Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Spanish film poster.

Anatomy of a Murder
Director: Otto Preminger
USA 1959
160 min
Starring: James Stewart, George C. Scott, Lee Remick, Eve Arden, Ben Gazarra and Arthur O'Connell, among others.

Amazingly Awesome Attorneys

As we all know, there comes hectic times in all our lives. The last ten days have been one of those cases for me, so when I haven't helped out with sick cats, found out about dead cats, gone to job applying meetings etc. etc. I have put my spare time lying in bed playing Ace Attorney games on the Nintendo DS.

In other words: no time for watching movies, and no inspiration what so ever! I guess no one will blame me.

Playing as the attorney Phoenix Wright is amazingly relaxing, interesting and mind exercising. In the last few days I have noticed that my mental processes already have re-arranged all my every-day problems to sound like court room dramas.

"How do I solve this case I have on my hands? My boyfriend needs new jeans. He is working every day from 9 AM to 5 PM. When he comes home, he is too tired to shop for clothes. He does not work on Saturday, but that is however the time of his parents moving into a new apartment. He works Sunday. It looks as though I'm going to lose this case.

Objection! Circumstantial evidence proves that my waist size is in fact the same as my boyfriend's, and therefore he does not have to be at the scene of the crime where I will make the purchase!"

Something like that. Anyway, why not take a brief look at some cool attorneys, defendants and prosecutors? Or at least, some tough guys in suits. (I was going to write "no pun intended", but that's a pretty lame line, isn't it? And after realizing the pun, I thought it wasn't half bad anyway.)

Which classic actor/actress are you?

I just took a quiz, consisting of 20 questions resulting in a description of what kind of classic hero/heroine you are. Quite funny actually, you can find it here! If you are a man, you can always check out what kind of a classic leading man you are here.

Report back to me if you take the tests! It's essential.

I am, according to the test, the Myrna Loy type. The description of my character follows:

You are loaded with a quirky kind of class that people find irresistable. Men turn and look at you admiringly as you walk down the street, and even your rivals have a grudging respect for you. You usually know the right thing to say, do and, of course, wear. You can take charge of a situation when things get out of hand, and you do it with great poise and chic. Your wit and sense of fun endear you to your partner and every other man in the room. Your screen partners include William Powell and Cary Grant. You're quite a catch...if you want to be caught.

I especially like the last sentence! Watch out for me, boys and girls! Ha ha. Doing the manly test, I became Cary Grant - charming, smooth and debonair!

Now to my readers' results!

Myrna Loy

Millie

Nicole

Amanda Cooper

Mary

Maggie

Amanda

Elsie

Jorgé

Genevieve

Katharine Hepburn

Kim

Kate Gabrielle

DKoren

Carole Lombard

Elizabeth

Mrs. Bee

Merriam

Barbara Stanwyck

Camelia Crinoline

William Powell

Matthew Coniam

Orgar

Humphrey Bogart

Andrew

k5psb

Christopher

James Stewart

Wayne B.

Chricka

Mykal

30 questions-questionnaire (Thinking caps on!)

One of the most prominent blog Gods, Matthew Coniam, announced a more retro self-made film quiz at his blog Movietone News.

He advices us to put on our thinking caps, and I bet it's needed. A big one. I'll borrow Dorothy Gish's thinking hat, it looks like it has room for many ideas. (Or perhaps she just tries to hide her hydrocephalus.)

1. Your favourite Humphrey Bogart film in which he doesn't play a gangster or a private eye. (Oh, and not including Casablanca either.)

I'd vote for his violent and disillusioned screenwright Dixon Steele in In a Lonely Place (1950). He looks good with a stunning Gloria Grahame on his arm. Or under it.

2. Your favourite appearance by a star in drag (boy-girl or girl-boy).

Even though I haven't seen the film yet (hit me relentlessly for it), Katharine Hepburn in Sylvia Scarlett (1935) seems really cool. But if I should choose a star in drag I've actually seen, it'll have to be Cary Grant in previously mentioned Hepburn's fluffy dressing gown, jumping in the air and shouting "Because I just went gay, all of a sudden!" in Bringing Up Baby (1938).

