Macaulay Connor, a reporter sent to cover Tracy Lord’s wedding, finds himself falling for the bride — and questioning everything he thought he knew about love and class.
In The Philadelphia Story (1940), James Stewart plays Macaulay Connor, a writer for a scandal magazine who is sent, with a photographer, to report on the wedding of Tracy Lord, played by Katharine Hepburn. Connor pretends to be a friend of Tracy’s brother, but he soon sees past the gossip and recognises a woman who is witty, proud and lonely. He falls for her, even as her ex-husband, C. K. Dexter Haven, played by Cary Grant, is also still in love with her.
Stewart gives Connor a wonderful mix of humour and feeling. He is funny when he is drunk and sentimental, and he is touching when he admits that he has never met anyone like Tracy. His scenes with Hepburn are full of sharp dialogue and real warmth, and they show why Stewart could hold his own against the biggest stars of his generation.
The Philadelphia Story is a classic of the romantic comedy, and Stewart’s Macaulay Connor is at its centre: an outsider who sees the truth about a world he was sent to mock, and who wins the audience by being honest about his own heart.