Your assignment will be Spy's most sensational achievement - Tracy Lord. Big game hunting in Africa, fox hunting in Pennsylvania. Married on impulse and divorced in a rage. And always unapproachable by the press. 'The Unapproachable Miss Lord.' 'The Philadelphia Story'...(quote) 'A Wedding Day Inside Mainline Society.'
Or: 'What the Kitchen Maid Saw Through the Keyhole.' (unquote)...(quote) 'No hunter of buckshot in the rear is Cagey Crafty Connor.' (unquote) (close paragraph)
Liz Close job, close bank account. But Mr. Kidd, how can you possibly get inside the Lord estate, let alone the house?
Now we're not gonna do it, Liz, dawgonnit, it's degrading. It's undignified.
Liz And so is an empty stomach. How do we get in?
[Mike has discovered the list of telephones in the Lord's house]
Uh-oh, Liz, what did I tell you? Look, how do you like this: living room, sitting room, terrace, pool, stables...
Liz That's probably so they can talk to the horses without having them in the house.
Age 32...General Manager, Quaker State Coal, controlling interest in the company owned by Seth Lord - that's the girl's father, huh?
Liz What a coincidence.
Heaven brought them together, I imagine.
Now about this girl. Tracy Samantha Lord...Oh, what's her leading characteristic.
[Mike is wearing a hat]
She has a horror of men who wear their hats in the house. [leaves the room]
Liz Leading characteristics to be filled in later.
I can fill them in right now: the young rich, rapacious, American female. There's no other country where she exists.
Liz And would I change places with Tracy Samantha Lord for all her wealth and beauty? Oh boy just ask me.
Are either of you married?
Liz Uh, no.
You mean you were, but now you're divorced...Well, come now Miss Imbrie, surely you're not ashamed of it.
Liz Well, of course I'm not ashamed of it.
Liz Well, it was years ago. I was only a kid in Duluth.
Well, good heavens Liz! You never told me anything...
Liz You never asked me.
Liz Joe Smith. Hardware.
You're the darnedest girl, Liz.
Liz I think I'm sweet.
Duluth. That must be a lovely spot. It's west of here, isn't it?...And this is your first visit in Philadelphia? It's a quaint old place, don't you think, filled with relics. And how old are you, Mr. Connor?
One book isn't much for a man of thirty. Well, I don't mean to criticize. You probably have other interests outside your work.
None, I mean unless... [He gestures to acknowledge his friendship with Liz]
How sweet. Are you going together?
Liz Well, that is an odd question I must say.
Well, I don't see why. I think it's very interesting. Miss Imbrie. Don't you agree that if a man says he loves a girl, he ought to marry her?
Please, Mr. Connor! I asked Miss Imbrie a question.
Liz That depends. I-
I'll see what's keeping Mama. [she leaves the room]
[reading George's letter to Dexter, Mike, and Liz]
My dear Tracy: I want you to know that you will always be my friend, but your conduct last night was so shocking to my ideals of womanhood...that my attitude toward you and the prospect of a happy and useful life together has been changed materially. Your breach of common decency...
[George enters, criticising her for reading his letter out loud]
It's only a letter from a friend. They're my friends too. [continues to read] ...certainly entitles me to a full explanation before going through with our proposed marriage. In the light of day, I am sure that you will agree with me. Otherwise, with profound regrets and all best wishes, yours very sincerely...Yes, George, I quite agree with you - in the light of day and the dark of night, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sickness and in health - and thank you so very much for your good wishes at this time...I wish for your sake, as well as mine, I had an explanation, but unfortunately I've none. You'd better just say, 'Good riddance,' George.
On the very eve of your wedding, an affair with another man.
Kittredge, it may interest you to know that the so-called 'affair' consisted of exactly two kisses and a rather late swim...All of which I thoroughly enjoyed, and the memory of which I wouldn't part with for anything... After which I deposited Tracy on her bed in her room, and promptly returned down here to you two - which doubtless you'll remember.
Why? Was I so unattractive, so distant, so forbidding, or something - that - ?
Well, this is fine talk, too.
You were extremely attractive, and as for distant and forbidding, on the contrary. But you also were a little the worse - or the better - for wine, and there are rules about that.
Thank you, Mike. I think men are wonderful.
Liz We all go haywire at times and if we don't, maybe we ought to.
A man expects his wife to ...
...behave herself, naturally.
To behave herself naturally.
If it hadn't been for that drink last night, all this might not have happened.
Apparently nothing did. What made you think it had?
Well, it didn't take much imagination!
Not much, perhaps, but just of a certain kind.
It seems you didn't think anything too well of yourself.
That's the odd thing, George. Somehow I would have hoped that you'd think better of me than I did.
I'm not going to quibble, Tracy. All the evidence was there!
And I was guilty. Straight off. That is, until I was proved innocent.
Let's let bygones be bygones. What do ya say?
Yes, and goodbye George...You're too good for me, George. You're a hundred times too good...And I'd make you most unhappy, most - That is, I'd do my best to.
