The Philadelphia Story (1940)

"I'm going crazy. I'm standing here solidly on my own two hands and going crazy."

Director: George Cukor

Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Cary Grant! Hahahahahahahahah hahahahahahhahahahahah






I swear, this was the most sophisticated, hilarious, wonderful thing. Remarkable, ridiculous, and with OF COURSE my GOD the happiest of endings. It's lighthearted and sharp with a soft focus 'round the edges.


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The comedy of remarriage was a very popular genre of the 1930's and 1940's. Despite the staggeringly attractive long triangle, constant dialogue on love and marriage (like a horse and carriage), and silly, sometimes drunken, completely shameless flirting, the film is a picture of class -- respectable, polite -- fresh, young, winsome comfort to the viewer. The suggestion is sexy. The innuendo, key. It puts any of the romantic-comedy-wedding-saga-type movies of today very much in its place. (And yes, between my last three or four posts here I did not only manage to watch "27 Dresses" but also "License to Wed" ... hm)

Mrs. Lord: Oh, dear. Is there no such thing as privacy any more?
Tracy: Only in bed, mother, and not always there.

...

C.K. Dexter Haven: The moon is also a goddess, chaste and virginal.
Tracy: Stop using those foul words.



Also: Hepburn is so pristinely beautiful she doesn't even seem to fit in with reality.
Also: It is a Stewart-Grant Charm Festival. Watch out, folks. I'm gone.
And a final question: Perpaps this is just because it is still fresh in my mind but the role of Tracy vs. her little sister kept on bringing me back to Cecelia and Briony in Atonement (book or movie, take your pick). There's the age difference -- giving them hugely different perspectives on men and love. There's even the act of little sister witnessing something she shouldn't have (Briony in the library, Tracy's sister at the window when they return from the pool). Granted, Atonement is about fifty times heavier about it, but it just got me thinking. The families in both are rich and lofty, the younger daughter far more than sheltered from things. Ah well.