The Film Junkie

I have seen many Tracy-Hepburn movies over the years, and for the most part I have preferred Katharine Hepburn with Cary Grant, that is until I saw this pre-feminist take on equality in America.

It follows the two as married lawyers who take the opposite sides of a case, she defending a scorned wife who shot but did not kill her husband, and he as the Deputy DA.  Judy Holliday is fantastic as the wife who takes revenge.  She represents the kind of women many Americans thought they had to be.  The kind of lady who believes smoking is “unfeminine”.  She completely messes up the shooting of her husband, but fully admits to it thinking she can just return home since he was not killed.

The film quickly becomes a battle between traditional men and the “new woman”.  A marriage that once worked is tested by the fundamental ideas that the two clash on.  However the best part of this film is that, unlike so many ‘equality’ minded films of the time, the “new woman” never backs down.  She never loses her fire to appease her husband, but works to change his mind. 

In this film, Hepburn is a woman to be reckoned with.  Her character raises so many critical ideas that helped to change the world over 20 years later.  I am stunned by how ahead of its time this film was.  Great script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin.

Grade: A

This is a sorta feminist film about a female athlete trying to assert her independence despite the wishes of her fiance.  Katharine Hepburn is delightful, but somewhat depressingly weak-willed, in her role as Pat.  Pat is skilled in various sports and is used by Mike (Spencer Tracy) until he begins to see that he can make more money from her as a legitimate athlete than by fixing her matches.

There is chemistry between the two, however this is well into their coupling and the freshness they once had is no longer there.  Tracy is dull and boring, I have never understood his appeal, and Hepburn is semi-feminist, but also falls under the wayside of her passions toward both men.

Grade: B+

A bizarre and twisted screen version of the Tennessee Williams play about an obsessive wealthy mother, Violet (Katharine Hepburn), who cannot digest the fact of her son’s death and instead blames it on her niece, Catherine (Elizabeth Taylor).  The story reveals itself under the guise of therapy sessions with Dr. Cukrowicz (Mongomery Clift) and only becomes more and more strange as we begin to understand Violet’s son Sebastian and his ways.

Ultimately this is a battle between two screen legends.  This is Taylor vs. Hepburn in the acting-off of the century.  Taylor with her sly innocence exudes sex but also the bottled needs of a deprived young woman.  Hepburn is the occasionally crazed but entirely deluded snob interested only in protecting a secret almost everyone already knew.  Personally I would have to give this one to Taylor, though she doesn’t have the fascinating monologues of Hepburn, she simmers throughout the scene and proves why she stands above all the sex goddesses before and after her because she is a real talent.  Hepburn struggles with the New Orleans accent (she always was perpetually New England), but she is still magnificent.

I was not crazy about the plot’s outcome, this is no ‘Streetcar’, however there is nothing quite like the steamy intrigue of a Tennessee Williams play.

Grade: B+

The chemistry between Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn is a treat to behold.  Few people have the timing, wit and physical abilities of these two and when they are in a scene together you can’t take your eyes off of them.  The only other male-female team I can think of that work this well together are Woody Allen and Diane Keaton (and if you don’t believe me see ‘Love and Death’ and ‘Annie Hall’).

Wealthy upper crust Julia Seton (Doris Nolan) falls in love with Johnny (Grant) a middle class man she met on holiday and returns with him to New York to introduce him to her family, including her free spirited sister, Linda (Hepburn).  Johnny and Julia soon discover that they are very different sorts of people and Johnny takes comfort in the fun-loving activities of Linda.

One of the first scenes between Grant and Hepburn has her greeting him while snacking on an apple then reaching out and offering him a bite of the same apple with a comfortable ease that goes far beyond the single day their characters have known one another.

Though she might be better known for teaming with Spencer Tracy and he might be famous as the dashing leading man, in the few films they did together there is simply nothing that compares with the magnetism of Grant and Hepburn.

Grade: A

This film was leaps and bounds ahead of its time.

Katharine Hepburn stars as Sylvia who is forced to drag herself as Sylvester so her father won’t be arrested.  Through various plot contrivances, Sylvester remains fooling everyone into thinking she is a he.

Hepburn has a tremendous amount of fun playing a boy.  Her physicality is amazing and she displaying her dextarity by jumping through windows and climbing rocks.  This might be the most athletic female character in film history up to that time.  Her portrayal of Sylvia, the meek and sweet daughter, is grating and annoying, but for the bulk of the film she is Sylvester and it is a liberating experience as a woman watching her thrive.

Cary Grant plays her father’s sidekick Jimmy who gives Sylvester a hard time, but is there to help out when needed.  He gives the role all the smarm and delicious deviousness it requires and then some.  He is an odd duck of a character, but in a film without a real leading man, he is a glorious bastard of a man.

This film is famous for having probably the first big screen lesbian kiss, Sylvester is kissed by her father’s new girlfriend.  There is some strange editing during the scene, which makes one wonder just what they left out.

The homosexual undertones flow throughout the film.  Sylvia is attracted to Michael and there is serious heat between them, but only when she is dressed as a man.  Sylvia is found attractive by two different women in the film, one of whom finds her just as attractive when she is dressed as a woman.  This is dangerous ground they are treading for the era, and it is remarkable to watch.

This is certainly not a masterpiece when it comes to construction, some of the editing is sloppy and Hepburn’s acting is garish in parts, but it is a revolutionary work that led the way for a new kind of woman on screen and was an inspiration for the lesbian and feminist filmmakers of the second wave feminist movement.

Grade: A-