THE PHILADELPHIA STORY
By Philip Barry

Set outside Philadelphia, the wealthy and beautiful Tracy Lord is to be married to George Kittredge. Her ex-husband, C. K. Dexter Haven, throws a chink in the lover's plans. To stop a seedy newspaper tabloid from printing an exposé on the Lord patriarch's illicit love affair, Dexter allows himself to be blackmailed into arranging for a writer and photographer to attend the wedding anonymously. Even though their marriage was short-lived because of his irresponsible ways, Dexter still loves Tracy and wants to protect her family from scandal. When he arrives at the Lord mansion with supposed friends of the bride's brother, all chaos breaks loose. It's not long before Tracy realizes the pair is not supposed to be there and Dexter is forced to admit who they are. Tracy, disgusted and angry with her father, nevertheless agrees to keep the scavengers around to protect him.
As the wedding day fast approaches, Tracy is forced to look at herself closely, and she doesn't like what she sees: a woman who doesn't tolerate human imperfection and has placed herself on a pedestal, a mere sculpture to be worshipped. Macauley Connor, the Dime and Spy reporter, sees beyond Tracy's cold exterior and quickly becomes infatuated with her.
The night before the wedding, Tracy lets her guard down and enjoys a little too much champagne with Macauley. Together they dance under the stars and go swimming in the middle of the night. Only hours before the ceremony, Macauley carries the incoherent Tracy back to the house and puts her to bed, but he is confronted by George as he's leaving. Jealous, the groom blames Macauley for the episode and warns him not to be present the next day.
Tracy awakes the next morning with a severe headache and no recollection of the previous night's events. Dexter fills her in on the details before George appears and demands an explanation for her behavior. The wedding is called off and Tracy must face the crowd of guests. Before she makes her announcement, Macauley proposes to her, admitting he has fallen in love. She gently refuses and turns to explain that there will be no wedding. Then Dexter offers to stand in, and Tracy accepts emphatically. Walking down the isle to marry the man she has always loved, Tracy finally feels "like a human being."
Consistently funny, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY provides pure entertainment.