The Philadelphia Story is a 1940 romantic comedy directed by George Cukor; if the director is not enough to convince you that it’s a good movie, just look at the cast (Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Ruth Hussey).
Plot-wise it is fairly straightforward and I won’t waste your time giving too many details. Suffice to say that the “scoop” referred to in the title features the weeding of the female lead (who does not allow reporters to nose around) and who pertains to a wealthy family; eventually, for several circumstances, the wedding will fall apart and the ‘happily ever after’ will be achieved by the main characters getting back together.
The actors portray their characters brilliantly and in a similar fashion to others they have famously depicted: Cary Grant is the ever-charming and subtly-quipping protagonist, Katharine Hepburn the intelligent and feisty female lead (a perfect Shakespearean shrew) and James Stewart is…well… himself, continuously rumbling smart remarks to everyone.
One can see however that we find ourselves in a moment in time that great attention was given to dialogue; since there was no CGI or good special effects (biased opinion since I am unable to relate to the audience’s perspective from 80 years ago), movies had to be interesting and hook the viewer one way or another. The original script on which the movie is based on was taken from a Broadway play written by Philip Barry and the best way that I can describe the quality and hence the movie is with a simplistic ‘snap, snap, snap’. The sarcasm and witticism of the conversations, as well as how fast-paced the lines are delivered, reigns supreme. Because of the relations and dynamics between the characters, every moment of dialogue becomes either a hard linguistic jab or a hilarious zinger. Even the simpler jokes make the audience automatically crack a smile; take for instance the following subtlety even without a context:
-Can you use a typewriter?
-No thanks, I got one at home.
In my opinion, one of the core characteristic of a good movie is pacing; today, many Hollywood blockbusters do not put effort in their products (for a variety of reasons that I will not delve into right now) and think that pacing can be simply replaced by a continuum of mindless action scenes. I would wholeheartedly welcome a movie that still emphasises that quality of scripts and does not try to overwhelm the audience with futile over-the-top sequences just because it does not know how to piece scenes together.
I would give this movie a solid 7 out of 10 it’s-always-sunny-in-Philly.