Line #51 Film/ThePhiladelphiaStory


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_1134.JPG]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Eeeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe.]]
3
4	->''"I thought all writers drank to excess and beat their wives. You know one time I think I secretly wanted to be a writer."''
5	-->-- '''C.K. Dexter Haaaaaaaaaaven'''
6
7	A classic, witty romantic ScrewballComedy adapted from Philip Barry's hit Broadway play of the year before, ''The Philadelphia Story'' (1940) was directed by Creator/GeorgeCukor and stars three of the biggest stars of the era: Creator/KatharineHepburn, Creator/CaryGrant and [[Creator/JimmyStewart James Stewart]].
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9	Upper-class socialite Tracy Lord (Hepburn, reprising her stage role) is getting married to [[SelfMadeMan independently wealthy man]] and aspiring politician George Kittredge (John Howard), but her ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven (Grant), looking for a little revenge, sneaks in a couple of reporters -- a writer (Stewart) and photographer (Ruth Hussey) -- to do an exclusive story for ''Spy'' magazine. LoveTriangle [[HilarityEnsues confusion ensues]] among the stars and supporting characters.
10
11	A box-office hit, the film was also a great critical success, receiving six UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations. James Stewart's performance as Macaulay "Mike" Connor earned him the Best Actor award, for the first and only time in his career. David Ogden Stewart also took home an Oscar for his screenplay.
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13	Later remade as the 1956 {{musical}} film ''Film/HighSociety'', starring Creator/GraceKelly, Creator/BingCrosby, and Music/FrankSinatra in the Hepburn, Grant, and Stewart roles.
14
15	----
16	!!This film provides examples of:
17
18	%% * AbhorrentAdmirer: Uncle Willy towards Liz.
19	* AccidentalMisnaming: Margaret Lord refers to Mike as "Mr. '''O''''Connor" at one point.
20	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Tracy walks in during Dinah's elaborate greeting to Mike and Liz and can be seen cracking up at it.
21	* AdamWesting: Casting Creator/KatharineHepburn as a RichBitch who, in her first scene, gets knocked on her ass by Creator/CaryGrant was probably quite amusing to audiences in 1940, a time when the tabloids called Hepburn "Katharine of Arrogance" for her prickly, tomboyish public image.
22	* AdaptedOut: The original play featured a character named Sandy, who is Tracy's brother and the reason for Mike and Liz to come to the wedding. This character was deleted for the movie in order to beef up the character of Mike. There are several references in the film to a brother of Tracy's, but his name is Junius.
23	* AnAesop: ''Everyone'' has moral failings.
24	-->'''Dexter:''' We're all only human, you know.
25	* AffectionateNickname: Dexter generally addresses Tracy as "Red".
26	* AlcoholHic: Jimmy Stewart's improvised AlcoholHic almost got Cary Grant laughing. Which was what Stewart was trying to do, naturally. Lampshaded by Mike's line "I have the hiccups".
27	* TheAlcoholic: Dexter -- much as Seth's philandering is apparently Tracy's fault, Dexter's drinking problem was apparently also Tracy's fault, for not helping him enough with it.
28	* AllWomenArePrudes: Tracy's attitude towards sex isn't just conservative; there's actually some evidence that she herself doesn't much care for it. The issue is never really addressed, despite the problems it apparently caused in her first marriage and could cause in her second. Although her attitude seems quite opposite this trope when she's drunk.
29	* ArentYouGoingToRavishMe: Tracy is offended that Mike didn't take advantage of her while she was passed out drunk.
30	* ArtistDisillusionment: In-universe. Mike is bitter because he poured his heart and soul into a book of short stories that netted him $600.
31	* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: Dexter doesn't take kindly to being [[{{Blackmail}} blackmailed]] by Sidney Kidd.
32	* BeautifulDreamer: Dexter watches Tracy sleep in the car and whispers "You look beautiful, Red."
33	* BelligerentSexualTension: Tracy with Mike, and even more so with Dexter.
34	* BigFancyHouse: Mike can't stop snarking about the opulence of the Lord mansion.
35	* BitchInSheepsClothing: George is revealed to be not as nice as he seems.
36	* {{Blackmail}}: Sidney Kidd will publish a scandalous article on Tracy's father if she doesn't let Mike and Liz do their story.
37	-->'''Tracy''': I want them out and you too.
38	-->'''Dexter''': Yes, yes, your Majesty, but first, could I interest you in some small blackmail?
39	** Dexter and Mike later conspire to [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame counter-blackmail Kidd]].
40	* BlamingTheCuckold: In this one, the cheater is the father of the heroine. He doesn't blame his wife, he infamously blames his daughter for being wilful and frigid and so causing him to look for the attentions of a younger woman. Needless to say, a massive case of ValuesDissonance since the movie seems to paint both the father's infidelity and the heroine's willfulness as equally wrong.
