"...one of the few non-moronic pictures of the season."
With Ruth Hussey, James Stewart and Katharine Hepburn. |
The Philadelphia Story - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):
"The movie version of Philip Barry's The Philadelphia Story is years ahead of most screen dialogue. Audiences won't know what all of it means, but it's time that picture scripts got a little ahead of their public instead of ten paces behind 'em. I've noticed that audiences like a certain amount of dialogue which is over their heads. Producers ought to try it oftener.
The Philadelphia Story is the yarn of smart and semi-smart folks trying to cure their emotional and intellectual blindnesses and frustrations with alcohol, and it's amazing how well alcohol works in this picture. The W.C.T.U. doesn't know it, but it ought to stop this film, because it sells liquor better than any million-dollar advertising campaigns. Tracy Lord's (Miss Hepburn's) drinking in company with that poetic guy from that New York scandal sheet, Spy, is what clears the atmosphere of her mis-planned love for John Howard and paves the way for her remarriage with Cary Grant. It takes a binge to cure Tracy of her gosh-awful goddessness and give her a good dose of clay feet.
Perhaps the highest honors in the picture really go to James Stewart for his souse scene in Cary Grant's library. Mr. Grant is good as always, and deserves credit for playing subdued; he was a hell-raiser before the story opened, and is now the wiser and somewhat chastened ex-husband of the hard, too-exacting Tracy.
The Philadelphia Story is one of the few non-moronic pictures of the season."
- Don Herald, Scribner's Commentator
New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 - Number 38 - The Philadelphia Story (Lobby Card Style) |
Part Of
For more, see also:
Quote From Today - January 17th 2023
On This Day - January 17th 2022