Curator Watchlist
A sparkling, high-wire romantic comedy of manners with immaculate star chemistry, razor dialogue, and a surprisingly sharp look at class, image, and self-knowledge. Its ending can feel of its era, but the wit, pace, and performances make it essential classic Hollywood viewing.
Where to watch: Buy
Thu · 1h 53m
Director: George Cukor
Starring: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart
When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.
George Cukor
Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart
A sparkling, high-wire romantic comedy of manners with immaculate star chemistry, razor dialogue, and a surprisingly sharp look at class, image, and self-knowledge. Its ending can feel of its era, but the wit, pace, and performances make it essential classic Hollywood viewing.
The Philadelphia Story is one of the great American comedies of manners: polished, fast, and full of people who are smarter, funnier, and more self-deluded than they realize. George Cukor stages the whole thing like a social duel, and the movie keeps finding new ways to turn flirtation, embarrassment, and class anxiety into entertainment.
Katharine Hepburn is perfectly calibrated as a woman whose poise hides a lot of vulnerability, while Cary Grant and James Stewart give the film two very different kinds of masculine charm. The dialogue crackles, the entrances and exits are beautifully timed, and the movie understands that romance is often just another form of performance.
The ending may leave some viewers cold, especially if they want the film to fully modernize its emotional politics. But even when it lands in a place that feels conservative, the movie remains too witty, too alive, and too expertly made to dismiss. It’s a classic for a reason.
sarah (3.5★) · 4673 likes
i don't know how or why, but i feel like all the characters' problems would be solved if cary grant, katharine hepburn, and james stewart had a threesome..... just a thought
mia lee vicino (4.5★) · 2631 likes
cary grant perched on the edge of the fountain, greeting everyone with a scathingly simple “Hello, friends and enemies” … ok ME when i log into this app !
Patrick Willems (4.5★) · 2197 likes
This is like the 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball team of movies
joezobel (2.5★) · 2172 likes
I was liking this until the ending, which I found problematic and completely recontextualized what I thought the movie was trying to say. So, what exactly is the message of this movie supposed to be? That you should submit to your wife beater drunk of a husband, and if you don't you're a spoiled, egomaniacal ice queen? Cary Grant spends the whole movie telling Hepburn that she's a cold hearted bitch and blaming her for his drinking problem, and yet… more
lucy (4★) · 2072 likes
jimmy stewart singing somewhere over the rainbow is something i didn't know i needed
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romantic comedy, screwball, class and privilege, self-discovery, love triangle, marriage and divorce, social performance, gender roles
screwball comedy, romantic triangle, class satire, witty dialogue, old Hollywood, high society, marriage, self-discovery, gender politics, classic romance