George Cukor

The Philadelphia Story

The Philadelphia Story

With this furiously witty comedy of manners, Katharine Hepburn revitalized her career and cemented her status as the era’s most iconic leading lady—thanks in great part to her own shrewd orchestrations. While starring in the Philip Barry stage play The Philadelphia Story, Hepburn acquired the screen rights, handpicking her friend George Cukor to direct. The intoxicating screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart pits the formidable Philadelphia socialite Tracy Lord (Hepburn, at her most luminous) against various romantic foils, chief among them her charismatic ex-husband (Cary Grant), who disrupts her imminent marriage by paying her family estate a visit, accompanied by a tabloid reporter on assignment to cover the wedding of the year (James Stewart, in his only Academy Award–winning performance). A fast-talking screwball comedy as well as a tale of regret and reconciliation, this convergence of golden-age talent is one of the greatest American films of all time.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1940
  • 112 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • English
  • Spine #901

Special Features

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Audio commentary from 2005 featuring film scholar Jeanine Basinger
  • In Search of Tracy Lord, a new documentary about the origin of the character and her social milieu
  • New piece about actor Katharine Hepburn’s role in the development of the film
  • Two full episodes of The Dick Cavett Show from 1973, featuring rare interviews with Hepburn, plus an excerpt of a 1978 interview from that show with director George Cukor
  • Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1943, featuring an introduction by filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille
  • Restoration demonstration
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Farran Smith Nehme

    New cover by Fernando Vicente

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Audio commentary from 2005 featuring film scholar Jeanine Basinger
  • In Search of Tracy Lord, a new documentary about the origin of the character and her social milieu
  • New piece about actor Katharine Hepburn’s role in the development of the film
  • Two full episodes of The Dick Cavett Show from 1973, featuring rare interviews with Hepburn, plus an excerpt of a 1978 interview from that show with director George Cukor
  • Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1943, featuring an introduction by filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille
  • Restoration demonstration
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Farran Smith Nehme

    New cover by Fernando Vicente
The Philadelphia Story
Cast
Cary Grant
C. K. Dexter Haven
Katharine Hepburn
Tracy Lord
James Stewart
Macaulay Connor
Ruth Hussey
Elizabeth Imbrie
John Howard
George Kittredge
Roland Young
Uncle Willie
John Halliday
Seth Lord
Mary Nash
Margaret Lord
Virginia Weidler
Dinah Lord
Credits
Director
George Cukor
Screenplay by
Donald Ogden Stewart
Based on the play by
Philip Barry
Director of photography
Joseph Ruttenberg
Musical score
Franz Waxman
Art director
Cedric Gibbons
Gowns by
Adrian
Editor
Frank Sullivan
Producer
Joseph L. Mankiewicz

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