The Philadelphia Story (1940)

The Philadelphia Story (1940) epitomizes screwball elegance, with Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and James Stewart earning 6 Oscar nominations and 2 wins, including Stewart's only competitive Best Actor award. Hepburn personally purchased the play rights for $150,000—more than twice the average cost of a 1940 film script—to revive her career after being labeled 'box office poison.' This gambit paid off: the film outperforms #7 Groundhog Day in critical consensus longevity, with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes from 60 reviews.