There are some genres that are rarely associated with high art: slasher movies, sports movies, anything with Rob Schneider in it. But romantic comedies are different, because they do exist on this AFI list—just mostly the ones in black and white.
This movie is one of the classics that made it. So the question becomes: is it so much different than its contemporaries? With its huge A-list stars, who appear in other "best movies ever," is it so much better? Or, like we explored with other comedies, is it only easier to judge comedy with enough hindsight? In that case, does the com make the rom stand the test of time?
We’re going to explore all that as we are here with 1940’s The Philadelphia Story, written by Donald Ogden Stewart (based on the play by Philip Barry) and directed by George Cukor..
So a piece of all these movies is their underlying message. With The Philadelphia Story, the main message seems to be: we are best with the people who love us for who we are.
A big central question in this is who Tracy will wind up with: Mike, Dexter, or maybe even the one she’s set to marry—George Kittredge (aka "richguy"). It even opens with Tracy and Dexter having an epic fight (and people went HARD in 1940), indicating that maybe these two aren’t quite right.
But something that becomes evident is that Tracy’s other suitors aren’t quite right for her. Yeah, George is all set to marry her, but it’s made clear that he’s boring and not quite her style. It does look like through much of it that Mike might be the right one for her, but also, much of his attraction came from being wasted. No, it’s the one that Liz had all the passion for and never forgot about that became her match: Dexter.
Also, Mike and Liz work so well together that he never even considered her an option. They are so clearly good together, it took Mike being rejected—and Tracy pointing it out—for him to get it through his thick skull.
And maybe even Tracy’s dad could take note that the person he should be with is the woman he fell in love with.
So this movie does have a ton of the conventions that modern romcoms have: the comedy, the missteps, the will-they/won’t-they.
It also does a lot of things differently.
For one, many romcoms have some sort of love triangle. This one has more of a love pentagon with George, Tracy, Dexter, Mike, and Liz. This makes for a much more interesting angle.
There’s also a deeper mystery. In most romcoms, you know exactly who will wind up together from the beginning of the movie. I mean, you usually know just from seeing the poster. With The Philadelphia Story, you really don’t know. I mean, we know she won’t be with George, but she could just as easily end up with Mike or Dexter.
Also, the directing, acting, and writing are top notch. I mean, it has quotes like this: "The time to make up your mind about people is never."
We will see other romcoms on the list. One could say Swing Time, which came four years before this one, follows the romantic comedy formula much more closely.
But The Philadelphia Story takes chances. It does things differently, and most importantly, it treats itself as a great movie.
So I do think it takes some perspective to see, and we might see more modern romcoms in future additions to the list—or we might not.
Now the real question is: how many Rob Schneider movies will we get?