The Course of True Love Gathers No Moss

I’ve had a lifelong love affair with movies. From blockbuster action flicks to tear jerking romances, there is rarely a movie I meet that I don’t like (hey, even Troll 2 tickled my funny bone). And do you know what, Huntsville? There is an excellent series of classic movies showing every Monday night — for free — at the Huntsville Public Library downtown.

While these are billed as “screwball comedies from before the war” don’t let that title deter you from attending. As an avid cinephile and fanatical film buff, I can vouch for the timelessness and humor of these classics. Truly, Zach Galifianakis has nothing on a comedic Cary Grant.

For those of you reading about this series for the first time today, I have a bit of bad news: It Happened One Night and His Girl Friday have already screened. All, however, is not lost! The crown jewel of this era, The Philadelphia Story, will play on Monday night.

The Philadelphia Story

Released in December 1940, the movie stars three screen legends Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart. George Cukor directs Hepburn as she brings to life the vivacious, self-centered socialite Tracy Lord. As the film begins we see Lord tossing out her husband C.K. Dexter Haven (played by a dashing Grant). Fast-forward two years after their break-up, and she is about to remarry, with the ceremony taking place at the Lord mansion. Her ex-husband arrives unexpectedly at her home the day before the wedding with a tabloid writer in tow (played to perfection by Stewart). Hijinks ensue as the ex-husband is determined to spoil the wedding.

Historically the movie remains one of the best examples of a comedy of remarriage, which was a popular genre in the 1930s and 1940s. The plot — where a couple divorce, flirt with outsiders, and then remarry — was a useful story-telling device during an era when extramarital affairs were not allowed to be depicted in motion pictures.

But you don’t have to take my word for it! The library has graciously arranged commentators to educate us on the screwball genre of the 30’s and 40’s. That’s right folks, following the screening, local film scholars Dr. Jennifer Garlen, David Lilly, and UNA instructor Anissa Graham will discuss these screwball comedies, which remain some of the most respected films in Hollywood history.

I contacted David Lilly at the Huntsville Public Library and asked if there are more free movies on the horizon. He confirmed that there are, and that he hoped to show four flicks starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall this summer. Lilly also pointed out that attendees are permitted to bring their own beverages and snacks.

Please HPL — I implore you — continue to screen classic cinema. There are those of us in the Valley that love a good story. And, to quote C.K. Dexter Haven, ‘the course of true love gathers no moss.’

Film Series Details

All films are shown in the second floor events room of the main library downtown. Snacks and beverages are permitted. Contact David Lilly at (256) 532-5975 for more information.

Monday, March 12 @ 6pm

The Philadelphia Story (1941)

When a rich woman’s ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.  Stars Hepburn, Grant, and Stewart.

Monday, March 19 @ 6pm

The Palm Beach Story (1942)

An inventor needs cash to develop his big idea. His wife, who loves him, decides to raise it for him by divorcing him and marrying a millionaire. Stars Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea.

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Read original NYT film review of The Philadelphia Story

NEW YORK TIMES Film Review – December 27, 1940
– by Bosley Crowther

All those folks who wrote Santa Claus asking him to send them a sleek new custom-built comedy with fast lines and the very finest in Hollywood fittings got their wish just one day late with the opening of “The Philadelphia Story” yesterday at the Music Hall. For this present, which really comes via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 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 Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Cary Grant. If it doesn’t play out this year and well along into next they should turn the Music Hall into a shooting gallery.

It has been a long time since Hollywood has spent itself so extravagantly, and to such entertaining effect, upon a straight upper-crust fable, an unblushing apologia for plutocracy. Money and talent are mostly going these days into elaborate outdoor epics and rugged individualist films. It is like old times to see one about the trials and tribulations of the rich, and to have Miss Hepburn back, after a two-year recess, as another spoiled and willful daughter of America’s unofficial peerage, comporting herself easily amid swimming pools, stables and the usual appurtenances of a huge estate.

For that is what she is – and does – in the Messrs. Stewart’s and Barry’s pleasant dissertation upon a largely inconsequential subject, that subject being the redemption of a rather priggish and disagreeable miss. The writers have solemnly made her out as a frigid and demanding sort of person – one of “a special class of American females; the married maidens” – who has divorced her first husband and is preparing to take unto herself another simply because she doesn’t understand her own psyche. But an amusing complication, whereby an ink-smeared journalist and a girl photographer turn up to “cover” her wedding for a “snoop” magazine leads to a strange exposure of her basic hypocrisy, and she remarries the proper man to the proper effect.

Truthfully, the psychology of the story is a specious as a spiel, and, for all the talk about the little lady being “a sort of high priestess to a virgin goddess,” etc., she is and remains at the end of what most folks would call a plain snob. But the way Miss Hepburn plays her, with the wry things she is given to say, she is an altogether charming character to meet cinematically. Some one was rudely charging a few years ago that Miss Hepburn was “box-office poison.” If she is, a lot of people don’t read labels – including us.

But she isn’t the only one who gives a brilliant performance in this film. James Stewart, as the acid word-slinger, matches her poke for gibe all the way and incidentally contributes one of the most cozydrunk scenes with Miss Hepburn we’ve ever seen. Cary Grant, too, is warmly congenial as the cast-off but undefeated mate, and Ruth Hussey, VirginiaWeidler, Roland Young and Mary Nash add much to the merriment.

Provided you have a little patience for the lavishly rich, which these folk are, you should have great fun at “The Philadelphia Story.” For Metro and Director George Cukor have graciously made it apparent, in the words of a character, that one of “the prettiest sightspretty world is the privileged classes enjoying their privileges.” And so, in this instance, will you, too.