The Philadelphia Story

The Philadelphia Story, motion picture about a wealthy woman whose plans to remarry are foiled by her former husband and a reporter, based on a play by Philip Barry. Released in 1940, the film earned Academy Awards for Donald Ogden Stewart’s screenplay and for Jimmy Stewart’s performance as the love-struck reporter Macauley Connor. Katharine Hepburn earned the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress for her performance as the society woman Tracy Lord. Lord divorced C. K. Dexter Haven (played by Cary Grant) because of his drinking and irresponsibility and plans to marry George Kittredge (John Howard). Haven hears that a tabloid magazine plans to write a story about Lord’s father’s extramarital romances, and he convinces the reporter to settle for the inside story on her upcoming wedding. The reporter falls in love with Lord, and Lord becomes unsure of whether she really wants to marry Kittredge. Kittredge breaks off the engagement on the morning of the wedding because Lord is hung over, and Lord discovers that she still loves her former husband. Grace Kelly starred in a musical version of this movie, High Society (1956).

Director

• George Cukor

Cast

• Cary Grant (C. K. Dexter Haven)
• Katharine Hepburn (Tracy Lord)
• Jimmy Stewart (Macauley Connor)
• Ruth Hussey (Elizabeth 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)
• Russ Clark (John)
• Hilda Plowright (Librarian)
• Lita Chevret (Manicurist)
• Lee Phelps (Bartender)
• David Clyde (Mac)
• Claude King (Willie's butler)
• Robert de Bruce (Dr. Parsons)
• Veda Buckland (Elsie)
• Dorothy Fay (Mainliner)
• Florine McKinney (Mainliner)
• Helene Whitney (Mainliner)
• Hillary Brooke (Mainliner)

Awards

• Academy Award for Best Actor (1940): Jimmy Stewart
• Academy Award for Best Writing—Screenplay (1940): Donald Ogden Stewart
• New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (1940): Katharine Hepburn
• Selected for Registry by the National Film Preservation Board (1995)

Quotes

• Tracey Lord: “The time to make up your mind about people is never.”