The Philadelphia Story

I watched this one the other night with my fiancee, so I decided to review it, despite my lack of asking a trivia question about it first. The Philadelphia Story won Oscars in 1941 for Best Actor (James Stewart, his only Oscar win - so there's your trivia for this one) and Best Adapted Screenplay (David Ogden Stewart - no relation, as far as I know). The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (George Cukor), Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn), and Best Supporting Actress (Ruth Hussey).

The film tells the story of Tracy Lord, a wealthy Philadelphia socialite who, having divorced her first husband, C. K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), 2 years before, is now planning to remarry to rags-to-riches former coal-miner George Kittredge (John Howard). Haven, a now recovering alcoholic hoping to stop the wedding from happening, uses Lord's father's indiscretion to blackmail the family into letting a pair of society-page reporters, Macauley Connor (James Stewart) and Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey) stay at the mansion for the wedding weekend. Slapstick antics and witty barbs ensue, as Lord must learn to crack through her porcelain facade and accept human reality, rather than constantly expecting herself and others to live up to her unattainable standards of perfection.

Witty, heartfelt, and entertaining, this film manages an impressive feat of having almost all of its major cast get nominated for Oscars - the exceptions being Cary Grant (who, though highly entertaining, is honestly just playing the role of Cary Grant here) and John Howard (who has a rather thankless role here, existing more for the advancement of the story than to be a character himself). Though light enough to be funny and fun to watch, The Philadelphia Story has something to say about class relations, and about millionaire liberals. But most of all, it's just a fun, slapstick romantic comedy.

Movie trivia question: Though he has one win and one nomination for Best Director Oscars, acting legend Robert Redford has only once been nominated for Best Actor. For what film did he receive his acting nomination?