Review of The Philadelphia Story (1940) by Carlos M — 14 Apr 2014

PART OF MY CLASSIC VIEWINGS OF 2014 LIST.

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

Ever since I got into classic cinema, there's always one particular film that's been calling my name for some time, and that's The Philadelphia Story, a romantic comedy directed by George Cukor and starring some of the finest classic Hollywood stars in the history of film, Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, and Jimmy Stewart. It's also regarded by many classic movie buffs as one of the greatest comedies ever made, with an 100% score on the Tomatometer and is ranked as the #51 movie of all-time according to the American Film Institute. With all this praise, you'd think that I would also really enjoy the film right? After my two-hour experience, I'm sorry to say that The Philadelphia Story was not worth its hype.

Meet Tracy Lord (Katherine Hepburn), a spoiled rich woman who's about to be married to George Kittridge (John Howard). CK Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), the guy who was once married to Tracy and still sore over the breakup, calls upon Spy Magazine reporter Macaulay Conner (Jimmy Stewart) and photographer Elizabeth Imbrie (Ruth Hussey) to crash the wedding, which starts to backfire when both Dexter and Macaulay start to fall for Tracy's charms.

With all the acclaim the film has, you're probably wondering why I didn't care for the film too much? Well, for a 1940's comedy, it's quite dated. Most of the humor which is filled with witty remarks and punchlines that I should have really cracked up on just didn't fly, and I was mostly bored with the final result. I only laughed out loud at least twice in the movie, one being the opening scene where Cary Grant is kicked out of his own home (which I'm surprised got passed the Hay's Code as it features him knocking Katherine Hepburn to the floor, which was actually very hilarious) and the other time when I realized how overrated this film is. I knew the film was going to be annoying when I heard this so-called funny joke ("If you're not Papa then that makes you..." "Available.").What also disappointed me was that the film wasn't really a comedy, it felt more like a romantic drama or something like that, and that's what makes the film so... boring. The situations the characters get into aren't really that memorable or entertaining and we're left with a very dull screenplay and a very boring movie. Even the film score by Franz Waxman, one of the best composers in that era, was not even remotely catchy in any way. I just don't get the acclaim of this film.

If there's one word I have to give on Cary Grant's performance, then bland would be that word. As much as I like Cary Grant, I didn't feel the connection here. You don't care for his character, you don't get a good reason why he still cares for the woman he's trying to wreck, and his chemistry with Hepburn is weak, which shocks me cause they did a fantastic job together in Bringing Up Baby, which had a much funnier script and more engaging humor than this had. Don't get me wrong, I think Cary Grant is a great actor, but I was not impressed with his role here.

As for Jimmy Stewart, who I rank in my Top 5 actors of all-time, considering the not-so memorable screenplay given, he actually does a good job in what he's given, especially his chemistry with Hepburn (which was decent compared to Grant's wooden performance), though there are some moments in the film where he kind of overdoes it, such as a scene where he wants to make out with Hepburn drunk (a scene that doesn't work due to the Hay's Code restrictions, I might add). Stewart won an Oscar for his performance, something that he believed that the Academy was making up for on account of him not winning the Oscar for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I believe Stewart is correct on that statement; Mr. Smith was a very compelling role to handle, especially for an actor as young as Stewart was when he did the film. His performance here was definitely not Oscar-worthy. Henry Fonda should have won for The Grapes of Wrath instead.

Katherine Hepburn meanwhile, is the most complicated actress to talk about, especially for The Philadelphia Story. Before the film's release, she was labeled "box-office poison" after the failure of Bringing Up Baby (which she was blamed for) and was kicked out of Hollywood, forced to do her acting on Broadway. After the success of the Broadway version of The Philadelphia Story, Hepburn thought it was a good idea to make into a movie, and with the film's success, Hepburn's career skyrocketed again, up to the point where the AFI regards her as the greatest actress of all-time. While I honestly did not care for the film, I give Hepburn credit for gaining a comeback with this film, and I was actually impressed with her performance. While the humor was dated and the situations were not that memorable, Hepburn still managed to grab my attention, despite the fact that she has poor chemistry with Cary Grant. I liked the fact that though her character's supposed to be spoiled, she doesn't go super obnoxious in the role, rather having a more independent nature in what her character is going through. I strongly believe that if anyone deserved to win an Oscar for a film that I would call rotten, Hepburn should have been the one to have won it, not Jimmy Stewart.

I can see why the film was regarded as a classic back in 1940, but I could care less about The Philadelphia Story. Despite the good performances of both Katherine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart, the humor doesn't hold up in today's standards, the so-called hilarious situations are not memorable, there's parts of the story that feel one-dimensional (such as Cary Grant's motivations), and Cary Grant gives one of the most dull, bland performances in a 1940's film that I've seen. When I watched It Happened One Night, I described it as "the most overrated comedy that I've ever seen". After watching The Philadelphia Story, I now believe that it's the most overrated comedy that I've ever seen. Funniest part is that the film's remake, a musicalized version called High Society, starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelley, and Frank Sinatra, even with the same situations and mostly the same dialogue, was a lot more memorable and a lot more fun, and one that I would call a real, essential classic. I did not get that when watching The Philadelphia Story.

"You're lit from within, Tracy. You've got fires banked down in you, hearth-fires and holocausts.".