From Evenings With Cary Grant: Recollections in His Own Words and by Those Who Knew Him Best
Jimmy Stewart says in re: Philadelphia Story:
I play a writer who falls in love with Katharine Hepburn. The night before her wedding I have a little too much to drink. This gives me the courage to go and talk to Cary, who’s playing her ex-husband. So I go to Cary’s house and knock on the door. It’s obvious I’ve had too much to drink, but he lets me in.
It was time to do the scene, and Cary said, “George, why don’t we just go ahead? If you don’t like it, we’ll do it again.” So, without a rehearsal or anything, we started the scene. As I was talking, it hit me that I’d had too much to drink. So, as I explained things to Cary, I hiccuped. In answer to the hiccup, Cary said — out of the clear blue sky — “Excuse me.” Well, I sort of said, “Ummm?” It was very difficult for me to keep a straight face, because his ad-libbed response had been so beautifully done … Cary had an almost perfect humor.
Watch that scene again. It’s the first take. You can almost see Jimmy Stewart lose it at Grant’s improvisation – but he keeps it together. It’s so obvious how much they loved acting with each other – because of that spontanaeity.