41	* BreakTheHaughty: Tracy -- the overriding theme of the movie is that Tracy won't be happy until she stops being so high-and-mighty.
42	* CallingTheOldManOut: Subverted. Tracy thinks she's justifiably angry with her father for fooling around with a younger woman. Seth tells Tracy that his affairs are ''none of her business'', then turns the tables and blames ''her'' for driving him away.
43	* CantHoldHerLiquor: Tracy really should not drink champagne.
44	* TheChikan: Uncle Willie has zero chill, as Liz finds out to her dismay.
45	* CompositeCharacter: Dexter combines elements of two characters from the original play: himself, and Tracy's brother Sandy.
46	* ContrivedClumsiness: Tracy breaks Liz's camera (she's been told that Liz is a magazine photographer).
47	* DeadpanSnarker: Dexter. Liz gets some good ones in too.
48	* DefrostingIceQueen: Tracy's gradual defrosting is the main plot. George rather wants her to stay frosty.
49	--> '''George''': Well, you're like some marvelous, distant ... well, queen, I guess.
50	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Mike is trying to convince Kittridge that nothing happened between him and Tracy:
51	-->'''Mike''': After which I deposited Tracy on her bed in her room, and promptly returned down here to you two - which doubtless you'll remember.
52	-->'''Dexter''': Doubtless, without a doubt!
53	* DidTheyOrDidntThey: Mike and Tracy. Next morning we learn from Mike, that nothing has happened.
54	* DirtyOldMan: Uncle Willy, constantly pinching women on the bottom and hitting on Liz.
55	* DisposableFiance: George.
56	%%* DivorceIsTemporary: Dealing with Tracy and Dexter.
57	* DomesticAbuse: The papers insinuate that this was one of the causes of Tracy and Dexter's breakup. Only Dinah seems to give the rumors any credence.
58	-->'''Dinah''': Well, the papers were full of inundo.
59	-->'''Margaret''': Of what?
60	-->'''Dinah''': Of inundo. "Cruelty and drunkenness", it said.
61	** Dexter is plainly shown knocking Tracy down in the opening scene. It's played for laughs, as are the other abuse references.
62	* DrinkingOnDuty : Mike is supposed to be writing an article about the wedding. He gets drunk with the bride.
63	* DrunkenSong:
64	** "Oh, C.K. Dexter Haaaaaaaaaven!"
65	** And "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
66	* EvilBrit: Sidney Kidd (We don't know if the character's meant to be British, but he definitely has the accent.)
67	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The bulk of the action takes place over a 24-hour period, except for some establishing scenes from the day before and a prologue set two years earlier.
68	* FacePalmOfDoom: A particularly pissed-off C. K. Dexter does this to Tracy after she breaks one of his golf clubs in front of him. She falls to the ground but she's not hurt.
69	* FishOutOfWater: Mike and Liz, commoners hanging out with the ultra-rich. George too, to a lesser extent.
70	* FloweryElizabethanEnglish: The librarian is a Quaker, using "plain speech," which Mike MISTAKES for Flowery Elizabethan English.
71	* FollowThatCar: Mike drunkenly tells a joke of the taxicab variety. [[spoiler: There is no car]].
72	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Dexter reminds Tracy that she, once, "got drunk on champagne and climbed out on the roof, and stood there, naked, with [her] arms out to the moon, wailing like a banshee". It seems champagne is bad for her. Then, we see her get drunk on champagne, with Mike.
73	* FreudianTrio: Tracy's three suitors, [[TheSpock George]], [[TheMcCoy Mike]], and [[TheKirk Dexter]]. Seen from that perspective, the film's ending should hardly come as a surprise.
74	* FullNameBasis: In one drunken scene, Mike addresses Dexter exclusively by his full name. Probably because he really likes saying it.
75	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: While Dexter answers the door to Liz, Mike is still rambling in the background.
76	* GirlFriday: Liz to Mike.
77	* GoshDangItToHeck: It's from UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode era. In particular, Tracy uses the word "golly" a ''lot''.
78	* GreenEyedMonster:
79	** George, who automatically assumes the worst when he sees Tracy [[NotWhatItLooksLike in another man's arms]].
80	** Hilariously averted with Dexter, who apparently couldn't care less.
81	** Liz would "scratch [the] eyes out" of any girl who came between her and Mike, but she manages to be philosophical about his fling with Tracy. It can't hurt that when Tracy [[spoiler:turns down Mike's proposal]], she gives Liz's feelings for him as one of her reasons.
82	** Tracy's parents also point out that her outrage over Seth's philandering sounds a lot like jealousy. Which is odd, considering she's Seth's ''daughter''.
83	* HairOfTheDog: Mike would "sell his grandmother" for an alcoholic beverage the morning after the party.
