Best of Katharine
Jan. 24th, 2005 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakMy recent watching of The Aviator has reminded me once again of my great, great fondness for Katharine Hepburn. And I wondered that, legendary as she still is, whether there won't be a sizable portion of the audience who comes to the film solely because of Leonardo di Caprio, or Martin Scorsese and has never seen a single Hepburn picture. In the first case due to youth, and in the second due to a concentration on the gangster genre. Or perhaps they won't know simply because they never caught her films on tv. So, a few reflections on some films starring K.H. which I think one absolutely should watch, via renting or loaning a tape/DVD, if necessary:
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Shot during her "box office poison" period, which makes the fact it became a cult classic later on a nice irony. Directed by Howard Hawks, co-starring Cary Grant, a leopard, a dinosaur skeleton, a dog and a great collection of one liners. Hepburn is a zany excentric rich girl named Susan, Grant is a shy professor whose life she makes living hell. And we love her for it. The only actor whom Katharine Hepburn was paired up with more often than Cary Grant was Spencer Tracy. They've got great chemistry, and a rare comedic timing. Bringing Up Baby is also refreshingly empty of a morals. You can bet that if it had been shot some years later, Susan would have learned to be a good responsible professor's wife at the end, instead of taking him into her life of living in the moment. Definitely my favourite film for the young Kate H.
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
This one was remade with Grace Kelly as High Society, and the remake inadvertendly reveals all the sexism and inherent flaws of the story, though they cut the most offensive line. (Tracy Lord's father tellling her he wouldn't have cheated on her mother with a younger woman if she had been a better daughter.) Why do I still recommend watching the original? Because on the bright side, it offers a lot of witty dialogue and Katharine Hepburn, Joseph Cotten and Cary Grant in top form. Grace Kelly in High Society is just an insipid snob, and it's hard to say why all the males of the film fall for her. K.H. in The Philadelphia Story is also a snob, but you can understand Cotten's character telling her she glows, that she's a goddess, for she really has that charm and vitality that overwhelm you. Oh, and: it features one of the funniest drunk scenes on film. This movie marked Hepburn's triumphant return to Hollywood on her terms.
(After the box office poison period, she had gone home to Conneticut, Phil Barry had written the play The Philadelpha Story for her, and she had made it a stage triumph. Howard Hughes bought the film rights for her and gave them to her as a gracious post-break-up present, which allowed her complete control over casting and director for the film version.)
The African Queen (1951)
Or, the film that launched a thousand books. (The shooting of same, rather.) Well no, only two, but both are very readable. Peter Viertel's thinly fictionally disguised White Hunter, Black Heart was made into a film by Clint Eastwood, starring himself as the John Huston character, and is a Hemingwayesque tale about an obsessive director. Hepburn's own African Queen, about the shooting, is an amusing madcap adventure with tongue-in-cheek portraits of Huston, Bogart, and herself. Huston's hunting obsession, taken so very seriously in the Viertel novel, is here a given as a "boys and their guns, or why John never grew up" treatment. She doesn't spare herself, either, noting that the alcohol-swallowing Huston and Bogart made it through Africa without a single day of illness, whereas she, who had lectured them on their lifestyle, was done in by the water.
Oh yes, the actual film. Features Hepburn as a missionary spinster and Bogart as a slovenly Captain who finds himself saddled with her. Co-starring African scenery, a very shaky boat, and some Nazis who come in handily for a wedding. The novel this film was based on was written by C.S. Forrester, and it shows, if you've read the Hornblower novels. Great fun, and with touching moments besides. If you look at it from a Bogart instead of a Hepburn perspective, it's a departure from his usual pairings - Charlie is definitely not the dominating guy here...
