... and IMHO just about a perfect romantic comedy. C.K.Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) had a short stormy marriage to Tracy Lord (Hepburn). Now she is about to marry George Kittredge (John Howard). Haven and Lord are old money elite. Kittredge is a guy who pulled himself up by his bootstraps...and he won't let anybody forget it. You never really know WHY Dexter agrees to help infiltrate and therefore sabotage Tracy's second marriage. You never know if he intended to try and get her back -from the opening scene it seems their parting was pretty acrimonious. Or maybe he just knew that Kittredge was a drip and didn't want Tracy to suffer a lifetime of..well..being dripped on. At any rate he convinces the Lords into allowing two reporters from "Spy Magazine" to cover her wedding because the magazine publisher has a story all ready to go about Tracy's father's affair with a chorus girl if that coverage is not allowed. Since Haven, although he doesn't need the salary, works for the magazine too, this allows him to get back into the Lord household and do his best to ruffle Tracy's feathers. Tracy's problem and the reason that her first marriage broke up was her inability to see her own moral weaknesses while pointing out everybody else's.
Tracy is completely to the manor born. When she discovers that one of the reporters (James Stewart as Macauley Conner) has written a beautiful book of poetry she asks him why he works for a cheap tabloid magazine instead of writing his own material. His reply is that he has to eat, and this answer rather stumps her. There are many complicating factors. Tracy's dad is off with his mistress, so the Lords try to pass their uncle Wllly off as Mr. Lord to the reporters. When Tracy's dad returns unexpectedly they try to pass him off as uncle Willy. The two reporters (Stewart and Ruth Hussey) have some kind of low key romantic understanding, but then Macauley begins to become attracted to Tracy. Add alcohol and almost code busting complications and insinuations ensue.
It really holds up today as a genuine romantic comedy and comedy of manners in which everybody displays authentic behavior and reactions in spite of that pesky production code. The only thing archaic and even somewhat repulsive is how Tracy's father tries to make his affair with the chorus girl all Tracy's fault. He tells her that when a man has a daughter that loves him in spite of his faults he doesn't go looking for that in his golden years in another woman. I wonder if Chelsea Clinton ever had these problems? But I digress.
Let me just say one thing about James Stewart's Best Actor Oscar. Stewart was wonderful as a working man captivated by a woman from another world, who discovers that the rich are not all jerks, but he was definitely not the lead. This was Grant and Hepburn's picture all of the way. The only thing I can figure is that the Academy felt that they did Stewart wrong the previous year by passing him over in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, and were making amends.
I highly recommend this to anyone. If you are not into classic film and would like to be, this is a perfect place to start.
Tracy is completely to the manor born. When she discovers that one of the reporters (James Stewart as Macauley Conner) has written a beautiful book of poetry she asks him why he works for a cheap tabloid magazine instead of writing his own material. His reply is that he has to eat, and this answer rather stumps her. There are many complicating factors. Tracy's dad is off with his mistress, so the Lords try to pass their uncle Wllly off as Mr. Lord to the reporters. When Tracy's dad returns unexpectedly they try to pass him off as uncle Willy. The two reporters (Stewart and Ruth Hussey) have some kind of low key romantic understanding, but then Macauley begins to become attracted to Tracy. Add alcohol and almost code busting complications and insinuations ensue.
It really holds up today as a genuine romantic comedy and comedy of manners in which everybody displays authentic behavior and reactions in spite of that pesky production code. The only thing archaic and even somewhat repulsive is how Tracy's father tries to make his affair with the chorus girl all Tracy's fault. He tells her that when a man has a daughter that loves him in spite of his faults he doesn't go looking for that in his golden years in another woman. I wonder if Chelsea Clinton ever had these problems? But I digress.
Let me just say one thing about James Stewart's Best Actor Oscar. Stewart was wonderful as a working man captivated by a woman from another world, who discovers that the rich are not all jerks, but he was definitely not the lead. This was Grant and Hepburn's picture all of the way. The only thing I can figure is that the Academy felt that they did Stewart wrong the previous year by passing him over in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, and were making amends.
I highly recommend this to anyone. If you are not into classic film and would like to be, this is a perfect place to start.