84	* HangoverSensitivity: Several characters.
85	* HonorableMarriageProposal: Mike offers one to Tracy after their drunken antics cause George to dump her.
86	* [[{{Tsundere}} Hot And Cold]]: Tracy veers between affection and anger.
87	* HumblePie: Tracy is intolerant of others' moral failings, particularly her ex-husband's alcoholism and her father's perceived infidelity. Then, on the eve of her wedding, she gets drunk on champagne and makes out with another man. The next morning, [[BreakTheHaughty her attitude is penitent]].
88	* InformedFlaw: Quite a few, including Tracy's intolerance, Mike's cynicism, and Dexter's drunkenness. Mostly justified, considering the bulk of the plot takes place during one day, and to be fair to Dexter, by the time the story starts, he's firmly on the wagon.
89	* InsistentTerminology: When Dinah says something stinks, her mother insists she call it "smells" instead [[note]]but only if absolutely necessary[[/note]] (part of the GoshDarnItToHeck tone of the movie).
90	* InVinoVeritas:
91	** Tracy's realizations about herself and the men in her life come as a result of getting drunk. Alcohol also allows the softer side of Mike's personality to come out.
92	** Subverted to the extent that Tracy and Mike's [[KissingUnderTheInfluence drunken kiss]] is ''not'' taken as evidence of their true feelings for each other.
93	* IncomingHam: Dinah when she first meets Mike and Liz. She enters the room dressed in a party dress and sparkly jewellery with a massive bow in her hair. She does so with an attempted ballet twirl as well.
94	* IronicEcho: "The truth is you'll never be a first-class human being until you've learned to have some regard for human frailty."
95	* JacobAndEsau: It's subtle, but Dinah seems more like her mother, while Tracy clearly takes after her father.
96	* {{Jerkass}}: InvokedTrope. Mike is a sensitive poet who puts up a JerkAss front to "save his skin".
97	* KissingUnderTheInfluence: (of champagne) Mike and Tracy.
98	* LittleMissSnarker: Dinah especially in her first scene. Later in the movie, she quips that she knows something is about to happen because she's being sent away.
99	* LoveConfessor: Sort of happens between Liz and Sandy in the play. In the movie, the scene is rewritten to have Dexter assume that Liz is in love with Mike without asking explicitly.
100	* LoveEpiphany: Subverted.
101	-->'''Mike''': It - it can't be anything like love, can it?
102	-->'''Tracy''': No, it mustn't be! It ''can't'' be!
103	-->'''Mike''': Would it be inconvenient?
104	-->'''Tracy''': Terribly!
105	* LoveTriangle: or Love Pentagram, with Tracy and her three suitors, as well as Liz's affection for Mike.
106	* MaybeEverAfter: The status of Mike and Liz's relationship at the end of the movie is ambiguous.
107	* MeaningfulEcho: "My, she was yare!"
108	** "With the rich and mighty, always a little patience."
109	* MouthyKid: Dinah.
110	* NiceMeanAndInbetween: played with in regard to the three suitors. At first, George is nice, Dexter is mean, and Mike is inbetween. By the end, George is revealed in his true BitchInSheepsClothing colors, becoming the main mean guy. Mike is the decent nice guy, and Dexter falls in between.
111	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Playwright Philip Barry based the character of Tracy on Helen Hope Montgomery Scott, a Main Line Philadelphia socialite famous for throwing lavish parties at her family's 800-acre farm estate in Radnor.
112	** The magazine publisher Sidney Kidd is a parody of Henry Luce, publisher of the magazines ''Time'' and ''Life''. The film version adds some digs at the backward syntax that Luce's publications were famous for.
113	-->'''Kidd''': Closed were the portals of snobbish fox hunting. No hunter of foxes is ''Spy'' magazine.
114	* NotWhatItLooksLike: A drunken, affectionate Mike cradling a sleepy, amorous Tracy in his arms is kind of bad, but not as bad as George assumes it is.
115	* NothingExcitingEverHappensHere: Dinah's lament early on in the film.
116	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Dinah says her full name is Diana but everyone calls her Dinah.
117	* {{Paparazzi}}: Mike and Liz.
118	* PhraseCatcher: Tracy gets the word "goddess" attached to her a lot, thanks mostly to Dexter. Other characters show a fondness for "queen".
119	-->'''Mike''': When a girl is like Tracy, she's one in a million! She's sort of like a...She's sort of like a...
120	-->'''Dexter''': A goddess?
121	-->'''Mike''': No, no, no, you said that word this afternoon, no. No, she's sort of like a queen. A radiant, glorious queen. And you can't treat her like other women.
122	* PropheticName: Parson Parsons.
123	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Dexter gives Tracy one mid-way through the film. This is followed shortly by one from her father.