3. Your favourite Laurel & Hardy film; short or feature, or one of each. (This will sort out the men from the boys - or perhaps the men from the girls.)

I have to disappoint you, I'm no man. I confuse all the titles on the Laurel & Hardy films/shorts - I really don't have an answer. But I like their commercial for wooden products - I mean, I can't be the only one who thinks the question "Wood - got any?" is funny, right?

4. Your favourite appearance by one star in a role strongly associated with another star. (Eg: Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade, Grace Kelly as Tracy Lord, Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates...)

It wouldn't be too funny of me to choose Cortez now, would it?

I'll go with Mae Clarke as the prostitute Myra Beauville in the 1931 version of Waterloo Bridge (my film review here), a role that is a lot more connected with Vivien Leigh in the 1940 version. Leigh is beautiful and a really great actress, but that darned Code censored the sad-prostitute-part of the script, and turned Myra into a sweet little ballerina instead.

Mae Clarke should have been awarded with an Oscar.

5. The thirties or forties star or stars you most think you'd like, but have yet to really get to know.

Actress: Gene Tierney. Actor: Melvyn Douglas.

6. Your favourite pre-Petrified Forest Bette Davis film.

Of Human Bondage (1934). The film wasn't great, but what Bette Davis made of her part is fantastic. She's almost creepy, and yet sad. And yet... very creepy.

One of Bette Davis's best freak-out scenes. It's not pretty!

7. Your favourite post-Mildred Pierce Joan Crawford film.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). Bette Davis steals most of the film, but the film wouldn't be as brilliant a psychological thriller as it is without a stainless collaboration between the two actresses (at least on-screen).

8. Your favourite film that ends with the main character's death.

That's hard to choose, since every cool woman on-screen after 1934 had to be punished with her death for her awesomeness. Perhaps Anna Karenina (1935) with Greta Garbo throwing herself in front of a train?

9. Your favourite Chaplin talkie.

It's hard to choose between Limelight (1952) and Monsieur Verdoux (1947). But gentleman-serial killer Mr. Verdoux is so damn cool (and it's the film I have the freshest memory of), I'll have to go with that one.

Scene: A great scene from Monsieur Verdoux - I can't believe audience at the time thought this was an improper subject for humour?

10. Your favourite British actor and actress.

Actor: Duh! Basil Rathbone. (Yes, he was born in South Africa, but tell me one man who is more British than him!) Actress: Vivien Leigh.

Hear my favourite British actors read love poems for each other:
http://www.basilrathbone.net/radio/mp3/lovepoems.mp3

11. Your favourite post-1960 appearance by a 1930's star.

Joan Blondell as the waitress Vi in Grease (1978). She's still very "Blondelly".

12. Dietrich or Garbo?

Tough one. Dietrich is darn cool, and closer to my personality than Garbo. (I'm not very dreamlike, religious or self-sacrificing, am I?) But still... Garbo is my country girl, and one of my first on-screen female icons. Garbo it is.

13. Karloff or Lugosi?

Lugosi. You can never beat "I am... Dra-koola..." and "I don't drink... vine." And hey, he later played Frankenstein's monster, even after having refused the 1931 offer for the part (Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, 1943). And he became a lost, morphine addict who made his last screen appearances for none other than B-horror director Edward D. Wood Jr.

Oh, and he was buried in his Dracula cape. Now, that's devotion.

14. Chaplin or Keaton? (I know some of you will want to say both for all of the above. Me too. But you can't.)

Chaplin. But mostly because I have seen more of him than of Keaton. But that I have seen of Keaton has touched me on a different level, actually... No, I refuse to choose! They're too different - it's like choosing your favourite of wine or chocolate. I want them both, because they complete different parts of my soul. (Ain't that just beautiful?)

