The
Philadelphia Story
a film by George Cukor released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in
1940
This is one of the great
films. An exceptional screenplay brought
to life by a blockbuster cast, The
Philadelphia Story is, and will remain, a landmark. The acting by all players is engaging,
nuanced, and varied. It's a stage play
opened up discreetly, taking root and germinating amidst the Culver City back
lot. The story and the acting are
unusually important in this film, overshadowing deficiencies in sound (lots of
noise), editing (opposing shots are terribly matched), and art design
(particularly the huge blank wall in Kidd's office) that would sink a lesser
production.
Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, and
James Stewart were some of the biggest stars ever. To have all three in one great movie released
by the most renowned of studios on the bleeding edge of World War II makes for
something extraordinary. The Philadelphia Story offers an
idealized perspective on the rich after a decade of class hostility engendered
by the Great Depression. However, though
the setting may be fanciful, the story's cutting perspective on human nature is
right on. In this tale of high society
frivolity on the eve of a divorced woman's second marriage, three men,
reluctant snoop reporter Macaulay Conner (James Stewart), coal executive
fiancée George Kittredge (John Howard), and ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary
Grant) provide insightful observations, revealing the character of Tracy Lord
Haven (Katherine Hepburn), the imperious bride.
Though much of the plot involves
romantic intrigue and burgeoning friendship amongst the characters (with a
liberal splash of spoofing humor), the film is really Hepburn's. She is in almost every scene, and when she
isn't there, characters talk about her.
We pick up a musical theme from the
opening titles. In the famous scene
immediately following the titles, Tracy throws Dexter out of the house. It is played silently, which is logical since
they're probably past talking to each other.
When Tracy first appears, the theme is re-visited, that same theme heard
in the opening titles on the card 'The Philadelphia Story.' And in a subsequent scene, when
editor-publisher Sidney Kidd is working out the details of an expose on Tracy's
wedding, he describes her as "the unapproachable Miss Lord—The
Philadelphia Story."
A frequent comment in the film is that
Tracy is removed from others, either in a good way (pure, clean, her own self)
or a bad way (unsympathetic, unforgiving, basking in her own glory). Her fiancée, George, sees her remoteness as
something entrancing. His perspective is
understood by ex-husband Dexter, who comments, "We're very vain you
know. This citadel can and shall be
taken, and I'm the boy to do it!"
He also observes that George is beneath Tracy not because of class but
because of a disparity in mind and spirit, adding that "Kittredge is no
great tower of strength, you know, Tracy; he's just a tower." Being from the bottom, he is hoping her
family's prestige will open up political opportunities for him in the future,
coincidentally consolidating his career in coal by taking on his company's
major investor as a father-in-law. But
it may very well be a disparity in mind and spirit that draws George to Tracy. He does not love her, but he certainly
admires her and is proud to be associated with her.
George makes two huge mistakes. The first is committed after Dexter and Tracy
have a poolside row. Dexter had
stimulated Tracy's thinking and in her self-assessment, she seeks out George's
opinion of her while also sizing up whether Dexter was right—that she and
George are a mismatch. She is not
feeling her best. George knows she's not
saying what's on her mind, but instead of taking the time to draw the truth out
of her, he dismisses himself because he doesn't want to be late to Uncle
Willy's party. Here, on the eve of their
wedding, was his last chance to understand Tracy. George's second mistake was to think the
worse of Tracy after she has gone swimming with Mike. Dexter understands because he knows that
Tracy likes to swim after parties.
Dexter is also forgiving, in a way Tracy finds herself incapable of
doing until the film's end when she realizes that she is not perfect, and
therefore ill-suited as the judge of all humanity. George is more concerned about what people
think than sorting out the problems in their relationship. He prized her for being distant. And now that she has proven to be more than
accessible (under the right circumstances) George behaves like he was the one
who was violated. Yes, Tracy's behavior
is questionable. But it points less to
her character than to the problems in her relationship with George. That's what he should be considering, but he
doesn't because he doesn't care about substance, he cares about
appearances. And now that she realizes
that he doesn't think well of her, she thinks less of him, and tells George to
take a hike.
