We Simply Must Discuss Cary Grant’s Hunting Trophies in The Philadelphia Story (1940)

The Philadelphia Story is rather delightful, isn’t it?

It’s a classic film starring three Hollywood titans in Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, and Cary Grant. It’s full of romance, comedy, and intrigue. It also features drunk driving, ass-pinching, and a hint of casual racism, but I suppose we can forgive them as it was 81 years ago.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing, I think, is a simple production design detail that would probably glide by most viewers, but I am dumb enough to spend time investigating it. Of course, I’m talking about the hunting trophies on Cary Grant’s wall, which I find rather odd.

Without giving away too much of the story, Cary Grant is the catalyst that sets the film’s events into motion, and Jimmy Stewart pays him a visit near the end of the second act to concoct a plan that is…kinda inconsequential to the plot, but it does give us a glimpse at Cary Grant’s living quarters. You see, he’s very rich, and we learn this right away. He owns a boat and things like that.

The room where this scene takes place—a den, or perhaps a study—is aesthetically pleasing, I must admit. There’s a small library, a couple wooden ships, some paintings of horses, and, of course, a case full of guns, as any hunter would have. (I assume so, at least. I am not a hunter, nor am I rich.)

But just what is Cary Grant hunting, exactly? Let’s take a closer look.

The most prominent taxidermic trophy, the one that catches Jimmy Stewart’s drunken eyes, is a medium-sized mammal that looks like either a wolf or a coyote. Now, wolf hunting is illegal in the contiguous United States, but back then it was fair game, and even encouraged by way of bounties. But let’s say it’s a coyote for posterity, even though the current governor of Pennsylvania’s name is…Tom Wolf. (Coincidence? Who’s to say.) Coyotes have an unlimited hunting season in Pennsylvania; apparently you don’t even have to wear orange when hunting coyotes, which seems weird, but I don’t know how any of this works.

Speaking of orange, there are not one but two foxes mounted on Cary Grant’s wall. Fox hunting is also legal in Pennsylvania (from late October through mid-February), but it seems awfully cruel to me because, even though all (most?) animals are beautiful, foxes are especially elegant and I can’t imagine wanting to kill them.

(I should also point out that the current president of the Pennsylvania Game Commission is named…Charles E. Fox. I am not making this up! Who is selecting these mammal men to run this state? Are they Animorphs? This is very suspect.)

But the most egregious trophy, as I’m sure you’ll agree, is that of a raccoon. A raccoon? Sir. That is the choice you decided to make? Raccoons are street mammals. They live in trash cans and gutters and alleys, and they steal everything they own. Their fur pattern is quite neat, but they are among the least exotic animals commonly found in this country, and you have chosen to display one’s head above your mantle? Did you shoot it from your back porch?

If this were a different brand of prose, I might suggest that perhaps the raccoon represents the “lower class” that Katherine Hepburn’s impending husband comes from and thus Cary Grant is asserting his supposed hierarchical dominance by displaying such a bottom-feeder so prominently. But this is not that kind of thing.

Instead, all I can say is that I’m disappointed in you, Cary Grant. Raccoon hunting may be legal in Pennsylvania, but sir, are you not better than that?

The Philadelphia Story is now streaming on HBO Max and Watch TCM and is available to rent elsewhere.