The Philadelphia Story is a 1940 American romantic comedy film[2][3] starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Ruth Hussey.

Directed by George Cukor, the film is based on the 1939 Broadway play of the same name by Philip Barry[4] about a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her ex-husband and a tabloid magazine journalist.

The socialite, played by Hepburn in both productions, was inspired by Helen Hope Montgomery Scott (1904–1995), a Philadelphia heiress who had married Barry's friend.

[5] Written for the screen by Donald Ogden Stewart and an uncredited Waldo Salt, it is considered among the best examples of a comedy of remarriage, in which a couple divorce, flirt with outsiders and then remarry.

[6][7] The film was Hepburn's first hit following several flops that caused her placement on a 1938 list of actors considered to be "box office poison" compiled by theater owner Harry Brandt.

MGM remade the film in 1956 as a musical retitled High Society, starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra.

In New York, Spy magazine publisher Sidney Kidd is eager to cover the wedding and assigns reporter Mike Connor and photographer Liz Imbrie.

[14] Her costars were Joseph Cotten as Dexter Haven, Van Heflin as Mike Connor and Shirley Booth as Liz Imbrie.

[4] Hepburn had hoped to create a film vehicle for herself that would erase the label of "box office poison" that she had acquired after a number of commercial failures (such as Bringing Up Baby).

Hepburn then sold the rights to MGM's Louis B. Mayer for $250,000 and the power of final approval of the film's producer, director, screenwriter and cast.

[10][14] Hepburn selected director George Cukor, with whom she had worked for A Bill of Divorcement (1932) and Little Women (1933), and Barry's friend Donald Ogden Stewart, a writer experienced with adapting plays to the screen.

[16] Grant agreed to play the part only if he were afforded top billing and that his salary would be $137,000, which he donated to the British War Relief Society.

[1] Writing for The New York Times in 1940, Bosley Crowther wrote that the film "has just about everything that a blue-chip comedy should have—a witty, romantic script derived by Donald Ogden Stewart out of Philip Barry's successful play; the flavor of high-society elegance, in which the patrons invariably luxuriate; and a splendid cast of performers headed by Hepburn, Stewart, and Grant.

The consensus reads: "Offering a wonderfully witty script, spotless direction from George Cukor, and typically excellent lead performances, The Philadelphia Story is an unqualified classic.

[42] The film was adapted in 1956 as the MGM musical High Society, directed by Charles Walters and starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holm and Louis Armstrong.