Saturday, May 26, 2007

Box Office Mojo: "Close-Up: Robert Osborne on Katharine Hepburn"

Scott Holleran, boxofficemojo.com, 05/09/07

An excellent interview with the host of Turner Classic Movies on KH.

Box Office Mojo: Why didn't Katharine Hepburn attend the Oscars?

Robert Osborne: She was never sure she was going to win and she certainly didn't want to lose. There's probably no one more conceited than Katharine Hepburn. She always wanted to be the most fascinating person in the room.


Complete interview.

It's not a flattering quote about KH, but it's honest and a perfect example of why you have to separate the artist from her work (a lesson well-learned in 1992 when faced with the prospect of never again watching Annie Hall , but I digress). Like Garbo, whom Osborne also mentions, James Dean, Judy Garland and others, KH's legend has outgrown her self. We don't want to know anything about her that would in any way negate the image we've drawn from the characters we love. We need to believe that Jo March was named Woman of the Year and then settled down and grew old with Norman Thayer, Jr.

I have William J. Mann's Kate: The Woman who Was Hepburn, which is by all accounts an excellent biography, with much of the praise centered around Mann's deconstruction of KH's persona and legend. I'm both fascinated by the possibility and reticent to let go of the legend.

Friday, May 25, 2007

The House Next Door's 5 for the Day: Kate Hepburn

Sheila O'Malley, of the thoroughly enjoyable blog, The House Next Door, featured her 5 favorite Katharine Hepburn anecdotes - all backed up with actual research. She sums up KH's character (not characters) well:

These stories bring tears to my eyes. The bravery, the willingness to NOT KNOW, to still learn, to be okay with failing, to get up and try again.

Absolutely.

Be sure to check out the comments there as well. Some good discussion by people who type full words.

Monday, May 21, 2007

KH Film #1: A Bill of Divorcement (1932)

Director: George Cukor
Screenplay: Howard Estabrook & Harry Wagstaff Gribble, based on the play by Clemence Dane
Producer: David O. Selznick
Studio: RKO
Cinematographer: Sidney Hickox
Costume Designer: Josette de Lima

Cast: John Barrymore (solo billing above title), Billie Burke, Katharine Hepburn, David Manners

US Premiere: September 30, 1932

KH Firsts:
  • First film
  • First film at RKO
  • First film directed by George Cukor
  • First film produced by David O. Selznick film

A Bill of Divorcement (Sydney Fairfield)

It's Christmas Eve, the Fairfields are giving a party and love is in the air. Mother Billie Burke has just obtained [film title] from father John Barrymore, who has spent the past 15-odd years in an insane asylum. She is planning to marry Paul Cavanagh, the lawyer who *ahem* helped her get her divorce, in January. And before night's end, daughter Katharine Hepburn will be engaged to David Manners. Come Christmas Day and everyone is thrown for a loop when Barrymore is released from the hospital (he is billed above the title after all) and returns home to try and pick up the pieces of his life. Hepburn is in for the biggest shock of them all, as she has been led to believe that her father's mental illness is entirely the result of shell shock from the Great War, when in fact, it is a hereditary condition. Or, in her words, "So... in our family there's insanity."

Really, the biggest obstacle in enjoying the film is its treatment of mental illness. The words "mental illness" aren't ever even used. Whatever is wrong with Barrymore, it's simply referred to as "insanity." Either they didn't know any better or they assumed the audience didn't know any better - it doesn't really matter, as the film's treatment of the issue was handled with sensitivity for its time.

What does matter is that both Barrymore and Hepburn give strong performances. Nowadays, a popular actor playing a mentally ill character may as well be costumed in a "Nominate Me for an Oscar" sandwich board. It's clear that in this case, Barrymore is only concerned with giving a sensitive and genuinely moving performance. Which he does.

But this is a Katharine Hepburn blog, isn't it? in Me: Stories of My Life, KH describes her entrance in the film:

"The first shot was at a party my mother [Burke] was giving. In a long white dress, I floated down the stairs into the arms of David Manners." (p.141)

"Floated" is the exact right word to describe the moment. George Cukor was the perfect director for KH's first film - and just because we now know how well their films always turned out (they made ten in all, spanning five decades.) Cukor was a marvelous director (check out his filmography) with a keen eye for presenting an actress to her best advantage. From Me:

He was primarily an actor's director. He was primarily interested in making the actor shine. He saw the story through the eyes of the leading characters.

When I made A Bill of Divorcement, he set out to sell me to the audience: running down the stairs into the arms of David Manners - throwing myself on the floor - in Barrymore's arms. A sort of isn't-she-fascinating approach.

