loves the girl himself.NOTES: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards: Best Actor, James Stewart (defeating Charles Chaplin as The Great Dictator; Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath; Raymond Massey as Abe Lincoln in Illinois and Laurence Olivier in Rebecca). Donald Ogden Stewart, Best (Adapted) Screenplay (defeating The Grapes of Wrath, Kitty Foyle, The Long Voyage Home, and Rebecca). Other Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Award nominations: Best Picture (won by Rebecca); Best Actress, Katharine Hepburn (won by Ginger Rogers for Kitty Foyle); Supporting Actress, Ruth Hussey (won by Jane Darwell for The Grapes of Wrath); Directing (won by John Ford for The Grapes of Wrath). New York Film Critics Award, Best Femi¬nine Performance: Katharine Hepburn. Film Daily Poll of U.S. film critics: 3rd best picture of 1941 (after Gone With The Wind and Sergeant York).Philip Barry's play opened on Broadway, 28 March 1939. It starred Katharine Hepburn, Joseph Cotten and Van Heflin and ran for 415 performances and then took to the road. Miss Hepburn took time off to make the movie, returning to the road company well before it finally closed on 15 February 1941. Shooting from 5 July 1940 to 14 August 1940. Remade in 1956 as "High Society", a musical version with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly.COMMENT: So much praise has been heaped on this delightfully witty comedy of manners, it seems superfluous to add more. Let me just say that the dialogue sparks, the characters fascinate, the plot entertains and the players excel. "The Philadelphia Story" is one of the most successful transitions of Broadway to Hollywood ever made, a perfectly flawless gem of wit and sophistication that is, if anything, even funnier, more acidic, more biting, yes, even more clever on the screen. We have Katharine Hepburn to thank for this. She owned the screen rights and made sure MGM did the play proud. She hired the director, the screenwriter, the other players and all the technicians. A great pity she missed out on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Award she so richly deserved. (Who remembers Kitty Foyle today?) James Stewart gives an equally scintillating performance, while Cary Grant (a master of cut-and thrust dialogue) is brilliantly cast as the sly C.K. The supporting players are so perfect, it seems less than just to single out one or two, but I must draw attention to John Howard's magnificently dull fiancé (Walter Pidgeon himself could not have done the role more proud), and John Halliday's vibrantly quirky roué father-of-the-bride. And how we vigorously applaud Roland Young!Thanks to the director and his behind-the-camera team, the movie is always as attractive to look at as to listen to. A double pleasure indeed! "The Philadelphia Story" is indeed one of the sharpest, most amusing comedies MGM ever made.

James Hitchcock The Philadelphia Story" is one of the best-known examples of a "comedy of remarriage", a genre which dealt with a divorced or separated couple getting back together again. Such films are normally associated with America in the 1930s and 1940s, where they were popular because they allowed screenwriters to flirt with daring themes without breaching the requirements of the Production Code relating to the depiction of adultery. There were, in fact, occasional examples from other countries, such as the British-made "The Divorce of Lady X", and the format has sometimes cropped up in recent 2years. ("Sweet Home Alabama", "Did You Hear about the Morgans?) The couple here are Tracy Lord, daughter of a wealthy, aristocratic Philadelphia family, and her ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven. Dexter turns up at Tracy's family home on the eve of her scheduled marriage to George Kittredge, a self-made businessman, and makes it clear that he would be interested in renewing their relationship, even though Tracy is less than pleased to see him. To add to Tracy's difficulties a third man has fallen in love with her- Macaulay "Mike" Connor, a journalist sent to cover her wedding.It quickly becomes clear whom Tracy will not marry. Poor George never stands a chance. Part of America's national mythology is "log cabin to White House", the idea that in America anyone can succeed if he has the "right stuff" and that there is therefore always something admirable about a self-made man. "The Philadelphia Story" subverts this myth with a vengeance. It is not that George is a vulgar parvenu- indeed, if he had a streak of healthy vulgarity about him he might cut a more attractive figure. He is stiff, pompous and physically unattractive; we never understand why Tracy ever got engaged to him, unless as a reaction to the handsome, charming and amiable (albeit flawed) Dexter, who comes from a similar social background to her own.As between Dexter and Mike the outcome is not so obvious. The normal rule in romantic comedies involving a love-triangle is "first name above the title gets the girl", but here both men are played by major stars, Cary Grant and James Stewart, who received equal billing. Intellectually, of course, we know how matters will end (or at least we do if we are familiar with the conventions of the "remarriage" genre), but emotionally we feel that Mike might just be in with a chance.The film was remade in 1956 as the musical "High Society". Now there was nothing wrong, in principle, with remaking it as a musical, but I have always regarded "The Philadelphia Story" as far superior to "High Society". The reason for this has nothing to do with the music- the songs are tuneful and the lyrics witty- and nothing to do with the story, which is much the same in both films. The reason for the difference lies in the acting in the main roles. I exempt from my criticism Frank Sinatra, who played Mike in the remake and wisely did not try to copy Stewart's interpretation of the role, realising that their styles of acting were completely different. Sinatra's Mike, therefore, is hard-bitten, cynical and wisecracking whereas Stewart's, an aspiring writer, is gentler and more idealistic. This film brought Stewart his only competitive acting Oscar, and a well-deserved one it was too.Between, Grant and Bing Crosby, however or between Katharine Hepburn and Grace Kelly, there is no comparison. Grant and Hepburn are both on top form here. Watching their battle-of-the-sexes duels you realise not only just why they found it so difficult to live together first time around but also just why both cannot live without the other. The main obstacle they need to overcome is Tracy's perfectionism. She sets high standards for himself and demands impossibly high standards of others, especially Dexter who complains that he was less Tracy's husband than "High Priest to a virgin goddess". Dexter, who is fond of a drink, has his faults, and doubtless tried Tracy's patience severely during their first marriage, but we realise that beneath it all he loves her deeply.Crosby, by contrast, is so laid-back that he is quite unable to make Dexter seem interesting; we never understand why Kelly's Tracy might have wanted to marry him in the first place. With Kelly we have the opposite problem; she is so heart-meltingly beautiful, and so soft and gentle in her manner, that we never understand why Dexter might ever have wanted to end their marriage. (In Hepburn's case her occasional flashes of temper make this quite obvious). It doesn't help that Kelly did not have a particularly good singing voice- unusually for the leading lady of a Hollywood musical, she only sings one song- or that Crosby was old enough to be Kelly's father, which lessens the chemistry between them. (The age difference between Grant and Hepburn was only three years).Two other good performances come from Ruth Hussey as Mike's attractive lady photographer Liz and the child star Virginia Weidler, who as Tracy's younger sister Dinah steals every scene she is in. Weidler had appeared in another film directed by George Cukor, "The Women", the previous year.Not all comedies of this period hold up well today. This was the third "comedy of remarriage" Grant made in 1940, the others being "My Favourite Wife" and "His Girl Friday". The first of these can today seem very dated, as well as overly sentimental. The second is a lot better, although much of its appeal lies in the way in which it combines its romantic plot with a good deal of satire aimed at the American press and political system. "The Philadelphia Story", however, is like a fine vintage wine, as good today as when it was first made. 9/10