Director
George Cukor
Leading Actors/Actresses
Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Mary Nash, Virginia Weidler, John Howard, Ruth Hussey
Genre
Comedy, Romance
Language
English
Awards
Won 2 Oscars: Best Actor in a Leading Role—James Stewart, Best Adapted Screenplay—Donald Ogden Stewart
Date of Release
1940
Producer
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Setting and Context
Philadelphia, 1940
Narrator and Point of View
There is no narrator and the point of view shifts around between characters
Tone and Mood
Comedic, Dramatic, Romantic, Screwball, Comedy of Manners
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: Tracy. Antagonist: Sidney Kidd, also George Kittredge to some extent
Major Conflict
Tracy is set to be married to George Kittredge and Spy Magazine wants the scoop, so sends Mike and Liz to cover the wedding, blackmailing the Lords into letting them report in exchange for not releasing a story about Mr. Lord's philandering. Another part of the conflict is that Tracy's ex-husband, Dexter, wants her back.
Climax
The climax occurs when Dexter proposes to Tracy after she rejects George, and they decide to get married again.
Foreshadowing
Tracy's guzzling three champagnes one after another foreshadows that she will have a debaucherous evening. Not to mention that Dexter mentions earlier an instance in which Tracy "got drunk on champagne and climbed out on the roof, and stood there, naked, with [her] arms out to the moon, wailing like a banshee."
Understatement
Dexter's proposal to Tracy is a bit of an understatement in that he obliquely squeezes it into a moment in which he dictates a speech that she is giving to her wedding guests. Rather than get down on one knee, he resorts to a casual suaveness.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
Allusions
Machiavelli, ivory towers
Paradox
Tracy's father scolds her for being a bad daughter, but then when she apologizes, he tells her she doesn't need to.
Parallelism
Dexter's blackmailing Kidd parallels Kidd's blackmailing Dexter.
