The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart; Directed by Frank Capra
Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) is about to remarry, and there is no one that does not get in her way. Her young sister, Dinah, detests the new fiancé, George, and wishes the first one would come back. Spy Magazine writer Macaulay Connor (James Stewart) is employed to get the inside track on one of society’s biggest and most exclusive weddings of the year, going disguises as a trusted friend, as any and all media personnel have been barred from the estate. He quickly falls in love with the captivating young bride-to-be, and tries to persuade her to abandon her present fiancée. Uncle Willy detests George as well. Tracy’s own father (an unfaithful husband n his own right) accuses her of being so against forgiving human faults in men that she is virtually “made of bronze”. This plants doubt and vast insecurity in Tracy the day before the big event, and everything she thought she knew and felt becomes less and less certain. Things get no better when Husband Number One himself, C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), shows up at the door, still very much in love with her…
Chaos ensues.
This was a wonderfully entertaining film to watch. The writing was so superb, so intelligent and witty. It was a genuinely funny comedy. Intelligent humor seems to have died with originality as of late, and it is deeply missed. Fortunately we do have a few films left preserving this element of comedy, and The Philadelphia Story is among the best of them. Hepburn, Grant and Stewart are all top-notch in their performances (Stewart won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the film) and they all bring different kinds of humor to the table. The light comedy takes a surprising turn when, after a night of consuming copious amounts of champagne, Tracy becomes suspect to infidelity at the hands of the love-struck columnist. This simple act of the previous night, which unfortunately Tracy can’t remember more than a minute of, causes her to rethink the prejudice against imperfection that she holds against anyone who had ever done her wrong. It is a subject that I have rarely seen tackled in any other film, and it is an important lesson to see played out.
Spoiler: Watch Grant and Stewart closely at the end of the hiccupping conversation. Grant’s “excuse me” was ad-libbed and nearly cost the director a take, had Stewart not raised the cup to his mouth so quickly.
While I loved the film, there were a few issues I had with it in regards to how it was filmed. The director did not use the art form to a full extent. Originally a stage play, Capra films it very much as if the actors were on stage, grouping them together in single shots and using a very limited amount of close-ups. Sometimes it was hard to tell what the characters were feeling, as we were too far to see a decent reaction. It’s just basically watching people move around sets and having amusing conversations. Capra may as well have set the camera down in front of an actual stage and just filmed it that way for all the use he made of the medium. There were a few gags that were done that couldn’t have occurred on a stage (horseback riding, swimming, a carriage ride) but these didn’t add anything to the story and instead dragged the motion of the plot down. Stage-to-screen adaptations have been successfully translated before (see Nicholas Hynter’s The Crucible) where full use of camera motion, sets, lighting, and natural surroundings only heightened the drama that ensued in the already magnificent stage play. But this film failed to impress on a visual level. The only plus in seeing this on film as opposed to seeing it in a local productions is that you get to see the roles filled by three of the greatest actors who ever lived. None of whom we have with us today. In the hands of lesser actors, the movie itself may have even failed completely, no matter how strong the script was. But the three leads more than make up for any faults the movie has and make it such an enjoyable experience to watch over and over again. As previously stated, such a level of intelligence threaded throughout the story is rare to find now, and that makes the film even more of a gem. In the face of the comedic rubbish being pushed at us nowadays, take a trip over to the ‘Classics’ sections of your local video store and see what the entertainment world is missing.
Grading:
Story = A
Acting = A
Visuals = C
Originality = C
Enjoyability = B-
Overall Grade = A-
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