The Philadelphia Story (1940)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
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Plot.
Where to Watch.
Currently The Philadelphia Story is available for streaming online, rent, buy or watch for free on: Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, YouTube, Microsoft Store, Vudu, Spectrum On Demand, AMC on Demand, Tubi TV
Streaming in:🇺🇸 United States
Cast & Crew.
Media.
Details.
Release DateDecember 5, 1940
StatusReleased
Running Time1h 53m
Content RatingNR
Filming LocationsPhiladelphia, United States
Genres
Wiki.
The Philadelphia Story is a 1940 American romantic comedy film starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, and Ruth Hussey. Directed by George Cukor, the film is based on the 1939 Broadway play of the same name by Philip Barry, about a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her ex-husband and a tabloid magazine journalist. The socialite, played by Hepburn in both productions, was inspired by Helen Hope Montgomery Scott (1904–1995), a Philadelphia heiress known for her hijinks, who married a friend of playwright Barry.Written for the screen by Donald Ogden Stewart and an uncredited Waldo Salt, it is considered one of the best examples of a comedy of remarriage, a genre popular in the 1930s and 1940s in which a couple divorce, flirt with outsiders, and then remarry—a useful story-telling device at a time when divorce was scandalous and the depiction of extramarital affairs was blocked by the Production Code.The film was Hepburn's first big hit following several flops, which had placed her on a 1938 list of actors considered to be "box office poison" compiled by Manhattan movie theater owner Harry Brandt. Hepburn acquired the film rights to the play, which she had also starred in, with the help of Howard Hughes in order to control it as a vehicle for her screen comeback. According to a Turner Broadcasting documentary MGM: When the Lion Roars, after Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased the film rights, they were skeptical about Hepburn's box office appeal, so MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer took an unusual precaution by engaging two A-list male stars (Grant and Stewart) to support Hepburn.
Nominated for six Academy Awards, the film won two: James Stewart for Best Actor, and Donald Ogden Stewart for Best Adapted Screenplay. MGM remade the film in 1956 as a musical, retitled High Society, starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra.The Philadelphia Story was produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1995.