Jimmy Stewart in The Philadelphia Story

Why is it that current movies have such a hard time getting the light comedy right? Have they seen The Philadelphia Story? This is a movie about sex and drinking and marriage and love that only gets better with every viewing. It's a movie about talking where, even amidst the talents of Jimmy Stewart, Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, the dialogue is the star. And each of the actors inhabit their roles so naturally that even when the words dance ahead of them they manage to catch up and make the people and situations feel both real and brilliantly staged. For the viewer, it’s a little like watching a ballet. You know that every movement and every note is choreographed, yet it feels naturally beautiful. You just appreciate the time and effort it must have taken to arrange all of the elements into one place.



The speech that starts around 4:48 in the clip above was a wild risk. It’s so patently absurd and unnatural that a young man in the middle of a drunken revelry would never be able to pull it off. I even saw an interview where Jimmy Stewart said he struggled with how to act that part of the script. And yet, it works because it is the perfect speech at the right time, and both characters walk away feeling a little different about themselves and their places in the world.

Mike Connor (Jimmy Stewart) is a would-be novelist who barely has a dime to his name and is slumming at Spy magazine. The fact that he's able to improv such phrases as "...there's fires banked within you, Tracy... hearth fires.. and, and ... holocausts..." is a perfect demonstration of his inner artist released. He is a writer after all.

Tracy (Katherine Hepburn), the lifelong heiress, is moved by his words, because what Mike is saying is the exact opposite of the conversation she previously had with her ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) in which he accuses her of being a remote, untouchable goddess.

The whole reckless conversation has an edge of daring to it that comes from the fact that they’ve been drinking. And the drinking is the perfect device for both of these characters to really talk and admit their attraction to each other, even if they both know they won’t fall in love. Even if they both know that Tracy’s already in love, although she’s too stubborn to admit it. Brilliant.