Welcome to "Saturday Night of the Movies."

I'm your host, Glenn Holland.

Tonight's film is "The Philadelphia Story," released in 1940.

George Cukor directed from a screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart based on the 1939 Broadway hit by Philip Barry.

"The Philadelphia Story" stars Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, and Ruth Hussey, supported by John Howard, Roland Young, Mary Nash, John Halliday, and Virginia Weidler.

"The Philadelphia Story" focuses on the impending wedding of divorced socialite, Tracy Lord, to self-made millionaire, George Kittredge, a man of the people with aspirations towards political office.

The wedding preparations are suddenly disrupted by the arrival of Tracy's first husband, C.K.

Dexter Haven, whom she divorced two years earlier because she couldn't abide his drinking, and he couldn't abide her lack of sympathy and support.

With Dexter, are a man and a woman, Macaulay Connor and Liz Imbrie, who he presents as friends of Tracy's brother, Junius, a diplomat in Argentina, but in fact, Mike Connor and Liz are journalists for the tabloid magazine, Spy, on an undercover assignment to produce a story about the high society wedding without the family's knowledge.

Tracy quickly discerns the truth, but Dexter confesses he agreed to the subterfuge only to prevent Spy's publisher, Sidney Kidd, from printing a story about Tracy's estranged father and his daliance with a chorus girl.

Tracy reluctantly allows the two journalists to stay at the house while the wedding preparations continue, but their presence, along with Dexter's, causes tensions among the family members and between Tracy and her fiance, George.

It turns out a lot of unexpected matters will be raised and need to be settled before the wedding ceremony can finally take place.

"The Philadelphia Story" is based on the 1939 play of the same name, written by Philip Barry.

Born into affluence, Barry shunned a place in the family business in favor of a career as a writer.

He wrote poetry and fiction while it Yale, but later turned to the theater after taking a famous playwriting course at Harvard, a course whose alumni included playwright Eugene O'Neill and novelist Thomas Wolfe.

Barry had a series of stage successes and some notable failures, but he is best remembered today for two of his plays about well-to-do families coming to terms with unconventional people with unconventional ideas.

The first was "Holiday," a 1928 comedy about a wealthy young man reluctant to become tied down to a family business, rather like Philip Barry himself.

"Holiday" was made into a movie twice.

The first version, released by Pathe in 1930, earned an Academy Award nomination for its lead actress, Ann Harding.

The second version, released by Columbia in 1938, was directed by George Cukor and starred Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.

All three of them would work together again two years later on "The Philadelphia Story" for MGM.

Barry wrote his play especially for Katharine Hepburn, who was a personal friend.

At that time, in the late 1930s, Hepburn was at a low point in her career.

After early success on stage and in films, she had starred in a series of cinematic flops, and Hollywood seemed to share the opinion of Manhattan movie theater owner, Harry Brant, that Hepburn was box office poison.

Hepburn not only starred in "The Philadelphia Story" on Broadway, but was also its chief backer, taking no salary, but instead receiving a share of the play's profits.

Despite Hepburn's initial doubts about the play's chances for success, "The Philadelphia Story" proved to be a hit on Broadway, as well as a personal triumph for Katharine Hepburn.

Her romantic partner at the time, Howard Hughes, saw the play as Hepburn's ticket back to Hollywood stardom and bought the film rights.

He then gave them to Hepburn, who in turn sold them to Louis B. Mayer at MGM for only $250,000 with the proviso that she would have approval of the producer, director, screenwriter, and cast.

She chose wisely.

The film was a huge success.

Screenwriter, Donald Ogden Stewart, received an Oscar, and James Stewart received his only Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as the skeptical journalist, Macaulay Mike Connor.

Katharine Hepburn's character in "The Philadelphia Story," Tracy Lord, was based on one of Philip Barry's friends, the socialite and philanthropist, Helen Hope Montgomery Scott, whom Vanity Fair once dubbed, the unofficial queen of Philadelphia's WASP oligarchy.

