The Philadelphia Story (1940)

A couple of SPY Magazine reporters (James Stewart, and Ruth Hussey) are smuggled into a high-class Philadelphia wedding by blackmailing an also unwelcome former husband because of his ex-father-in-law's peccadilloes with a dancer.

The writer and photographer get more than they bargained for when their cover is immediately blown without them being automatically aware of it.

The whole family participates in a malicious campaign of befuddlement and confused identities starting when the interview tables are turned on them; then with a nutty performance of Lydia the Tattooed Lady, (later someone will croon Over the Rainbow); the planting a 'stolen' wedding gift cigarette lighter in the writer's pocket, etc.

It's not until the writer is revealed as more than simply a tabloid article writer that the tide beings to turn and he is better accepted by some of the family.

Complicating matters is that when he shows up, the father expresses no interest whatsoever in having his dirty laundry hidden from the press: He doesn't even care!

And yet, everyone stays with the plan and sticks to landing.

Add to that that it becomes obvious to both the reporters (who are also developing a romantic something between themselves) that the wedding couple is severely mismatched: She (Katharine Hepburn,) is a self-defined goddess, (or so, everyone tells her,) who cannot accept the sort of normal human frailty which resulted in divorce from her first husband (he drank); and he (John Howard) a self-deluded groom who thinks it's his job as husband to put her on a pedestal to worship, which results in the reporters becoming emotionally involved and seriously entangled in their relationship.

And so, a story develops in which the bride must learn her own lessons in basic humanity; and the writer, a snob himself (or a reverse-snob, the sort played by Groucho Marx in his features,) infatuated with her must learn to be patient with the wealthy (a line he wrote himself, but whose meaning he clearly missed.)

These two become our two main players, and both are allowed some growth by the conclusion. James Stewart the everyman, audience identification figure, but always a social gulf between them.

Cary Grant, as the ex-husband apparently is already fine and requires no growth himself.

As in Holiday (1938) there is some social commentary on the wealthy (mostly provided by the two reporters,) but this time it is hardly the film's main focus.

While working class, the reporters express that they would switch places with their wealthy counterparts in a heartbeat; or at the very least they enjoy a guiltless, vicarious life of champagne luxury for the space of a few days.

Instead, the focus is on a more Universal message of simple acceptance of humanity and its failings. which might account for the film's larger success.

A witty, sophisticated, romantic film with plenty of subtle laughs which at times veers into Screwball Comedy territory and is now fully deserving of 100 Best Film status.