Film

The Philadelphia Story

Name: The Philadelphia Story
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Released: 1940
Cast: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey, John Howard

George Cukor's dazzling remarriage comedy stars Katharine Hepburn as an heiress about to wed again, only for her ex-husband and a snooping reporter to crash the party. It's fast, quotable, and disarmingly wise about pride, self-knowledge and who actually deserves you. Champagne-fizzy on the surface, surprisingly tender underneath — perfect for anyone who thinks old movies can't be sexy or sharp.

TMDb rating

3.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love sharp, talky screwball comedy where witty people spar across a lavish house and the romance is as much about pride as desire.

Skip it if you find forties-era comedy stagey or you want something with a fast, modern rhythm; the wit is verbal and the action stays mostly in drawing rooms.

What it asks of you: It asks for patience with a lot of talk and a slow-building warmth; the laughs come in long exchanges, and it runs under two hours at a steady clip.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Bringing Up Baby1938

Grant and Hepburn two years earlier, even more unhinged — a leopard, a dinosaur bone, and pure comic chaos. If you want to see where their chemistry started before it got sophisticated, start here.

But The pacing is relentless and the humor broader; some find it exhausting rather than delightful.

His Girl Friday1940

Same year, same era of rapid-fire wit, but with newsroom sparks instead of society ones. Rosalind Russell matches Grant word for word in a script that never lets you catch your breath.

But Dialogue moves so fast some viewers miss half the jokes on a first watch.

The Awful Truth1937

Cary Grant again, this time as the one being left — a divorce comedy that's slyer and meaner than it looks, with Irene Dunne giving as good as she gets.

But The plot mechanics are thinner than Philadelphia Story's, leaning more on star charm than structure.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Philadelphia Story

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Design for Living1933

Same wit-drenched high-society milieu and the same question — what does a woman actually want — but seven years earlier and with none of the restraint.

Lubitsch's pre-Code comedy about one woman and two men who refuse to choose is franker, filthier, and stranger than anything the Code-era Philadelphia Story could get away with saying outright.

But Its sexual frankness is played so lightly some viewers miss how radical it actually is.

Adam's Rib1949

Hepburn again, now paired with Spencer Tracy, playing married lawyers on opposite sides of a case. Wittier about gender politics than almost anything from its decade.

But Some courtroom stretches feel dated, and the ending resolves more neatly than the setup promises.

It Happened One Night1934

The granddaddy of the class-crossing romantic comedy — a runaway heiress, a broke reporter, and a road trip that invented half the genre's tropes.

But Its influence is so total that some beats now feel like clichés rather than surprises.

Holiday1938

Grant and Hepburn again, same director, a gentler cousin about choosing freedom over money and status. Quietly moving in a way screwball comedies rarely allow themselves.

But Less laugh-out-loud than the others on this list; it trades jokes for feeling.

My Man Godfrey1936

A butler with a secret and a family of spoiled lunatics — the class satire here is sharper-toothed, and William Powell is impossibly suave throughout.

But The satire of the idle rich can feel broad and cartoonish next to Philadelphia Story's subtlety.

Sabrina1954

Audrey Hepburn as a chauffeur's daughter caught between two wealthy brothers — the same drawing-room glamour, filtered through Billy Wilder's dry romantic eye.

But The central love triangle asks you to root for a pretty uncomfortable age gap by today's standards.

Pat and Mike1952

Hepburn and Tracy once more, this time with her as an athlete and him as her manager — looser, sportier, and full of genuine affection between the leads.

But It's slighter than the marquee Hepburn-Tracy films, more comfortable than dazzling.

Metropolitan1990

It's Philadelphia Story's WASPy social comedy transplanted fifty years forward, with the same fascination with class, pretense, and people talking their way toward self-knowledge.

Whit Stillman's debut drops you into a cluster of young, broke, absurdly articulate Manhattan debutantes — the drawing-room comedy of manners, reborn in blazers and downtown apartments.

But Its deadpan, talky style is an acquired taste, and almost nothing happens plot-wise.

Scener ur ett äktenskap1973

Both ask whether people can truly know themselves before remarrying; one answers with wit and forgiveness, the other with unflinching honesty and pain.

Bergman's Swedish miniseries follows a couple through divorce and its long aftermath in brutal, intimate close-up — the anti-comedy version of the same question Tracy Lord has to answer about herself.

But It's slow, subtitled, and emotionally punishing — there is no champagne fizz here, only two people telling each other hard truths.