This is a paste diamond with more flash and sparkle than a true one. The director, George Cukor, has never been more heartlessly sure of him- self.

| Jul 6, 2022

Miss Hepburn has accomplished the thing she set out to do with both movie and stage play. She has made the showmen who labeled her boxofrice poison eat their words and rue the day they were ever so uncomplimentary.

| Jun 10, 2021

Barry's sprightly lines and the almost equally bright additional Stewart dialogue, of course, make the play the thing. But, frankly, it would be hard to imagine The Philadelphia Story without Katharine Hepburn.

| Jun 10, 2021

The Hepburn genius, long left a-smouldering in oblivion, blazes forth brightly in the screen version of the Phillip Barry stage play.

| Jun 10, 2021

Katharine Hepburn gives the finest performance of her career.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 10, 2021

In its 112 minutes' running time, The Philadelphia Story offers brand-new ideas on the upper classes, brand-new laughs at the expense of everybody, delicately detailed characterizations, full of human warmth and reality, and superb direction.

| Jun 10, 2021

Miss Hepburn, who left Hollywood one of its "failures," thus becomes the year's most brilliant "comeback."

| Jun 10, 2021

Throughout the film light comedy trips along, with James Stewart, Cary Grant, and Roland Young to give crackle to the wisecracks.

| Jun 10, 2021

Miss Hepburn is perfect as Tracy; Stewart and Grant and Howard make a happy contrast in suitors.

| Jun 10, 2021

[Grant] watches their indiscretions with an inward amusement and is amusing himself, and Miss Virginia Weidler, as Tracy's young sister, adds to the general humour of the film.

| Jun 10, 2021

Taken altogether, Philadelphia Story is cinema entertainment of the blue ribbon, gold medal, knockout-in-one-round class.

| Jun 10, 2021

Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart comprise the starring trio, sharing honors so perfectly it would be impossible for a reviewer to choose a top performance.

| Jun 10, 2021

[The Philadelphia Story] follows the stage version very closely, but adds new touches of brilliant and amusing dialog and some exceptionally fine performance on the part of the cant as a whole.

| Jun 9, 2021

It is a long time since such a superb production as The Philadelphia Story has been given to the screen. [It's] brilliantly acted, produced with a rare elegance, and directed with an artistry that matches the chief characterisations.

| Jun 9, 2021

The "story" is otherwise well told in satirical strength, with a cleverness which is refreshing.

| Jun 9, 2021

Miss Hepburn, as a comedienne, is perhaps a greater star than she ever was at any prior cinema period, as a serious actress. This comes near being her champion achievement.

| Apr 22, 2019

This frothy theatre adaptation dates from the period when Hollywood had pretty much perfected the art of the romantic comedy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 17, 2015

Still a sparkling delight.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 13, 2015

Utterly beguiling, funny and romantic ...

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 12, 2015

The film is a Hepburn triumph, and moviegoers who resent the theatre's habit of requisitioning their stars may feel that Miss Hepburn's time on the stage has not been spent in vain and that she simply prepared herself for this achievement.

| Dec 16, 2013