Summertime (1955)
One of David Lean's less known films, which is a pity. He does for Venice what he does for everything he turns his camera towards, no matter whether the desert or Ireland or Russia. Gorgeous cinematography. Hepburn is a teacher who comes to Venice and has a fling with a (married) hot young Venetian. As this isn't a Tennesee Williams story, she neither goes mad nor becomes eaten nor becomes a nymphomaniac or a prostitute. She doesn't die, either. It's that rare thing, a older woman/younger man romance (as opposed to the usual older man/younger woman combination), which ends in some gentle melancholy, but on a satisfying note.
Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner (1967)
Famous for a couple of things: it was Spencer Tracy's last film (he died shortly after), which was really why Katharine Hepburn is in it. Her role isn't big, but she wanted to keep an eye on him, as he was already very sick. Moreover, who is coming to dinner is hers and Tracy's characters' future son-in-law, played by Sidney Poitier. Years later, the film was critisized as being not daring enough for the first mainstream effort about an interracial couple - Poitier's character is a brilliant doctor, the best husband one could wish for. But as Poitier once said himself, that's sort of the point - Tracy and Hepburn play a liberal couple which has to face the fact that it's really just the race of this perfect guy which disturbs them, and what that implies about their tolerance.
Lastly, the film is famous for one particular scene. Tracy and Hepburn amazingly managed to have a decades-long love affair without the press ever outing them, despite the fact that he was married (and a Catholic). He also was not prone to outbursts of emotion, and rarely, if ever, talked about how he felt about her. But in Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner, his character, having been won around to his daughter's choice of a husband, has a wistful little speech about love, at the end of which Tracy directly looked at Hepburn. All accounts of the filming agree that it was meant, and felt by the crew, as a tribute and a personal confession.
So, if you want a look at the idealistic side of the 60s, and a moment of odd biographical relevance, watch the movie.
The Lion in Winter (1968)
Never mind idealism. This is a witty and dark look at that fascinatingly dysfunctional dynasty, the Plantagenets, and my second most favourite historical movie of all time. I've seen other actresses as Eleanor of Aquitaine, but none like Katharine Hepburn. She's brilliant, ruthless, manipulative to the nth degree, passionate, and can switch from despair to the next big plan in seconds, all completely believable. This role brought her her third Oscar, and you can see why at once.
Actually, the entire cast of this film rocks. Peter O'Toole is magnificent as Henry II (and btw, considering that he was much, much younger than Henry when making this film, the perfectly believable middle-aged body language is another amazing feat in addition to the other aspects of his acting), in the quintessential love/hate relationship this side of "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf" with Eleanor. Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton, many, many years before either got famous, were Richard the Lionheart and Philippe of France respectively. And be sure to keep track of who is double-crossing whom all the time. *veg*
***
And here are some quotes on Kate the Great. Sian Phillips (the actress who so magnicently embodied the empress Livia in I, Claudius and was married to Peter O'Toole during the 60s and 70s, and, trivia for BTVS fans, then had a fling with Robin "Ethan Rayne" Sachs) writes in her memoirs:
When O'Toole, who was very smitten by her glamorous, unusual presence, was moved to say, 'My God - if I was thirty years older I'd have given Spencer Tracy a run for his money', we looked at each other, slightly cross-eyed, wondering which of us had been more insulted; Kate for being considered too old to be desirable or me, who, all things being equal, would have been discarded in favour of a young Kate. It wasn't something to be thought about too closely, so we both smiled sweetly. When, in 1970, Kate was playing in COCO, the musical, in New York, O'Toole and I dined at her house before leaving for South America. As we left, she grabbed me by the arm and hissed, 'You let him push you around - stop it. I'm spoiled. GET SPOILED!' I nodded, smiling, and thought I'd like to see her trying to get her own way with O'Toole, were she thirty years younger. Not a chance. I remember her as spoiled and selfish indeed but what wonderful common sense she had. And she took what she wanted and paid for it, and, I would hazard, has rarely had occasion to regret her choices.
Spencer Tracy, when it was first suggested to him he should play in a film with Katharine Hepburn: How can I do a picture with a woman who has dirt under her fingernails and who is of ambiguous sexuality and always wears pants?
