The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
C. K. Dexter Haven	Cary Grant	½
Tracy Lord	Katharine Hepburn	½
Macauley Connor	James Stewart
Elizabeth Imbrie	Ruth Hussey
George Kittredge	John Howard	½
Uncle Willie	Roland Young	½
Seth Lord	John Halliday
Margaret Lord	Mary Nash
Dinah Lord	Virginia Weidler
Sidney Kidd	Henry Daniell

Review

Hailed rightly as one of the finest moments of American cinema, The Philadelphia Story was and remains a fast-paced intelligentsia showpiece, so filled with intellectual banter, ingenious metaphors and linguistic swashbuckling that one single viewing won't do it justice. And although these aforementioned qualities may not be immediately associated with 'entertaining' by most people, in the hands of the spirited George Cukor the film comes strangely and uncontainably alive (and stays that way until the very end). It's as if it rises from the remnants of the traditionalistic Hollywood romance films of the 1930s, and takes on a little spite, a great deal of confidence, and a sense of moral ambiguity in the process. Donald Ogden Stewart's script is brilliantly adapted from Phillip Barry's play, but it's equally as much the interplay and unique chemistry between the three lead stars which creates the wonderful effect; Grant's confidence and offish glances, Hepburn's style and progressive feminism, and Stewart's delicate youthful arrogance.