Monday, March 26, 2018
The Philadelphia Story
- Commentary: I never thought I'd own this movie. My reaction to it, until recently, has been ho-hum. My mother loved it, so I pseudo-watched it several times while she was alive (I think she identified with Tracy Lord), but it never occurred to me to buy it while she was alive, considering that it played regularly on TCM.
Recently, though, I've noticed several videos on YouTube, most notably one by Camille Paglia, which is no longer available [note to self, see if someone else has posted it], which intrigued me, so I borrowed the movie from the library and watched it closely a couple of times. It not only jump-started me to prowl through all the Kathatine Hepburn movies I own, but, by the end of my considerations, I decided I wanted to own it.
I've come to deeply appreciate the movie, and Kathatine Hepburn, as a particular type of womanhood that at least three generations of women (my mother's included) glorified and after which they wanted to model themselves. What Camille Paglia says about this movie, including the research she's done on it, is important and, I think, should have more attention paid to it. I don't always agree with Paglia, but, in the case of this movie, I do, and would further say that it was this portrayal of womanhood that led directly to second wave feminism, through the daughters of all the admirers of Tracy Lord.
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role James Stewart Macaulay Connor Cary Grant C.K. Dexter Haven Katharine Hepburn Tracy Samantha Lord Ruth Hussey Elizabeth Imbrie John Howard George Kittredge Roland Young William Q. Tracy John Halliday Seth Lord Mary Nash Margaret Lord Virginia Weidler Dinah Lord Henry Daniell Sidney Kidd Lionel Pape The Footman Hilda Plowright Librarian
Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
Release Date: 1940
Directed by George Cukor.
Labels: cary-grant, comedy1, Criterion2, james-stewart, journalism, katharine-hepburn, romance1, satire1
