In case you don’t know The Philadelphia Story, the “Tracy” to whom they refer is Katharine Hepburn, previously married to CK Dexter-Haven and about to remarry to a stolid socialist called George Kittredge. This clip ends on a wrong note, as the scene goes on to be very funny again. The film undercuts its own sentimentality at every turn, which one of the reasons why is why it is so perennially fresh. (Only one, mind: it encompasses several kinds of perfection, this movie!)
Incidentally. When interviewed about the incredible convincingness of his drunk in this scene, Jimmy Stewart answered that the secret was very simple: most actors playing a drunk man, he said, were trying to act drunk; whereas a drunk man is trying to act sober.
One film I can’t abide, it offends me very deeply, is that bloody awful dishonest It’s a Wonderful Life. I was angry for days after seeing it. But it was a point in a discussion about that that led me to look up Jimmy Stewart, which led to me seeing a picture of him, which led to me going on Amazon and buying a six-movie boxed set (The Man From Laramie; Bell, Book & Candle, with Kim Novak; Mr Smith goes to Washington; Two Rode Together; You Can’t Take it With You; Anatomy of a Murder) (It’s not as if I didn’t already have The Philadelphia Story and Rear Window), which led to me thinking of putting something up here and then led me to look for a good clip.
Presto!
Here’s the picture:
Great, isn’t it?
1 Comment
October 11, 2008 at 2:13 pm
The Philadelphia Story is also a big favourite chezt.
Long ago, an old friend produced a complete essay on the opening scene. Blessed with that capacity for emendation so natural to youth, she composed the entire thing under the impression that Hepburn had pushed Grant through the doorway rather than vice versa. I don’t recall whether she was marked down.