David Lean: I suppose she's just about my greatest friend, even now. I love her. I mean, she had the same sort of expertise as Celia Johnson. Celia and Kate, the two of them, are the great actresses I've worked with. Just, just wonderful, both of them, no trouble at all, always easy. I remember being with Kate in Venice. We had a set, high up overlookeing the canal, in which I said, 'Look, Kate, I'm afraid I can give no excuse for it, but, having done this and that in the middle of the room, you've just got to walk to that window, and I can give you no reason for doing that.' And she said, 'Yeah, well, that's what I'm paid for.' And she did it. And it looked as if the only thing for her to do was to move to that window so she could look out. Just wonderful.
Lauren Bacall (married to Humphrey Bogart and hence along at the shooting of African Queen):
As we headed for Ponthierville, we passed a bamboo forest. Katie said, "Stop the car, I've always wanted to sit in the middle of a bamboo forest." I thought Bogie would explode. But the car stopped and out she got - as did I. It was very still and very beautiful. (...) So many of the crew were confined to bed - some with dysentery, amoebic or straight. Even Katie had to take to her bed - she was a sick lady, nauseated all the time, but never complained and never missed a day's workk. God, I admired her! She had opinions, voiced them, and stuck to them, sometimes drove Bogie crazy - mainly, I think, because they were so alike, and also because he knew she'd stay in Africa forever if it need be.
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Shot during her "box office poison" period, which makes the fact it became a cult classic later on a nice irony. Directed by Howard Hawks, co-starring Cary Grant, a leopard, a dinosaur skeleton, a dog and a great collection of one liners. Hepburn is a zany excentric rich girl named Susan, Grant is a shy professor whose life she makes living hell. And we love her for it. The only actor whom Katharine Hepburn was paired up with more often than Cary Grant was Spencer Tracy. They've got great chemistry, and a rare comedic timing. Bringing Up Baby is also refreshingly empty of a morals. You can bet that if it had been shot some years later, Susan would have learned to be a good responsible professor's wife at the end, instead of taking him into her life of living in the moment. Definitely my favourite film for the young Kate H.
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
This one was remade with Grace Kelly as High Society, and the remake inadvertendly reveals all the sexism and inherent flaws of the story, though they cut the most offensive line. (Tracy Lord's father tellling her he wouldn't have cheated on her mother with a younger woman if she had been a better daughter.) Why do I still recommend watching the original? Because on the bright side, it offers a lot of witty dialogue and Katharine Hepburn, Joseph Cotten and Cary Grant in top form. Grace Kelly in High Society is just an insipid snob, and it's hard to say why all the males of the film fall for her. K.H. in The Philadelphia Story is also a snob, but you can understand Cotten's character telling her she glows, that she's a goddess, for she really has that charm and vitality that overwhelm you. Oh, and: it features one of the funniest drunk scenes on film. This movie marked Hepburn's triumphant return to Hollywood on her terms.
(After the box office poison period, she had gone home to Conneticut, Phil Barry had written the play The Philadelpha Story for her, and she had made it a stage triumph. Howard Hughes bought the film rights for her and gave them to her as a gracious post-break-up present, which allowed her complete control over casting and director for the film version.)
The African Queen (1951)
Or, the film that launched a thousand books. (The shooting of same, rather.) Well no, only two, but both are very readable. Peter Viertel's thinly fictionally disguised White Hunter, Black Heart was made into a film by Clint Eastwood, starring himself as the John Huston character, and is a Hemingwayesque tale about an obsessive director. Hepburn's own African Queen, about the shooting, is an amusing madcap adventure with tongue-in-cheek portraits of Huston, Bogart, and herself. Huston's hunting obsession, taken so very seriously in the Viertel novel, is here a given as a "boys and their guns, or why John never grew up" treatment. She doesn't spare herself, either, noting that the alcohol-swallowing Huston and Bogart made it through Africa without a single day of illness, whereas she, who had lectured them on their lifestyle, was done in by the water.
