The Philadelphia Story (1940)

IMDB Rating: 8.1
Runtime: 107
Language: English
Country: USA
Color: Black and White
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032904/

Director: George Cukor
Cast:
Cary Grant ... C. K. Dexter Haven
Katharine Hepburn ... Tracy Lord
James Stewart ... Macaulay Connor
Ruth Hussey ... Elizabeth Imbrie
John Howard ... George Kittredge
Roland Young ... Uncle Willie
John Halliday ... Seth Lord
Mary Nash ... Margaret Lord
Virginia Weidler ... Dinah Lord
Henry Daniell ... Sidney Kidd
Lionel Pape ... Edward
Rex Evans ... Thomas



I'll say it right off the bat...I'm a massive Katherine Hepburn fan! (Incidentally, did you know "Right off the bat" is a cricketing or baseball metaphor which means immediately. Didn't know that though I knew the expression. When I instinctively used it, I got curious...wondered "What ho! What does that mean?!" And So I looked...and then I found. So, like I said, 'tis but a cricketing/baseball metaphor which means immediately or fast...like how a ball rushes off, when hit by a bat! It goes..."right off the bat". Geddit? Shucks! But I digress.)

Right then, where was I? I was saying something off the bat, though that wouldn't quite be the case now that we've dilly-dallyed so. (Wonder where that one came from? Hmm. Well, I'll leave that for another time.)

Ahem! Let's see if I can get this car running. I, AM, a massive Katherine Hepburn fan!
And Ms.Hepburn was glorious in this movie. A veritable goddess...a queen :) Well if you saw the movie, you'd know why the smile was put after those two accolades. Why you ask is Mihir being so cryptic? Well, 'twas because in the movie, she wanted to be anything but a goddess and a queen. She just wanted to be human with all the frailties that go along with it.
And despite her goddesslike visage and demeanour, a very very beautiful human being she was indeed.
She's was, to repeat an adjective I used, GLORIOUS!

And I can not believe I've taken so damned long to see a Cary Grant movie! Duh! What was I thinking! I shall rectify that situation pronto! I have had quite a few of his movies...but it's just one of those things of "too much good stuff and not enough time." I can see now why some interviewer once said "Everybody would like to be Cary Grant," . Incidentally he quipped "So would I" to that. I can imagine that happening. He seems just the kind to say something like that.
He is effortlessly funny, divinely charming and almost ridiculously handsome. And I'm totally straight! (No homo-phobia...just putting it out there that he's totally a man's man. See if I was writing this around the time when this movie came out, I'd never have to explain this would I? What has the world come to when a guy can admire another guy without having to worry about shit. Bah!)
Well back to Mr.G. He was brilliant in the movie. As was Mr.S.

Mr.S, or James Stewart as he also likes to be known I'm sure was so...James Stewart!
The thing about these old movies and the actors back then is...the individuality. James Stewart, Edward G.Robinson, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck...even Cary Grant. Each of these guys was so...unique!
You could close your eyes, walk into a movie screening without knowing what's going on, you hear one line and you know right away who it was!

James Stewart was fabulous. The whole cast was fabulous. As was the movie.

So, I've been going on and on about the fabulousness of them all but what, you ask me, was the movie all about?
It was the story of a rich girl, a rich guy, a poor guy who becomes a rich guy and wants to marry said rich girl, a poor guy who writes and a poor dame who likes the said poor writer guy and the intricacies of their relationships. Makes for excellent viewing I tell you! Positively brilliant!
I shall not elaborate...because I truly believe you have to see this brilliant piece of movie making.
It could have been a P.G.Wodehouse novel for it's humour and complications and also for the way that things always seem to end quite nicely in one of his books.

One word for it. Brilliant!

The Moviemania Rating: 9/10
Like I said before, what the hell is the point of writing about a bad movie. Why even watch it!
I'll  be very surprised if you find any movie on this blog that's not atleast a 7.
I won't bother writing about the bad ones. I'll let you discover them for yourselves :)
Right ho! Good night folks! :)

Had published the post and thought I'd go through it again. Just wanted to rectify one comment. If I do see a stinker...and it really really stinks...I'll tell you about it...and ask you to watch it too! :) Why the hell should be alone in my misery eh? :)
Heh.
Right then. Good night folks! (This one's the final one) :)

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