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Tickets are $10.July 10 at 7pm.
THE PHILADELPHIA STORY
(1940, 112 min)
Tracy Lord’s (Katharine Hepburn) wedding plans to a social climbing stiff descend into chaos with the arrival of a team of tabloid snoops hosted by her former husband (Cary Grant). Can a sensitive slumming novelist (James Stewart) or her ex bring her to her senses? Barry wrote and rewrote The Philadelphia Story specifically for Hepburn, and she dazzled Broadway in it. Hepburn’s beau at the time was millionaire Howard Hughes, who advised her to buy the screen rights, so that when the play was a success, the movie version would not be cast without her. In fact, he lent her the money himself. Cary Grant, a bigger star than James Stewart at the time, was allowed to choose which of the two leading male parts he wanted to play, and chose the less showy part of ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven. James Stewart was still at the beginning of his star career, and felt uncomfortable both with the reporter’s rather poetic dialogue in the swimming pool scene, and his wardrobe. “If I appear in a bathing suit, I know it’s the end of my career, and also the end of the motion picture industry.” Stewart won his only Oscar for the role. This film was the first video I ever bought, when VCRs were still in their infancy. The Philadelphia Story is one of those perfect moments in the Hollywood studio system, a film that never has and probably never will be out of style.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Carolina Theatre of Durham, 309 W Morgan St, Durham, NC 27701-2119, United States,Durham, North Carolina
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