Oh yes, the actual film. Features Hepburn as a missionary spinster and Bogart as a slovenly Captain who finds himself saddled with her. Co-starring African scenery, a very shaky boat, and some Nazis who come in handily for a wedding. The novel this film was based on was written by C.S. Forrester, and it shows, if you've read the Hornblower novels. Great fun, and with touching moments besides. If you look at it from a Bogart instead of a Hepburn perspective, it's a departure from his usual pairings - Charlie is definitely not the dominating guy here...
Summertime (1955)
One of David Lean's less known films, which is a pity. He does for Venice what he does for everything he turns his camera towards, no matter whether the desert or Ireland or Russia. Gorgeous cinematography. Hepburn is a teacher who comes to Venice and has a fling with a (married) hot young Venetian. As this isn't a Tennesee Williams story, she neither goes mad nor becomes eaten nor becomes a nymphomaniac or a prostitute. She doesn't die, either. It's that rare thing, a older woman/younger man romance (as opposed to the usual older man/younger woman combination), which ends in some gentle melancholy, but on a satisfying note.
Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner (1967)
Famous for a couple of things: it was Spencer Tracy's last film (he died shortly after), which was really why Katharine Hepburn is in it. Her role isn't big, but she wanted to keep an eye on him, as he was already very sick. Moreover, who is coming to dinner is hers and Tracy's characters' future son-in-law, played by Sidney Poitier. Years later, the film was critisized as being not daring enough for the first mainstream effort about an interracial couple - Poitier's character is a brilliant doctor, the best husband one could wish for. But as Poitier once said himself, that's sort of the point - Tracy and Hepburn play a liberal couple which has to face the fact that it's really just the race of this perfect guy which disturbs them, and what that implies about their tolerance.
Lastly, the film is famous for one particular scene. Tracy and Hepburn amazingly managed to have a decades-long love affair without the press ever outing them, despite the fact that he was married (and a Catholic). He also was not prone to outbursts of emotion, and rarely, if ever, talked about how he felt about her. But in Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner, his character, having been won around to his daughter's choice of a husband, has a wistful little speech about love, at the end of which Tracy directly looked at Hepburn. All accounts of the filming agree that it was meant, and felt by the crew, as a tribute and a personal confession.
So, if you want a look at the idealistic side of the 60s, and a moment of odd biographical relevance, watch the movie.
The Lion in Winter (1968)
Never mind idealism. This is a witty and dark look at that fascinatingly dysfunctional dynasty, the Plantagenets, and my second most favourite historical movie of all time. I've seen other actresses as Eleanor of Aquitaine, but none like Katharine Hepburn. She's brilliant, ruthless, manipulative to the nth degree, passionate, and can switch from despair to the next big plan in seconds, all completely believable. This role brought her her third Oscar, and you can see why at once.
Actually, the entire cast of this film rocks. Peter O'Toole is magnificent as Henry II (and btw, considering that he was much, much younger than Henry when making this film, the perfectly believable middle-aged body language is another amazing feat in addition to the other aspects of his acting), in the quintessential love/hate relationship this side of "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf" with Eleanor. Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton, many, many years before either got famous, were Richard the Lionheart and Philippe of France respectively. And be sure to keep track of who is double-crossing whom all the time. *veg*
***
And here are some quotes on Kate the Great. Sian Phillips (the actress who so magnicently embodied the empress Livia in I, Claudius and was married to Peter O'Toole during the 60s and 70s, and, trivia for BTVS fans, then had a fling with Robin "Ethan Rayne" Sachs) writes in her memoirs:
When O'Toole, who was very smitten by her glamorous, unusual presence, was moved to say, 'My God - if I was thirty years older I'd have given Spencer Tracy a run for his money', we looked at each other, slightly cross-eyed, wondering which of us had been more insulted; Kate for being considered too old to be desirable or me, who, all things being equal, would have been discarded in favour of a young Kate. It wasn't something to be thought about too closely, so we both smiled sweetly. When, in 1970, Kate was playing in COCO, the musical, in New York, O'Toole and I dined at her house before leaving for South America. As we left, she grabbed me by the arm and hissed, 'You let him push you around - stop it. I'm spoiled. GET SPOILED!' I nodded, smiling, and thought I'd like to see her trying to get her own way with O'Toole, were she thirty years younger. Not a chance. I remember her as spoiled and selfish indeed but what wonderful common sense she had. And she took what she wanted and paid for it, and, I would hazard, has rarely had occasion to regret her choices.
