We open on Philadelphia socialite C.K. Dexter Haven (
Cary Grant) as he's being tossed out of his palatial home by his wife, Tracy Lord (
Katharine Hepburn).
Adding insult to injury, Tracy breaks one of C.K.'s precious golf
clubs. He gallantly responds by knocking her down on her million-dollar
keester. A couple of years after the breakup, Tracy is about to marry
George Kittridge (
John Howard),
a wealthy stuffed shirt whose principal recommendation is that he's not
a Philadelphia "mainliner," as C.K. was. Still holding a torch for
Tracy, C.K. is galvanized into action when he learns that Sidney Kidd (
Henry Daniell), the publisher of
Spy Magazine, plans to publish an exposé concerning Tracy's philandering father (
John Halliday). To keep Kidd from spilling the beans, C.K. agrees to smuggle
Spy reporter Macauley Connor (
James Stewart) and photographer Elizabeth Imbrie (
Ruth Hussey)
into the exclusive Lord-Kittridge wedding ceremony. How could C.K. have
foreseen that Connor would fall in love with Tracy, thereby nearly
lousing up the nuptials? As it turns out, of course, it is C.K. himself
who pulls the "louse-up," reclaiming Tracy as his bride. A consistently
bright, bubbly, witty delight,
The Philadelphia Story could just as well have been titled "The Revenge of Katharine Hepburn."
