The Philadelphia Story

S is for Stewart
Screening on Film

Directed by George Cukor.
With Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart.
US, 1940, 35mm, black & white, 112 min.
Print source: HFA

While Hepburn and Grant are the locus of this romantic comedy about a Mainline society girl caught between her dull new fiancé and her irresponsible ex-husband, it is James Stewart—in the role of the gossip reporter who comes to expose her but falls in love—who stole the Academy Award for his performance. Cukor’s glossy adaptation of Philip Barry’s play about manners and morals in upper-crust society remains a classic of the screwball-comedy genre.