Spencer Tracy, when it was first suggested to him he should play in a film with Katharine Hepburn: How can I do a picture with a woman who has dirt under her fingernails and who is of ambiguous sexuality and always wears pants?
David Lean: I suppose she's just about my greatest friend, even now. I love her. I mean, she had the same sort of expertise as Celia Johnson. Celia and Kate, the two of them, are the great actresses I've worked with. Just, just wonderful, both of them, no trouble at all, always easy. I remember being with Kate in Venice. We had a set, high up overlookeing the canal, in which I said, 'Look, Kate, I'm afraid I can give no excuse for it, but, having done this and that in the middle of the room, you've just got to walk to that window, and I can give you no reason for doing that.' And she said, 'Yeah, well, that's what I'm paid for.' And she did it. And it looked as if the only thing for her to do was to move to that window so she could look out. Just wonderful.
Lauren Bacall (married to Humphrey Bogart and hence along at the shooting of African Queen):
As we headed for Ponthierville, we passed a bamboo forest. Katie said, "Stop the car, I've always wanted to sit in the middle of a bamboo forest." I thought Bogie would explode. But the car stopped and out she got - as did I. It was very still and very beautiful. (...) So many of the crew were confined to bed - some with dysentery, amoebic or straight. Even Katie had to take to her bed - she was a sick lady, nauseated all the time, but never complained and never missed a day's workk. God, I admired her! She had opinions, voiced them, and stuck to them, sometimes drove Bogie crazy - mainly, I think, because they were so alike, and also because he knew she'd stay in Africa forever if it need be.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-24 07:42 pm (UTC)As to Lion in Winter, it's just incredible. And the very young Timothy Dalton also rocks! What can one say about it? Other than it inspires one to go buy books, lots of books?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-24 07:53 pm (UTC)Incidentally, did you see the tv remake of The Lion in Winter? I hear it stars Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close, but it hasn't made it across the Atlantic yet.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-24 08:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-24 07:50 pm (UTC)Marvellous woman.
Thanks for the quotes.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-24 08:01 pm (UTC)Oh yeah, it was definitely African Queen Goes West, but who cares, if it's done entertainingly and well?
Since you liked the quotes, here's another one from Katharine Hepburn, describing John Wayne, from her memoirs:
A face alive with humor. Good humor I should say, and a sharp wit. Dangerous when roused. His shoulders are broad - very. HIs chest massive - very. When I leaned against him (which I did as often as possible, I must confess - I am reduced to such innocent pleasures), thrilling. It was like leaning against a great tree. His hands so big. Mine, which are big too, seemed to dissappear. Good legs. No seat. And the base of this incredible creation. A pair of small sensitive feet.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-24 08:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-24 09:00 pm (UTC)somehow, I've never seen High Society (I usually love musicals but rarely seek them out . . . and speaking of musicals, how's this for utter tangential randomness: my grandmother's first cousin, Betty Garrett, is one of the leads in "On the Town"; her son with Larry Parks, Andy Parks, plays one of the Pylean priests on "Angel" -- kid you not).
