C.K. Dexter Haven is “a Sort Of Ariel Figure” in Philadelphia Story

Richard Schickel writes in praise of Grant’s acting job in Philadelphia Story, as CK Dexter Haven:

It is a wonderful role for Grant. It would be too much to say that his position is to speak up for democracy at Tracy’s society wedding. If that were all he was doing he would quickly have had to fall silent in the face of his rival’s genuine pluck-and-luck credentials. No, what he is really saying is that lackluster birth is no more a guarantee of basic human decency than good birth is a sure sign of bad values…

He is a sort of Ariel figure, a busy, devious arranger — of his own happiness, of course, and, we do come to believe, of Tracy’s as well. His touch is so light, and there is such bemusement in his eyes as he stands back to admire the effects of his schemes, that we can’t help but like him. And this despite the fact that he is required to do some very serious speechmaking, not merely about democracy, but about her character.

Consider, for example, this response to her charge that his former heavy drinking was “disgusting”: “You took on that problem when you took me on. You were no help there. You were a scold. And my drinks grew deeper and more frequent. She finds human imperfection unforgivable (the line is addressed to a watching Jimmy Stewart before he turns back to Tracy). You didn’t want a husband and a good companion. You wanted a kind of high priest to a virgin goddess.”

Let anyone who doubts Grant’s qualities as an actor try to think of anyone else who could get away with a speech that floridly accusatory (and self-pitying) and still retain an audience’s good regard. Indeed, one doubts even if Grant could have managed it had he not long since established his credentials as a man with (shall we say?) a very realistic view of the opposite sex and the tributes it can exact from the male. There is, always and forever, a war between the sexes — but Grant is one of the rare actors in films who acknowledges it, even when he is distinctly the pursuer as he is here, even when the script makes no direct mention of this prevailing condition.

So the speech works. The whole film works — thanks to him, thanks to the slick professionalism of everyone connected with it.