124	* {{Revenge}}: Mike (incorrectly) assumes this is Dexter's reason for cooperating with Sidney Kidd.
125	-->'''Mike''': So you want to get even with your ex-bride, huh?
126	* RichBitch: Tracy, though she's somewhat toned-down and does improve over time.
127	* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: A mild example, but it's hinted that the Lords aren't too smart about certain things. It's made somewhat clearer in the original play.
128	-->'''Tracy''': Mother, how do you spell "omelet"?
129	-->'''Margaret''': "O-M-M-E-L-E-T."
130	-->'''Tracy''': (''erasing what she has written'') Thought there was another "l".
131	* RichSuitorPoorSuitor: Tracy actually has ''two'' rich suitors (Dexter and George) and one poor one (Mike). The film subverts our expectations somewhat by having Tracy marry [[spoiler: one of the rich ones]]. After all, if money doesn't matter...
132	-->'''Mike''': Well, I made a funny discovery. That in spite of the fact that somebody's up from the bottom, he can still be quite a heel. And even though somebody else is born to the purple, he can still be a very nice guy.
133	* RomanticComedy: Sometimes referred to as a ScrewballComedy, though it's more a successor to the genre.
134	* RomanticFalseLead: Such is the star power of Jimmy Stewart that he is a credible romantic rival to Cary Grant. The guy that plays Kittredge, on the other hand, is an obvious Romantic False Lead.
135	* RunningGag:
136	** During the luncheon scene: "''Another'' place, Edward."
137	** Margaret Lord never can seem to remember who Mike is, first forgetting his name, then mistakenly calling him "Mr. ''O'''Connor", and finally confusing him with one of the musicians.
138	* RunningGagStumbles: At the end of the movie, Margaret seems to have forgotten who Mike is ''again'', because she turns to him and cries, "Dr. Parsons!" Mike starts to correct her, then realizes that Dr. Parsons is actually the pastor, and he is standing right ''behind'' Mike.
139	* SelfMadeMan: George, who made his money in coal mining.
140	* ShipperOnDeck: Dinah much prefers Dexter to George as a brother-in-law, and she's not shy about mentioning it.
141	** Late in the movie, she tries to get Tracy to marry ''Mike'', not because she likes him, but because she believes she [[ShotgunWedding has to]].
142	* ShotgunWedding: Subverted.
143	* ShutUpKiss: Tracy and Mike.
144	* SmugSnake: Seth Lord, though through ValuesDissonance the script is clearly on his side.
145	* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/{{Holiday}}'' (1938). Both films share the same stars (Hepburn and Grant), director (George Cukor), and screenwriter (Donald Ogden Stewart), and both were adaptations of stage plays by Philip Barry.
146	* ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine: Tracy gives Mike and Liz one when pretends not to know they are reporters, and asks them a lot of very personal questions.
147	-->'''Mike''': Look, who's doing the interviewing here???
148	* TheTeetotaler: Implied about Dexter.
149	* TitleDrop: It's Sidney Kidd's title for the story he wants Mike and Liz to write.
150	* WakeUpMakeUp: Well not waking up but Tracy has very good hair and make-up when she emerges after having just been in the pool. Specifically she goes back into the changing room to put her robe on, and then reappears pristine.
151	* WeddingFinale: The story ends on the day of Tracy's wedding.
152	* WhatDidIDoLastNight: What Tracy wants (or ''doesn't'' want) to know in the lead-up to her wedding.
153	* WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant: The Lords.
154	* WhyWasteAWedding: Though she doesn't marry George, Tracy does get (re)married on her wedding day.
155	* WomenAreWiser: Subverted. Tracy sees herself as morally superior to her ex-husband and her father because she doesn't drink or philander. However, they point out that her very self-righteousness is a moral failing that's just as dangerous. Oh, and then she [[HypocriticalHumour gets drunk and makes out with another guy]].
156	** Played straight with Liz. When Dexter asks her why she doesn't marry Mike, she answers, "He's still got a lot to learn. I don't want to get in his way for a while."
157	* WouldHitAGirl: Dexter, at least once. After Tracy snaps one of his golf clubs in half, he raises his arm to punch her, appears to [[WouldntHitAGirl think better of it]], then ends up [[FacepalmOfDoom pushing her down onto the ground]]. A bit more family-friendly, but still kind of mean.
158	* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: The Quaker librarian that Mike talks to asks "What does thee wish?" The grammatically correct form would be "What dost ''thou'' wish?", but Quakers tend to use "thee" as both a subject and object pronoun, so it makes sense in context.
159	* YouDidntAsk: Liz's reason for not telling Mike about her previous marriage.
160	-->'''Mike''': Well, you're the darndest girl.
161	-->'''Liz''': (''primly'') I think I'm sweet.

Context Film / ThePhiladelphiaStory