15. Your favourite star associated predominantly with the 1950's.

*** Warning! Cliché answer. ***

I have to be honest, right? (Well, no. But this time - just for the heck of it.) James Dean, he was my first classic film love affair. When I was 14 I watched his films over and over as soon as I came home from school. (No, I wasn't invited to any parties. At least I had my on-screen friends...)

16. Your favourite Melvyn Douglas movie.

I'm not so well-read on Douglas, I'm ashamed to say. I'll answer Ninotchka (1939). (Nobody could fake-laugh like Garbo.)

17. The box-office failure you most think should have been a success.

The Thief of Bagdad (1924). I was surprised to read that this masterpiece (produced by, co-written by and starring Douglas Fairbanks, directed by Raoul Walsh) was a disappoinment to the contemporary audience. Perhaps they just weren't ready.

18. Your favourite performance by an actor or actress playing drunk.

James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story (1940), no doubt about it! In the same film, Katharine Hepburn. They're really great at it. "Hello, Dexter! HELLO, GEORGE. Helloooo, Mike..."

But the best drunken scene in the film is of course when Stewart's Macualey Connor bursts in on Grant's C. K. Dexter Haven, gets the hick-ups and throws Grant off balance in his acting, who unintentionally starts to laugh.

Scene: Don't forget to keep an eye on Cary Grant's facial expressions!

19. Your favourite last scene of any thirties movie.

Impossible to answer, but I'll try. I simply love the last scene in Night Nurse (1931), where the good guy is an illegal bootlegger who lets our heroine (Barbara Stanwyck) know that he has informed some maffia friends of his that he "just didn't like Nick (Clark Gable's bad guy, the chauffeur) very much...". The film then cuts to a roaring ambulance, and we witness a couple of hospital employees talking about the body that was just picked up. "Was he a bootlegger?" "No, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform."

That's brilliant. And of course it is, William A. 'Wild Bill' Wellman directed it.

20. Your favourite American non-comedy silent movie.

City Lights (1931), Sadie Thompson (1928) (review) or Beyond the Rocks (1922) (review).

21. Your favourite Jean Harlow performance.

Red-Headed Woman (1932). "Do it again - I like it! Do it AGAIN!" Jeez, she's crazy...

22. Your favourite remake. (Quizmaster's definition: second or later version of a work written as a movie, not a later adaptation of the same novel or play.)

The word "re-make" often make me shiver with fear, but I guess I can pick an old re-make and alleviate the pain a little bit. I will probably never like a re-make more than the original, at least there's no example of that that I can think of. But it can still be a favourite re-make, right?

Maybe it's cheating, because the director did a re-make of his own movie, but here it is: The Ten Commandments (1956) by Cecil B. DeMille. I've seen it so many times that I lost the count. DeMille made his original film, The Ten Commandments, in 1923. 30 years later it was a swell time to do a re-make. Special effects had improved, there was magnificent Technicolor to add to the cinematic experience. And then there's Yul Brynner as Rameses. Oh, god... (He's sexy.)

23. Your favourite Orson Welles performance in a film he did not direct, not including The Third Man.

The commercial for Paul Masson champagne. See below.

Remember - this is the man behind Citizen Kane (1941). And he has probably consumed a little too much of the product before shooting. (This is epic.)

24. Your favourite non-gangster or musical James Cagney film or performance.

Bill White's buddy Eddie in Other Men's Women (1931). He's sweet, cool and sympathetic. And of course, he's James Cagney. In other words, he has much too few scenes.

25. Your favourite Lubitsch movie.

Haven't seen enough of his work, but among those I've seen I choose the pre-code Trouble in Paradise (1932). The combination of Ernst Lubitsch, Kay Francis, Miriam Hopkins and Herbert Marshall is hard to beat. (And how did poor Herbert manage to choose between Francis and Hopkins?)

26. Who would win in a fight: Miriam Hopkins or Barbara Stanwyck? (Both in their prime; say in 1934 or so.)

Hmm... Hopkins obviously has the sharp cat claws, but Stanwyck can fight like a man. I'd say that Stanwyck would win with a knock-out.