Mike offers a whole different
perspective on Tracy. For a while it
seems they will end up together. In the
end, she wisely refuses to marry him, but says twice that she is beholden to
him for all he has done. To Mike she is
full of warmth and life and must be treated differently than other women. Despite his reservations about the upper
class, he finds himself transfixed by her beauty and gaiety. A lot of her more agreeable characteristics
Mike elicits. His short stories reveal a
thinking man beneath the cynical bravado paraded about like a badge of honor. Impressed, she warms to him and tries
flirting a little. Mike matches her moods
very well, considerate of her feelings, enjoying his time with her in a way we
never see George lower himself to. On
two occasions Mike defends her reputation, the first out of ignorance, the
second rightly. Unlike George, Mike
demonstrates his feelings and conjures the romantic Tracy long suppressed. But he also compliments her with a fervency
that reinforces unhealthy feelings of superiority and exclusiveness, feeding
her pride even as her subsequent (and for us, imagined) antics at the pool
reveal her to be all-too-human. This is
what destroyed the illusion for her fiancée.
We see that George did not really care
for the person Tracy—he worshiped Tracy the idol, but Mike, genuinely, did care
as he paid homage.
Really, only Dexter is the right man
for her. He recognizes, like her father,
that she has been privileged, spoiled and protected too long. She's taken a dim view of other people's failures because she has never
faced the consequences of her own mistakes.
Coming back from divorce, alcoholism, and a two year exile in South
America, Dexter remarks that he has given much thought to these matters since
their split. He knows that Tracy needs
to be humbled. She will never be a good
wife, to any man, if she cannot learn to make allowances for human
fallibility. She must discover
forgiveness. Just as George imagines the
worst regarding her aqua-frolics, Tracy imagines the worst about her father and
the dancer Tina Mara. She assumes they
are having an affair and encourages her mother to put the whole matter of their
split behind (mainly to justify her own actions). But her mother can't help thinking that she
made matters worse, that even if she asked him back, he wouldn't return. But Mr. Lord does return. He sets the record straight with his wife and
they are reconciled. Tracy won't think
of forgiving him. It's a given that he
did cavort with his protégé in New York, but he did not begin an affair,
despite his temptations. The coolness
that Tracy displays for her father, a coolness which he said prompted him to go
in search of his youth, still remains on display. But her father tells her to get off her high
horse and mind her own business.
Tellingly, Mother Lord goes right along, standing by her man. And in a decidedly Oedipal twist, Mr. Lord
tells his daughter that by taking such an interest in Tina Mara she is talking
like a jealous woman!
Tracy's self-righteousness is first
punctured by Dexter, then by her father.
She quickly downs three glasses of champagne, and launches into a night
of inebriated abandon, with the willing aid of fellow-imbiber Mr. Conner. It is only the next morning, once she
realizes that she made a fool of herself, in a way far more substantial (and
documented) than her drunken exhibitionism years ago, that Tracy gives up. She tells Dexter that she "doesn't know
anything anymore." She and Dexter
reflect on their honeymoon aboard his yacht, the True Love. He thinks of selling it (and finally putting
Tracy behind him). Significantly, when
he says the boat was "yar" she replies "was...and is." He talks about building a new boat
"along more practical lines," calling it the True Love Second. Tracy hates the idea because it will be the
same as Dexter saying that he can find something as good as Tracy another time
and that their love was not all that true.
She looks for advice on the mess she is in, but he asks why she is
paying him all this attention now.
Finally, Tracy comes to her senses and realizes that Dexter is really
the man she loves, gratefully accepting his subtle proposal to marry.
This is the climax of the film. In agreeing to marry Dexter she is admitting
that their problems were at least partly her responsibility. And he is the one person in the film who can
best make an assessment of her. By asking
her to marry him, Dexter is saying that Tracy has changed enough that he is
willing to share the helm with her, so to speak.
Just why Dexter came back is never
fully resolved. First, Mike thinks it's revenge,
then the issue of blackmail over Tina Mara comes up; Dexter is trying to
suppress the story. He could be back
because he loves Tracy, but his behavior toward her is hardly conciliatory. They seem to be picking up where they left
off. Bringing Mike and Liz into the mix
certainly contributed to Tracy's about-face, but there is no way Dexter could
have anticipated how they would have interacted, though their presence does
make his return to the old Lord homestead a little easier.
Dexter does say that when he found out Tracy was marrying Kittredge he had to do something. He may have not wanted to re-marry her, but he knew she was making a huge mistake by hooking up with George. And in the process of helping Tracy realize George was wrong for her, Dexter showed her that, all along, she really wanted him.