Some of the sexism in The Philadelphia Story is hard to watch -- particularly that one scene you mentioned -- but if you fast-forward that part and look at the way Connor and Dexter (in his way) love her for what she is, I think the film overall embraces her character. And that's a truly marvelous drunk scene -- I think you mean Jimmy Stewart, though, at least in the film, though I can see how Connor & Cotten's character in Citizen Kane would have gotten along! Stewart's usually a paternal figure for me (first saw him in "It's a Wonderful Life" as a kid, and George Bailey IS my dad) -- but in TPS I find him hotter than Grant! I always imagined he and the Ruth Hussey character got together, though, and not a loss there at all.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-24 09:40 pm (UTC)Of course, you have to watch things in context. What comes across as dreadfully sexist now isn't so bad when you pretend it's (eek!) 1940. I have trouble explaining this to my brothers sometimes - you know, they'll be saying, oh, what's so interesting about Kirk kissing Uhura onscreen? and they just have no clue about the historical context and how important it was at the time...
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Date: 2005-01-25 07:06 am (UTC)Oh yes, context is everything. Same with Guess who is coming to dinner? - these days, of course, Sidney Poitier coming to present himself as a future son-in-law would just have most parents be utterly delighted (though sadly not all), but in the 60s?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-25 07:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-25 07:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-25 08:25 am (UTC)On our way to my next interview, Leland suggested that perhaps he could explain in "simpler terms" just what version of "The Philadelpha Story" I had been in. At our next stop, he did just that. "Good for you", said the producer. "Which part did you play?"
"C.K. Dexter Haven," I tossed away as if I were saying "Franklin Delano Roosevelt."
"No, no," said the producer. "I mean did you play the Jimmy Stewart part or the Cary Grant part?"
Befor I could field this one, Leland came to my rescue. At least he meant to come to my rescue, but he missed the bus.
"He just spent a solid year creating the Cary Grant part," he said.
Back at Leland's office. "Your history with The Philadelphia Story is a hart nut to crack," he said.
"Speaking of cracks," I said, "that one about spending a solid part of your year crating the Cary Grant role is certain never to win you a crocodile attaché from the Department of Protocol."
"Confusion gets us nowhere," said Leland, "let's change the subject. You and Orson Welles still good pals?"
"Still good pals", I said.
"Let's call him," said Leland.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-24 09:37 pm (UTC)I also loved one of her early RKO films, Stage Door, about a theatrical boarding house for women. Kate plays a rich girl who longs to be an actress, and tries to fit in with the others, including Ginger Rogers, Lucille Ball, and Eve Arden. Very well done, plus it has that famous line, "The calla lillies are in bloom again." :)
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Date: 2005-01-25 07:02 am (UTC)(Trivia: it was a scene from Holiday which she used for her screentest, as she had done the play on stage before. George Cukor and David Selznick were impressed, and the rest is history.)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-25 11:42 am (UTC)I love your icon, where is it from?
no subject
Date: 2005-01-25 11:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-25 11:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-24 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-25 07:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-24 11:14 pm (UTC)Because, wow. I always knew there was a reason I admired Sian Phillips.
Sian Phillips
Date: 2005-01-25 07:12 am (UTC)I remember seeing her in How green was my valley, and she was so different there from Livia (the first role I saw her in) that I was stunned by her acting abilities all over again.
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Date: 2005-01-25 02:12 am (UTC)I still can't get over how much that movie touches me. She played Eleanor so well--her pride, her love for Henry, her favoritism of Richard, her jealousy and fear of old age--and every little bit of her portrayal rang true with me.
And? "If you're brittle, it's because you're broken. I've lost you and I can't ever get you back."
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Date: 2005-01-25 07:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-25 04:27 am (UTC)I loved her and Humphrey Bogart in the African Queen. I remember that scene in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, and the love between Hepburn and Tracey seems so obvious. I also really liked her performance in On Golden Pond, a wonderful portrayel of love and aging.
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Date: 2005-01-25 07:15 am (UTC)Note to self: must get more DVDs!
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Date: 2005-01-25 07:20 am (UTC)I might very well be wrong, but my understanding was that the film was shot in Turkey.
Abstruse and picky and irrelevant to any appreciation of KH, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-25 08:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-25 06:30 pm (UTC)