The Philadelphia Story (1940) was the film that brought Katharine Hepburn back to the top, as Tracy Lord, a Philadelphia socialite on the eve of her second wedding.
Hepburn had played Tracy on Broadway, and she helped bring the play to the screen with Cary Grant and James Stewart. Tracy is proud, witty and guarded, and the film’s comedy comes from her learning to be a little less perfect and a little more human.
The performance restored Hepburn’s standing in Hollywood after a run of failures, and it remains one of her most sparkling roles. Tracy Lord is Hepburn at her best: quick, elegant and unexpectedly tender.
Image: Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year, Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Katharine_hepburn_woman_of_the_year_cropped.jpg