The Philadelphia Story - The Criterion Collection

Zavvi - The Home of Pop CultureJames Stewart, Cary Grant, and the unstoppable Katharine Hepburn star in Hollywood'sgreatest romantic comedy...With this furiously witty comedy of manners, Katherine Hepburn (Woman of the Year)revitalized her career and cemented her status as the era's most iconic leading lady -thanks in great part to her own shrewd orchestrations. While starring in the Philip Barrystage play The Philadelphia Story, Hepburn snapped up the screen rights, handpicking herfriend George Cukor (Adam's Rib) to direct. The intoxicating screenplay by DonaldOgden Stewart (Holiday) pits the formidable Philadelphia socialite Tracy Lord (Hepburn,at her most luminous) against various romantic foils, chief among them her charismatic exhusband(His Girl Friday's Cary Grant), who disrupts her imminent marriage by payingher family estate a visit, accompanied by a tabloid reporter on assignment to cover thewedding of the year (James Stewart, in his only Academy Award®-winningperformance). A fast‐talking screwball comedy as well as a tale of regrets andreconciliation, this convergence of golden‐age talent is one of the greatest American filmsof all time.Features:New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrackAudio commentary from 2005 featuring film scholar Jeanine BasingerNew introduction to actor Katharine Hepburn's role in the development of the film bydocumentarians David Heeley and Joan KramerIn Search of Tracy Lord, a new documentary about the origin of the character and hersocial milieuTwo full episodes of The Dick Cavett Show from 1973, featuring rare interviews withHepburn, plus an excerpt of a 1978 interview from that show with director GeorgeCukorLux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1943, featuring an introduction byfilmmaker Cecil B. DeMilleRestoration demonstrationPlus: An essay by critic Farran Smith Nehme