The Philadelphia Story

This may not be the perfect movie, there are certainly weightier films, but I cannot imagine it better at what it is. Katharine Hepburn masterfully engineers her comeback from “box-office poison” -- gets a play written for her, a playful take on her public persona, makes it a Broadway success, then returns to Hollywood on her own terms, gets her favorite director, George Cukor, and co-star, Cary Grant, plus emerging star James Stewart, to create an enduring Hollywood classic, a bit of froth that keeps its head after all these years. It’s got enough heart to show that Kate had one, enough plutocratic luxe to revive a Depression genre, enough wit to evoke a permanent smile. (1940, dvd, r.) *8+*