The People's Choice
We watched The Philadelphia Story again this past weekend. As a refresher or for those who have never seen this wonderful movie:
Philadelphia-based socialite Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn, for whom playright Phillip Barry wrote the original play after spending some time with her at her CT home and observing "her strong willed relations, as well as her discarded husband, Ogden Ludlow Smith, a Main Line aristo who hung around the place as an official younger brother"), once married to childhood sweetheart C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), also from the moneyed classes, is planning to remarry George Kittredge (John Howard), a former coalman who "worked" his way up to general manager of the coal factory owned by Tracy's father Seth (John Halliday), and who has designs on a political future.
Dexter Haven has been laying low since the divorce, working in South America for a tabloid called SPY Magazine run by Sidney Kidd (Henry Daniell, oozing sleaze), who has blackmailed him into acquiring an exclusive story and photos on the upcoming Kittredge/Lord nuptials in exchange for not reporting about Seth Lord's supposed dalliance with a New York theatre floozy. Writer Macauley Connor (James Stewart) and photographer Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey, who manages to steal every scene she's in which ain't easy with that cast) are assigned to the puff piece and photo spread, much to Connor's disgust and over his objections. (Imbrie is more practical, acknowledging that she has to earn money for frivolities like food and rent.)
The setup doesn't really do justice to this witty movie (here's some samples of Barry's dialogue), but at its heart it's not just Tracy's tale but an examination of class and classiness. Kittredge is seen as a fairly classless social climber who wants to marry the perfect woman mainly to enhance his own status and garner publicity. He's thrilled that Connor and Imbrie are going to play up the wedding, and is more than willing to posture for their benefit. He and Sidney are two of a kind, but at least Kidd wears his sleaziness on his sleeve, where Kittredge puts on as many airs as he can get away with (and is constantly exposed as outclassed). Other characters refer to him sardonically as "the people's choice" as part of his naked ambition is to play to the classes he left behind in order to get elected.
Anyway, it's a terrific film and I couldn't help but be reminded of it while reading Glenn Greenwald's takedown of a number of superbly classless ultra-right pundits who criticized the New York Times on its Sidney Kidd'ishness for doing a puff piece and photo spread on the vacation homes of people like Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. The objection was not to the puffery, but to the supposed invasion of privacy which the pundits built up to the point of near-treason and all but suggested that the Connor and Imbrie in question - in this case, writer Peter T. Kilborn and photographer Linda Spillers - ought to be taken out and shot.
Glenn follows up today by saying he emailed Kilborn and Spillers for clarification, and Spillers wrote back saying "Ironically, photos were taken with Secretary Rumsfeld's permission." Yes, hard as it may be to believe, The People's Choice actually courted SPY Magazine.
Maybe ultra-right pundit loonies just don't watch old movies any more. I'm sorry Ruth Hussey is no longer with us; I wonder who her successor would be to portray Spillers.
We watched The Philadelphia Story again this past weekend. As a refresher or for those who have never seen this wonderful movie:
Philadelphia-based socialite Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn, for whom playright Phillip Barry wrote the original play after spending some time with her at her CT home and observing "her strong willed relations, as well as her discarded husband, Ogden Ludlow Smith, a Main Line aristo who hung around the place as an official younger brother"), once married to childhood sweetheart C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), also from the moneyed classes, is planning to remarry George Kittredge (John Howard), a former coalman who "worked" his way up to general manager of the coal factory owned by Tracy's father Seth (John Halliday), and who has designs on a political future.
Dexter Haven has been laying low since the divorce, working in South America for a tabloid called SPY Magazine run by Sidney Kidd (Henry Daniell, oozing sleaze), who has blackmailed him into acquiring an exclusive story and photos on the upcoming Kittredge/Lord nuptials in exchange for not reporting about Seth Lord's supposed dalliance with a New York theatre floozy. Writer Macauley Connor (James Stewart) and photographer Liz Imbrie (Ruth Hussey, who manages to steal every scene she's in which ain't easy with that cast) are assigned to the puff piece and photo spread, much to Connor's disgust and over his objections. (Imbrie is more practical, acknowledging that she has to earn money for frivolities like food and rent.)
The setup doesn't really do justice to this witty movie (here's some samples of Barry's dialogue), but at its heart it's not just Tracy's tale but an examination of class and classiness. Kittredge is seen as a fairly classless social climber who wants to marry the perfect woman mainly to enhance his own status and garner publicity. He's thrilled that Connor and Imbrie are going to play up the wedding, and is more than willing to posture for their benefit. He and Sidney are two of a kind, but at least Kidd wears his sleaziness on his sleeve, where Kittredge puts on as many airs as he can get away with (and is constantly exposed as outclassed). Other characters refer to him sardonically as "the people's choice" as part of his naked ambition is to play to the classes he left behind in order to get elected.
Anyway, it's a terrific film and I couldn't help but be reminded of it while reading Glenn Greenwald's takedown of a number of superbly classless ultra-right pundits who criticized the New York Times on its Sidney Kidd'ishness for doing a puff piece and photo spread on the vacation homes of people like Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. The objection was not to the puffery, but to the supposed invasion of privacy which the pundits built up to the point of near-treason and all but suggested that the Connor and Imbrie in question - in this case, writer Peter T. Kilborn and photographer Linda Spillers - ought to be taken out and shot.
Glenn follows up today by saying he emailed Kilborn and Spillers for clarification, and Spillers wrote back saying "Ironically, photos were taken with Secretary Rumsfeld's permission." Yes, hard as it may be to believe, The People's Choice actually courted SPY Magazine.
Maybe ultra-right pundit loonies just don't watch old movies any more. I'm sorry Ruth Hussey is no longer with us; I wonder who her successor would be to portray Spillers.
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