This film was released on Friday 13th February 2015 and is no longer screening.

IFI CLASSIC

Adapted from Phillip Barry’s 1939 hit Broadway play, The Philadelphia Story gave Katharine Hepburn her biggest hit during barren years when she was considered box office poison, earned James Stewart his only acting Oscar (Donald Ogden Stewart also won for Best Adapted Screenplay) and was remade as the musical High Society in 1956. It remains an irresistible romantic caper, as affecting as it is funny, with Hepburn and Stewart joined by the unimpeachable Cary Grant to form a terrific trio at the centre of the film. Hepburn plays Tracy Lord, a wealthy socialite with exacting standards.

She’s about to marry George Kittredge (John Howard) and has to deal with indignant interest in the wedding from tattle magazine Spy and its pompous reporter Mike Connor (Stewart) as well as the unexpected arrival of her first husband C. K. Dexter Haven (Grant), who is much loved by her family, if not by her. (Notes by Michael Hayden.)

Don’t forget we now schedule weekly.

★★★★★ The Guardian ★★★★★ The Irish Times