27. Name the two stars you most regret never having co-starred with each other, and - if you want - choose your dream scenario for them. (Quizmaster's qualification: they have to be sufficiently contemporary to make it possible. So, yes to Cary Grant and Lon Chaney Jr as two conmen in a Howard Hawks screwball; no to Clara Bow and Kirsten Dunst as twin sisters on the run from prohibition agents in twenties Chicago, much though that may entice.)

I'd like to see a pre-code triangle drama on bisexuality. It's 1932. Katharine Hepburn (in her break-through role) and Kay Francis live together in a posh New York apartment, when they meet the charming bootlegger Robert Montgomery who blows their minds. Hepburn's and Francis's relationship, as well as their social position, are now at stake.

This complicated romantic comedy/drama is directed by George Cukor.

28. Your favourite Lionel Barrymore performance.

Oh, that wonderful actor! It's hard to choose between his sadistic/perverted priest in Sadie Thompson (1928), his timid dying old man in Grand Hotel (1932) (review), his not so timid dying old man in Dinner at Eight and his intoxicated lawyer in A Free Soul (with that record-breaking, monstrous monologue in the last courtroom scene) - But I'll go ahead and answer this: The merciless Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life (1946).

29. Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard or Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour? (See note on question 14.)

He obviously co-starred a lot more with Dorothy Lamour than with Paulette Goddard, and the latter one has always been connected to Chaplin only in my eyes - so I'd say Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour.

30. You won't want to answer this, but: there's been a terrible fire raging in the film libraries of all the major studios. It's far too late to save everything. All you can do is save as much as you can. You've been assigned the thirties. All you'll have time to drag from the obliterating inferno is one 1930's film each from Paramount, MGM, RKO, Columbia, Universal and Warners. Do you stomp around in a film buff's huff saying 'it's too hard, I can't choose just one' and watch them all go up in smoke? Or do you roll your sleeves up and start saving movies?

But if the latter: which ones...?

I definitively wouldn't stand there and see everything go up in smoke! And I guess bringing a fire-extinguisher isn't an option? That wouldn't be funny, would it? (Even though the rest of the world probably would thank me for it. But they are not going to have it that good!)

Here we go. I have focused on entertaining pre-code films, they seem most important. (And since I'm the saviour of these films, I can let myself be very egoistic.)

Paramount: Monkey Business (1931) Marx Brothers for everyone.

MGM: The Thin Man (1934) No doubt about it! Nick and Nora, yay!

RKO: Thirteen Women (1932) (Hey, we must have one B-movie in the list, so people won't think that all movies made in the 1930's were brilliant!)

Columbia: It Happened One Night (1934) Of course.

Universal: Dracula (1931) It's a bit more sophisticated than Frankenstein (1931). So sue me.

Warner Bros: Baby Face (1933) A slutty Stanwyck that has to be saved to the world.

The Marx Brothers - who could live without them?

Day After Day with James Stewart

Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart in The Shopworn Angel (1938).

Yeah, I know that the wonderful Elizabeth at the always thrilling blog Oh By Jingo! Oh By Gee! already posted this. But since it gives me goose bumps all over, I simply need to have it on my blog also! It is James Stewart singing Day After Day, and he really sings wonderful.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Director: Frank Capra
USA 1939
129 min


Holy Mackerel! This is a great film.
James Stewart plays the role of Jefferson Smith, a naive and hopeful man who, by the spineless governor of his state, is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. Unfortunately he collides with political corruption and gets dragged through the mud in the press.





Mr. Smith is the head of the Boy Rangers, and sees now his chance to start a national boy's camp and comes up with a legislation to authorize a federal government loan to buy a piece of land for that business. The loan will then be paid for by the contributions of the boy's camp's members. Donations starts to pour in immediately by mail.
The corrupt government, however, has other plans for that particular piece of land, and tries to make Smith their ally. When he still wants to go through with his plans (with the help of Clarissa Saunders, played by the adorable Jean Arthur) the government instead tries to smear the name of Mr. Smith. They ridicule him in the newspapers and come up with lies about his intentions of the boy's camp to get him out of the Congress.

