Alcohol plays a crucial role in the plot of The Philadelphia Story. I mention that because the film was released in 1940, a mere seven years after the end of prohibition. The Broadway play that served as the source material premièred the year before. As screwball comedies go, this one is about a five on the zany scale, with the full-blast Bringing Up Baby peaking that scale at a ten. It’s an amiable enough picture, relying mostly on the charms of its stellar cast, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and James Stewart.