Scott was renowned for her intelligence, her hijinks, and her free-spirited elegance.

Her aristocratic beauty was immortalized by photographer, Cecil Beaton, and the portraitist, Augustus John, and she was a regular feature on Couturier's best-dressed lists.

[gentle instrumental music] In the late 30s, Philip Barry became intrigued by the growing popularity of tabloids that thrived on gossip and scandals, the very sort of lurid journalism most likely to offend the refined sensibilities of the upper classes.

There were even rumors of attempts to blackmail members of high society through threats of exposing family indiscretions in these same tabloids.

As it happened, Barry's wife, Ellen, had one suggested he write a play about Philadelphia high society, which was more stayed and traditional than that of other major American cities.

Out of these elements, a lively young socialite, a scandal-loving tabloid press, a threat of journalistic blackmail, and a high-bound upper class, Philip Barry created his greatest theatrical success.

[gentle instrumental music] "The Philadelphia Story" is one of the best examples of a comedy of remarriage, a type of romantic comedy popular in the 1930s and 40s.

These stories present a divorced couple who bicker and flirt with other people, but eventually reconcile and remarry.

This approach provided a handy way for Hollywood to present certain sorts of situations and dialogue that might not otherwise be allowed at a time when the Film Production Code prohibited any depiction of extramarital affairs with a happy resolution.

Donald Ogden Stewart, another friend of Philip Barry's, adapted the play for the screen.

In his autobiography, Stewart said the original play was so perfect, adapting it was the easiest job he had ever had to do in Hollywood.

But adapting a play to the screen requires envisioning the story in an entirely different way.

Consider the opening of the film.

In a wordless scene, punctuated by music and percussion, we see Dexter storm out of his house with a suitcases in each hand and others sitting on the front porch next to his waiting car.

Tracy follows in a nightgown, carrying his pipe rack and golf clubs.

She drops the pipes at his feet, throws the golf bag, and breaks a club, probably his favorite, over her knee.

Dexter drops his suitcases and goes to punch Tracy in the face, but stops.

She gives him a smug smile, and he pushes her by the chin onto her backside, leaving her looking hurt and a little sorry.

Then an inner title announces, "Two years later," and we see a newspaper's story announcing Tracy's impending to George Kittredge.

This is brilliant filmmaking.

In literally one minute, we learn, without dialogue, everything we need to know about the relationship between Dexter and Tracy and what has led up to everything that happens in the rest of the film.

But there's also some ad-libbing not in Stewart's script.

During the scene where Mike Connor is talking drunkenly with Dexter Haven at his house after a party, James Stewart spontaneously hiccuped during one of his speeches.

Cary Grant, surprised, ad-libbed a dead pan, "Excuse me."

Stewart replied, "Huh?"

Then smiled.

Grant had to turn his head to stifle his laughter and said, "Nothing."

Director Cukor liked the exchange and used that take in the film.

James Stewart was apparently uneasy with some of his dialogue in the script.

He was particularly nervous about the scene where Mike Connor recites his poetry to Tracy, afraid that he wouldn't be able to pull it off successfully.

The British playwright, Noel Coward, happened to be visiting the set the day that scene was to be shot, and George Cukor asked him to say something to James Stewart to encourage him.

Coward offhandedly said something like, "Did I mention I think you're a marvelous actor?

", and Stewart went on to perform the scene flawlessly.

James Stewart was not planning to attend the Academy Awards the year "The Philadelphia Story" was nominated for six Oscars, but he received a telephone call before the ceremony suggesting he should put on his tuxedo and make an appearance.

Stewart had voted for Henry Fonda for Best Actor in John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath," but instead took home that Oscar himself.

When Donald Ogden Stewart received his own award for Best Screenplay, he broke with both earlier and later Oscar ceremony tradition by announcing, "I have no one to thank but myself."

[Glenn laughs] Please join us again next time for another "Saturday Night at the Movies."

I'm Glenn Holland.

Good night.