I'm sure it helped that she was as fascinating as he made her seem. She's good, especially for the first time out. What's remarkable is seeing a young actress with so much promise, already knowing that her career would exceed all imaginable expectations. Everything she had that made her a great actress and a great star is apparent, even if she hasn't quite learned how to use it all just yet.

This next part covers a major spoiler and I just hate it when a reviewer tells you a movie is worth seeing and then tells you how it ends. Highlight the big blank part to read it.

Burke goes off to marry Cavanagh as originally planned. Barrymore accepts that her life has moved on without him and he loves her enough to not deny her her happiness. He is content to live with his daughter and finally enjoy the company of the child he never knew. She hasn't told him that she's engaged and she forbids anyone else from revealing same, ultimately giving up her fiancee for her father, the man who needs her more. All of this is beautifully depicted in one gesture. Hepburn and Barrymore are sitting together after Burke and Cavanagh have gone and she hears Manners calling to her (they whistle to each other, it's cute) from outside. She gets up, walks to the window, closes the drapes and goes back to her father. No tears. No speeches. It's heartbreaking and devastating.

End spoiler.

Rating: 7/10


Availability: VHS is out of print, but used copies are readily available and reasonably priced; shows up on Turner Classic Movies from time to time.

Monday, May 14, 2007

The Shelf's Top 11 Katharine Hepburn Films

Based on the three entries I just read, The Shelf is a blog you definitely want to bookmark. I disagree with a few of the choices on their KH list (Rooster Cogburn?), but that's the beauty of blogging, isn't it?

Behold My Other Blog!

Saturday, May 12, 2007

New York Times: "Hepburn, Revisited"

William Mann, New York Times, 5/12/07

Mann, author of Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn, penned this op-ed piece for today's Times.

Hepburn became an American Rorschach test, mirroring the ways we wanted to see ourselves. Each generation redefined her, rubbing out and adding to her myth.
Full article.

New York Post: "True Grit: Wayne vs. Hepburn"

Lou Lumenick, New York Post, 5/10/07

"Katharine Hepburn and John Wayne, born two weeks apart 100 years ago this month, wouldn't seem to have much in common besides being icons of Hollywood's Golden Age and their late-in-life teaming in Rooster Cogburn (1975). "

Lumenick continues with an amusing comparison of their careers.

Full article.

Friday, May 4, 2007

Required Reading: The A.V. Club's Summer Movie Preview Fall DVD Preview

"With the quality and convenience of DVD, plus widescreen televisions that boast images as crisp as a freshly minted dollar bill, air conditioning alone isn't enough to drive today's consumers to their local googolplexes. For the first time in decades, the movies have to be watchable, too, which is presenting Hollywood with its most formidable challenge since it tried to turn Gretchen Mol into the next big thing. Armed with the only materials necessary to make important movie-going decisions—plot synopses and occasionally trailers—the A.V. Club film staff has assembled this helpful guide to which spectacles must be seen among the text-messaging teens, and which ones might be better appreciated on the La-Z-Boy six months later."

Highlight:

Delta Farce

What it's about: A trio of dumb-ass National Guardsmen (Larry The Cable Guy, Bill Engvall, and DJ Qualls) headed to Iraq are accidentally dropped in Mexico, which they mistake for a war zone. Such a quagmire might seem hopeless, but if anyone can engineer a desirable outcome in such a trying situation (or "Git-R-Done," as it were), it would of course be Qualls. And to a lesser extent, Larry The Cable Guy.

Why it might be worth seeing in theaters: The primal charisma and raw animal sexuality of Qualls, Engvall, and The Cable Guy can only be appreciated fully on the big screen. IMAX would be ideal, but the lesser screens at the local multiplex will have to do.

Why you're probably better off waiting for the DVD: Do you really want to be seen in public shelling out for a movie starring Larry The Cable Guy? We didn't think so.

Possible special feature: Actual MRI footage conclusively showing audience members losing brain mass as they watch the film.

Complete Article at theavclub.com.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Katharine Hepburn Celebrated on Turner Classic Movies

In honor of Katharine Hepburn's approaching centennial, Turner Classic Movies is airing a week-long tribute to the actress, beginning Monday, May 7th.

An article about KH and the complete list of films can be found at the TCM website. Of special interest are the rarely seen (for good reason) Spitfire and The Little Minister (both on 5/7) and KH's 1973 appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, aired in two parts on May 9th and 10th.

And on the subject of Katharine Hepburn, stay tuned to this space for my own personal tribue, coming soon.