Jim Taylor and Senator Joseph Paine.

Claude Rains plays Senator Joseph Paine, an old-time friend of Mr. Smith's father. He is torn between his personal feelings for Mr. Smith, and the will of his political boss Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), who helped him to be successful in politics, and quickly could make him powerless. You can almost not recognize Rains by appearance in this role, and the only different thing is that his hair is white and he's got spectacles on his nose.




As the beautiful daughter of Joseph Paine, Susan, Astrid Allwyn steals the two scenes she appears in. The first of those, were she meets Mr. Smith and "turns the glamour" on him, making him so nervous that he drops his hat about three times, is very amusing.

Senator Joseph Paine and his daughter Susan finds Mr. Smith very amusing.

From the telephone scene with Astrid Allwyn and Jean Arthur.

Scene: Saunders finds Mr. Smith in despair by the Lincoln monument.

"It's a forty foot dive into a tub of water, but I think you can do it."

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington caused a lot of angry feelings around the country by Washington insiders, who thought they were pictured in a false and negative way. One of the real Senators even walked out from the screening he attended in disgust. But on the opposite side the film was rejected by fascists, nazists and communists in Europe for showing that democracy can work.
Director Frank Capra got anyhow letters years afterwards buy people being inspired by the film to go into politics.

The at first cynical Saunders is inspired by Mr. Smith's enthusiasm and energy, and soon finds herself falling for him.

From the filibuster scene.

The last line in this film might be one of the best ones ever, spoken by Jean Arthur:


Clarissa Saunders: [shouts] Yippee!

A couple of nice film posters.

Wife vs. Secretary (1936)

Wife vs. Secretary
Director: Clarence Brown
USA 1936
88 min


YouTube link

Actually, the title of the film tell most of the plot: The wife (Myrna Loy as Linda) of a publishing executive in the marketing business (Clark Gable as Van) starts to suspect that her husband might be a little too interested in his secretary (Jean Harlow as Whitey). One misunderstanding lead to another, one glance with double meanings - and the carousel is up and running.




I was surprised by this neat little drama/comedy. It started off as a nice and entertaining film (with a very energetic Clark Gable!), Myrna Loy as a happy wife (not an unusual character for her part, but she does it so well!) and Jean Harlow as the capable and attractive secretary with a wonderful attitude. I was also glad to see a young James Stewart (as Dave) in a supporting role, as the admirer of Whitey/Harlow.
However, when the film started to reach its climax I was sitting in the edge of my chair. The dialogue had been witty all the time, the actors/actresses great - but now it had reached a new level. The most clever, awesome lines were spoken, the greatest non-speaking acting since the silent films filled up the scenes... I can't explain, but I felt that I was really in this film with the actors.
And Myrna Loy is not only a comical genius, she knew the drama as well.

Quotes:

[kisses Linda while her eyes are closed]
Van: Guess who!
Linda: Hmm... Simpson?
Van: No!
[kisses her again]
Van: Try again!
Linda: Finny.
Van: No!
[kisses her again]
Van: Try again!
Linda: I give up.
[opens her eyes as they laugh and embrace]
Linda: Oh! It's a husband!

Van: There's an old Chinese proverb that says if you want to keep a man honest, never call him a liar.

Mimi, Van's mother: [comforting Linda] My dear, men are like that. So honorable and wise in some things and just like naughty children in others. You wouldn't blame a little boy for stealing a piece of candy if left alone with a whole boxful, will you?

Helen 'Whitey' Wilson: [To Linda] You're a fool, for which I am grateful.

[last lines]
Dave: Gosh, all the fighting and worrying people do, it always seems to be about one thing. They don't seem to trust each other. Well, I've found this out. Don't look for trouble where there isn't any, because if you don't find it, you'll make it. Just believe in someone.

James Stewart on Dean Martin Show

I had to share this one. I didn't know James Stewart was so good at making impersonations! See him do James Cagney, Ed Sullivan and... Bette Davis on The Dean Martin Show!




