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The Philadelphia Story (1940)

tomatometer

100

Average Rating: 8.6/10
Reviews Counted: 45
Fresh: 45 | Rotten: 0

Offering a wonderfully witty script, spotless direction from George Cukor, and typically excellent lead performances, The Philadelphia Story is an unqualified classic.

100

Average Rating: 7.9/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 0

Offering a wonderfully witty script, spotless direction from George Cukor, and typically excellent lead performances, The Philadelphia Story is an unqualified classic.

audience

91

liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 45,024

My Rating

Movie Info

We open on Philadelphia socialite C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) as he's being tossed out of his palatial home by his wife, Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn). Adding insult to injury, Tracy breaks one of C.K.'s precious golf clubs. He gallantly responds by knocking her down on her million-dollar keester. A couple of years after the breakup, Tracy is about to marry George Kittridge (John Howard), a wealthy stuffed shirt whose principal recommendation is that he's not a Philadelphia "mainliner," as

Unrated,

Romance, Classics, Comedy

Donald Ogden Stewart

Sep 10, 1997

MGM

Watch It Now

Cast

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All Critics (45) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (54) | Rotten (0) | DVD (24)

In short, The Philadelphia Story lifts the daily drudge into a charming never-never land, with complete footnotes excusing its existence. And besides, it's a good, entertaining show.

April 23, 2009 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Every time Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart connect in a scene, we hear the happy ding! of quality champagne crystal.

March 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Film.com
Film.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The smarties are going to relish Philadelphia Story a lot more than the two-bit trade...

July 2, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

George Cukor gives it the royal treatment with a splendid supporting cast...

July 2, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Cukor and Donald Ogden Stewart's evergreen version of Philip Barry's romantic farce, centreing on a socialite wedding threatened by scandal, is a delight from start to finish, with everyone involved working on peak form.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It has been a long time since Hollywood has spent itself so extravagantly, and to such entertaining effect, upon a straight upper-crust fable, an unblushing apologia for plutocracy.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

How well all is pulled together and comes off, is more glaring when 'The Philadelphia Story' is compared to its fluffy but fangless 1956 musical adaptation, 'High Society.'

August 9, 2012 Full Review Source: ReelTalk Movie Reviews
ReelTalk Movie Reviews

Screwball romance is lots of fun for older kids.

January 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media

Romantic comedies are rarely this fabulous.

April 23, 2009 Full Review Source: Film4

With such a stellar cast, a fine director working in the type of picture he did best, and some genuinely witty dialogue, this film has all the ingredients for a great comedy.

July 2, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Is The Philadelphia Story about cutting Katharine Hepburn down to size?

June 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine

Approaching it as fairytale with moral--Hepburn meets her prince but gums it up and need to rediscover her own humanity--Cukor directs with stylish elegance that serves the play perfectly; it's one of his masterpieces.

October 5, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com
EmanuelLevy.Com

O charme do trio principal e a inteligência dos diálogos permitiram que o filme envelhecesse maravilhosamente bem.

May 8, 2006
Cinema em Cena

True to form, Warner Home Video's two-disc Special Edition lovingly restores The Philadelphia Story with a great print and a newly remastered transfer.

April 5, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDJournal.com
DVDJournal.com

I don't think anyone really cares about the fact that this was intended to be a cunning class satire with a capital C, but it's got big stars, they say cool things, they look good, it's funny, and the right guy gets the right girl in amusing fashion.

December 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat
Film Threat

Excellent casting, a great storyline and a shrp script mean that this remains a classic of the genre and one of Katherine Hepburn's best roles.

June 15, 2005 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine

[Relies] less on physical comedy and more on immaculately delivered zingers.

March 18, 2005 Full Review Source: Creative Loafing
Creative Loafing

Everyone and everything about the film is mostly perfect, and what the movie ultimately says about the nature of love is still prescient.

March 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com
Filmcritic.com

The rare movie that we never tire of watching. This Special Edition DVD deserves a place on your shelf.

March 4, 2005
Reel.com

Audience Reviews for The Philadelphia Story

It's Katharine Hepburn's picture, but with as fetching a lineup of the talent as is to be found, she's got to fight every clever line of dialog all of the way to hold her lead. Pushing hard is little Virginia Weidler, the kid sister, who has as twinkly any eye with a fast quip as a blinker light. Ruth Hassey is another from whom director George Cukor has milked maximum results to get a neat blend of sympathy-winning softness under a python-tongued smartaleckness. As for Cary Grant, James Stewart and Roland Young, there's little to be said that their reputation hasn't established. John Howard, John Halliday and Mary Nash, in lesser roles, more than adequately fill in what Philip Barry must have dreamt of when he wrote the 1939 play.
The perfect conception of all flighty but characterful Main Line socialite gals rolled into one, Hepburn has just the right amount of beauty, just the right amount of disarray in wearing clothes, just the right amount of culture in her voice - it's no one but Hepburn.
When the acid tongues are turned on at beginning and end of the film, it's a laugh-provoker from way down. When the discussion gets deep and serious, however, on the extent of Hepburn's stone-like character, the verbiage is necessarily highly abstract and the film slows to a toddle.
November 25, 2009
deano
Dean McKenna

Super Reviewer

James Stuwart and Katharine Hepburn were magnifient to see on screen, their performance and the great screenplay made the whole movie, while Cary Grant and Ruth Hussey were amazing, too.
September 4, 2010
emilebond007

Super Reviewer

    1. Dinah Lord: I did. I did it all!
    – Submitted by Christopher B (33 days ago)
    1. Macauley Connor: Doggone it, C.K. Dexter Haven! Either I'm gonna sock you or you're gonna sock me.
    2. C.K. Dexter Haven: Shall we toss a coin?
    – Submitted by Christopher B (33 days ago)
    1. Macauley Connor: Boy, champagne. Just the bottle, I'm going on a picnic.
    – Submitted by Christopher B (33 days ago)
    1. Dinah Lord: I can tell there's something in the air because I'm being taken away.
    – Submitted by Christopher B (33 days ago)
    1. Seth Lord: What most wives fail to realize is that their husbands philandering has nothing whatever to do with them.
    2. Tracy Lord: Then what has it to do with?
    3. Seth Lord: A reluctance to grow old, I think. I suppose the best mainstay a man can have as he gets along in years is a daughter. The right kind of daughter.
    – Submitted by Christopher B (33 days ago)
    1. C.K. Dexter Haven: To hardly know him is to know him well.
    – Submitted by Christopher B (33 days ago)

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Latest News on The Philadelphia Story

June 22, 2007:
AFI Announces Top 100 Movies of All Time ... Again
Ten years ago the AFI gave us a list of the Top 100 American Films Ever Made -- and when that was...

Foreign Titles

  • Philadelphia Story (1940) (DE)
  • Philadelphia Story (1940) (CA)
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