'The Philadelphia Story' (George Cukor, 1940)

Title: The Philadelphia Story

Release Year: 1940

Director: George Cukor

Cast: Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey.

Plot: As Tracy Lord and George Kittredge are getting married, journalists Macauley Connor and Elizabeth Imbrie attend the wedding, where the most unbelieveable sort of things happen.

Review: After the last remarkable and transcendental films, this one surely may seem a stop in the road, and maybe it is, but the presence of Hepburn in any movie makes of it a worth watching one.

If asked for a characteristic that defines 'The Philadelphia Story' better than any other, that is, without a doubt, its weird humour. This kind of uncomfortable sudden lines thrown by the characters (mainly by Ruth Hussey, my favourite supporting one) that splash the film as it moves on towards the wedding.

Ruth Hussey gives an outstanding performance as Elizabeth Imbrie

In such a turmoil, with the frantic wedding coming closer and closer, a leading figure that leads the film is essential. That is, of course, the wonderful Katherine Hepburn, who gives here a secure and powerful performance, where she demonstrates her strong presence. Her character is a dreamy 'goddess' (as named in the picture) who controls the situation as much as she's able to, in every aspect except in her own persona, where she's lonely and afraid of her own power. Why is she not happy when her husband-to-be names her as that goddess? Well, that's the main topic which is unfold trhough the movie and fully developes at the very end.

There was and will ever be no one with the presence on screen of Katherine Hepburn. After some box-office bombs in the 30s, she's said to have recovered her career with this film

The reason is the one that makes Tracy not marry his fiancé, or Macauley when he asks her to. And the same one that makes her fall in her ex-husband arms again; she goes back with him because he's the only one that doesn't adore her as a goddess but loves her as a human being. That's why she's so afraid yet attracted to him; in a world where the light of the spotlight is everywhere for her, he's the only one capable to see not only her powerful outside but his vulnerable inside.