And here he is, on the Johnny Carson show in 1981, reading a poem about his dog Beau. Heart breaking.

He never came to me when I call
if I didn't have a tennis ball
...or he felt like it.
But mostly he didn't come at all.

Poll's closed #3

So, which Frank Capra film did my visitors vote the best?

The beyond-doubt-winner was one of his first creations, It Happened One Night (1934) with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, conquering the voting with 46 %.

The silver price is split between two films starring James Stewart, with 15 % each: It's A Wonderful Life (1946) and You Can't Take It With You (1938).



Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936) and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939) got 7 % of the votes each, sharing with 7 % "Another". Anyone who wants to step out from the shadows and reveal their favourite Capra?


Next poll: Which is your favourite Hollywood couple?

The Man From Laramie (1955)

The Man From Laramie
Director: Anthony Mann
USA 1955
104 min

He came a thousand miles to kill a man he'd never seen!

That's the tagline to the movie poster above, which explains the plot in broad outline.
Will Lockhart (James Stewart) arrives in Coronado, a little western town, to unload some supplies he's delivered to storekeeper Barbara Waggoman (the pretty girl-next-door Cathy O'Donnell). But delivering supplies is not Lockharts real intention - he is going to find the man who sold the Apaches the guns that killed his brother. And that man is going to pay in blood.

Will Lockhart and his eccentric partner Charles O'Leary (Wallace Ford).

But Lockhart seems to tumble across all other trouble there is - first he is blamed for trying to steal salt from the Alec Waggoman's estate (the cattle baron played by Donald Crisp), gets his mules shot and his wagons burnt down from his spoiled son Dave (Alex Nicol), and later on finds himself accused of killing the latter.
It all becomes a kerfuffle, and it gets no easier when he gets work on the Waggoman rival's ranch, the Half Moon owned by the strong and harsh woman Kate Canady (Aline MacMahon).



And, of course, a little love story takes place between engaged Barbara Waggoman and Will Lockhart, but a very subtle one. In fact it's a surprisingly non-cheesy one.


Scene: Will Lockhart arrives at scene of his brother's death.




This is a surprisingly "un-westerny" western. The plot is deeper than just a man starting gunfight to avenge someone, and the film is really absorbing. The characters are also well-made:

Will Lockhart: The man who seeks an unknown man to avenge his brother. (Alas, a classis main character in a western.
Alec Waggoman: The cattle baron who built his empire, the Barb, with his own hands, but when getting older realizes that he has to appoint an heir.
Dave Waggoman: Alec's only son, but too spoiled and ill-tempered to entrust the ranch.
Vic Hansbro: Working for Alec and keeping an eye on Dave so he doesn't get into trouble. Wants to take over the ranch he feels he deserves.
Barbara Waggoman: Engaged to Vic, and cousin to Dave and niece to Alec.
Kate Canady: Alec's rival and lost love. Owns a ranch called the Half Moon. A woman who has earned her wisdom from live herself.
Charles O'Leary: Will Lockharts partner in chrime. Appears here and there.

As you can see, this set-up promises a lot of drama and complication, not to say tension.
The Man From Laramie is a great and entertaining western I'm sure you'd like to see. Even if you don't like westerns, see it for James Stewart!

Quotes:

Alec Waggoman: I'm Alec Waggoman of the Barb. What's the reason for this?
Will Lockhart: Ask your son!
Alec Waggoman: I'm asking you.
Will Lockhart: All right, go out to the salt lagoons, and you'll see twelve dead mules and three burnt wagons. They belong to me!
Alec Waggoman: Nobody asked you to come here.
Will Lockhart: Well, I'm here, Mr. Waggoman, and I'm gonna stay here and this town better get used to the idea!

Will Lockhart: This is the most unfriendly country I've ever been in. Why is everybody so touchy?
Barbara Waggoman: It's a one man country and Alec Waggoman's the man.

Will Lockhart: [having a wound dressed] Have you done this before?
Kate Canady: I've patched up bullet holes in places I wouldn't like to mention.

