The Philadelphia Story (1940)
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.
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.
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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
Dec 1, 1940 Wide
Sep 10, 1997
MGM
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Cast
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Cary Grant
C.K. Dexter Haven -
Katharine Hepburn
Tracy Lord -
James Stewart
Macauley Connor -
Ruth Hussey
Liz Imbrie -
John Howard
George Kittredge -
Roland Young
Uncle Willie -
John Halliday
Seth Lord -
Mary Nash
Margaret Lord -
Virginia Weidler
Dinah Lord -
Henry Daniell
Sidney Kidd -
Lionel Pape
Edward -
Rex Evans
Thomas -
Hillary Brooke
Mainliner -
Veda Buckland
Elsie -
Lita Chevret
Manicurist -
David Clyde
Mac the night watchman -
Claude King
Willie's Butler -
Florine McKinney
Main Line Society Woman -
Lee Phelps
Bartender -
Hilda Plowright
Librarian -
Helene Whitney
Main Line Society Woman -
Dorothy Fay
Main Line Society Woman -
Russ Clark
John
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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.
Top CriticEvery time Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart connect in a scene, we hear the happy ding! of quality champagne crystal.
The smarties are going to relish Philadelphia Story a lot more than the two-bit trade...
George Cukor gives it the royal treatment with a splendid supporting cast...
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.
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.
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.'
Screwball romance is lots of fun for older kids.
Romantic comedies are rarely this fabulous.
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.
Is The Philadelphia Story about cutting Katharine Hepburn down to size?
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.
O charme do trio principal e a inteligência dos diálogos permitiram que o filme envelhecesse maravilhosamente bem.
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.
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.
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.
[Relies] less on physical comedy and more on immaculately delivered zingers.
Everyone and everything about the film is mostly perfect, and what the movie ultimately says about the nature of love is still prescient.
The rare movie that we never tire of watching. This Special Edition DVD deserves a place on your shelf.
Audience Reviews for The Philadelphia Story
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Dinah Lord: I did. I did it all!
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- Macauley Connor: Doggone it, C.K. Dexter Haven! Either I'm gonna sock you or you're gonna sock me.
- C.K. Dexter Haven: Shall we toss a coin?
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- Macauley Connor: Boy, champagne. Just the bottle, I'm going on a picnic.
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- Dinah Lord: I can tell there's something in the air because I'm being taken away.
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- Seth Lord: What most wives fail to realize is that their husbands philandering has nothing whatever to do with them.
- Tracy Lord: Then what has it to do with?
- 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.
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- C.K. Dexter Haven: To hardly know him is to know him well.
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Latest News on The Philadelphia Story
June 22, 2007:
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Foreign Titles
- Philadelphia Story (1940) (DE)
- Philadelphia Story (1940) (CA)
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.