We all went to see The Philadelphia Story on Sunday at the movie theater of a nearby mall — a special showing, just like Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Casablanca recently. Oddly enough, Ann suggested we see it. And she wants to see next month’s showing, Vertigo.

That, I told her, is a very different movie from The Philadelphia Story. Truth is, I’ve forgotten most of the details of Vertigo. I’ve only seen it once, in the summer of ’81, and I wasn’t entirely taken with it. I might think differently now. Or not. Guess I’ll find out.

As for The Philadelphia Story, it was as charming as ever. Think this was my third viewing. After it was over — and after Ann discussed the structure of the movie, with some astuteness beyond her years — it occurred to me that “love triangle” isn’t an apt term for the story.

Better would be a love triskelion, with Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) as the focus, and the three men, Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), Mike Connor (Jimmy Stewart) and the stiff and put-upon George Kittredge (John Howard), all connected to her for different reasons.

When I got home, I looked up Virginia Weidler, who memorably played the bubbly younger sister, Dinah Lord. I figured she might be the only named member of the cast to still be alive. But no, she died in 1968 at only 41. Seems that Ruth Hussey survived the longest, dying in her 90s in 2005.

Of course there’s a lot of witty banter in the movie. My favorite line — which I didn’t remember from previous viewings, though I don’t know why not — was by Uncle Willie (Roland Young). Dexter had suggested going off for some of the hair of the dog that bit them. Uncle Willie thinks that’s a fine idea:

“C’malong, Dexter, I know a formula that’s said to pop the pennies off the eyelids of dead Irishmen.”