Will Lockhart: You're nice to look at.
Barbara Waggoman: But I'm not even pretty!
Will Lockhart: Well, I guess I have seen prettier girls in dance halls, but... you're sort of beautiful, I should say.
Barbara Waggoman: That's the kindest thing anyone has ever said to me!

Will Lockhart: Where'd an Indian get a rifle like that?
Frank Darrah: He don't say. I don't ask.






Theme song: Jimmy Young with The Man From Laramie, 1955.

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

The Philadelphia Story
Director: George Cukor
USA 1940
112 min

A glorious screwball comedy containing three of the greatest movie stars: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart.
The story circles around high society Tracy Lord (Hepburn), who is soon to be re-married. But her ex-husband, C. K. Dexter Haven (Grant) wants to get even with his ex-bride and blackmails Tracy to open her unwilling arms to two reporters, Macaulay "Mike" Connor (Stewart) and Elizabeth Imbrie (Ruth Hussey), who will deliver the story of the year to Spy Magazine - Tracy Lord's wedding.
As the story goes along, people from Tracy's past and present meet and reveal uncomfortable sceletons in the closets, Tracy gets hold a truth or two about herself and starts doubting the rightness of her choices.


Scene: James Stewart is drunk and wants to have a little chat with Cary Grant in the middle of the night. (Stewart's hickups were improvised, look closely at Grant's reaction. He had trouble not to laugh, and they didn't re-shoot the scene.)



This film is one of my all-time favourites. The script is crystal clear intelligent, the dialogue quick and the actors are one with their characters. It is of no surprise to find out that the character Tracy Lord was written especially for Hepburn, and was based on her public image at that time.



Ruth Hussey in the role of Elizabeth Imbrie deserves to be mentioned. Her performance is unluckily outglanced by the three leading roles, but she is no less a sublime complement to the same. While the other three are chattering and out-witting each other, Imbrie stays one step behind and sarcasticly comments the charades.

Tracy Lord: Aren't you coming Liz?
Elizabeth Imbrie: Well, it seems I've got to commit suicide first.


Scene: A tender moment between Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart.




In June 2008 The Philadelphia Story rated #5 on the American Film Institute's of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Romantic Comedy".
James Stewart won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the movie also brought home the statue for Best Writing, Screenplay (Donald Ogden Stewart). Nominated were Katharine Hepburn (Best Actress in a Leading Role), Ruth Hussey (Best Actress in a Supporting Role), George Cukor (Best Director) and Joseph L. Mankievicz (Best Picture).

Quotes:

C. K. Dexter Haven: Orange juice, certainly.
Tracy Lord: Don't tell me you've forsaken your beloved whisky and whiskies.
C. K. Dexter Haven: No-no-no-no. I've just changed their colour, that's all. I'm going for the pale pastel shades now. There're more becoming of me. How about you, Mr. Connor? You drink, don't you - alcohol, I mean?
Macaulay Connor: Oh, a little.
C. K. Dexter Haven: [Amused] A little? And you a writer? Tsk, tsk, tsk. I thought all writers drank to excess and beat their wives. You know, at one time I think I secretly wanted to be a writer.
[He and Tracy exchange scornful looks]


Macaulay Connor: This is the Bridal Suite. Would you send up a couple of caviar sandwiches and a bottle of beer?
Margaret Lord: What? Who is this?
Macaulay Connor: This is the Voice of Doom calling. Your days are numbered, to the seventh son of the seventh son.
Margaret Lord: Hello? Hello?
Tracy Lord: What's the matter?
Margaret Lord: One of the servants has been at the sherry again.


[The day after the night before.]
C. K. Dexter Haven: [looking for the "hair of the dog"] Do you s'pose, sir, speaking of eye-openers...?
Uncle Willie: Oh, that's the first sane remark I've heard today. C'malong, Dexter, I know a formula that's said to pop the pennies off the eyelids of dead Irishmen.


Tracy Lord: You haven't switched from liquor to dope, by any chance, have you Dexter?

Katharine Hepburn on set with director George Cukor.