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The Philadelphia Story is a 1940 romantic screwball comedy starring Jimmy Stewart, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Based on the play of the same name by Philip Barry, the film is about a bride-to-be whose plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her cynical but romantic ex-husband (Grant), and a cynical but romantic journalist (Stewart).
The film was based on a play by the same title in which Hepburn had also starred. Howard Hughes bought the rights to the film as a gift to Hepburn and when a studio decided to make a movie out of it, she came with it. Hepburn initially wanted Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy for the male leads but they were not available.
The film co-starred Ruth Hussey, Mary Nash, Roland Young, Virginia Weidler and Henry Daniell.
The film won Academy Awards for
Jimmy Stewart (Best Actor), and screenwriter Donald Ogden Stewart (Best Adapted Screenplay).
It also received Academy Award nominations for
George Cukor (Best Director)
Katharine Hepburn (Best Actress),
Ruth Hussey (Best Supporting Actress), and
Best Picture.
The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. It was remade in 1956 as a musical titled High Society.
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