Katharine Hepburn is Tracy Lord, the breezy socialite whose looming wedding to a dull self-made millionaire brings her ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) back into her life. Playful on its sparkling surface but canny and insightful at its heart, the Oscar-winning screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart (adapted from Philip Barry’s play) delivers cutting truths about romance, marriage and forgiveness while giving the nimble ensemble of actors (including an Oscar-winning James Stewart as reporter Macaulay Connor) room to tease comedy out of class conflict and shattered illusions, and drama out of an innocent drunken midnight swim. - BFI
