Summer Under the Stars: August 2012 Schedule

[mrsl]

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Vacation from Marriage is one of the movies that made me see Donat in a different light. Of course I loved him as Mr. Chips, but I don't find him particularly attractive, in fact he seemed kind of like a wet noodle (party pooper, etc.), so this part of both of them growing from limp lillies to sturdy and lovely roses fit him perfectly.

I've seen The Hucksters before and it's one of those movies that frustrates me so much. When something happens, rather than explaining the facts, the person who supposedly did wrong just lets the other go on thinking the incorrect things when a simple explanation would clear up the whole thing. But then, it is a movie and it needs something to keep the story interesting.
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[JackFavell]

Ha! Pretty soon I'll have to buy another house.... this one is full!

My favorite line from VFM was the one where Deborah goes to spend her first night at the WRENS barracks, and Glynis asks her if she wants to freshen her lipstick. Deborah looks at her like a scared rabbit and maybe a little bit of longing for the lipstick, and says, "My husband doesn't like me to wear it." and Glynis says, "Well, then we must never ever do it!"

I really really liked The Hucksters, Anne. I just loved Gable here, and both women, but I do see what you are saying about the misunderstandings. WHat I liked had nothing to do with that part of the movie, I loved Gable, and his battle with Greenstreet (has he ever been so repulsive?), his eventual strength to stand up against a sort of fascism of the workplace. . I think the movie is quite modern dealing with the fear engendered by bosses and companies forcing employees to do things they think are wrong... how many whistle blowers in modern times have risked losing their jobs and livelihood in just such circumstances? It really got me thinking about what I will do to keep a job? It's a fascinating topic and so a propos after the war, and before the red scare.

[JackFavell]

Oooh, I know it's late, but I suddenly realized that Commandoes Strike at Dawn is on right this minute, 2:00 pm ET. I

t's a really good Paul Muni movie, if anyone is home to watch. I didn't remember the title before but I find it one of the best Muni performances.

Orders to Kill sounds good, kr, I would have missed this one had you not mentioned it.

[CineMaven]

KATHARINE THE GREAT

An amazing actress. Not always easy or accessible.



LADIES WHO LUNCH...IN MY IMAGINATION

I would love to see Katharine Hepburn have lunch with Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck, probably when they all were in their fifties; full-blown, mature women, as a woman in her fifties is...having experienced the pinnacle of their careers; perhaps not yet knowing that they'd be on the downside of it. Bette after "All About Eve" and Stanwyck after "Double Indemnity"/"The Lady Eve." Kate? Well...after her string of hits with Spencer Tracy. One is middle class, one lower class and one patrician. How did their home life play into things? I'd love to hear them talk about studio heads, their favorite roles or what was the role that got away? What's it like to have a career and marriage; why it worked and when it didn't. I'd love to see them compare directors...those giants: Wyler, Stevens, Capra. Were these men demanding, were the actresses mere putty in their hands, wanting to be taken over by a strong director?

I'd like to watch them drink and laugh and talk about being a Woman in the career of show business. Did they know they were inspirations or would they trade their place for Suzy Homemaker. I'd love to watch them smoke and chortle about the men in their lives...the love affairs they had during a time when the average woman of their day was either a virgin when she married or had just one, maybe...maybe two men in her whole entire life. The triumph of receiving an Academy Award...the heartache when they had to leave ( or was left by ) the man they loved.

...And they'd have so much in common. Kate would be the equestrian, whereas Stanwyck would just ride the hell out of a horse. Both Bette and Barbara would empty a gun in some snake of a man. Katie might talk him to death or wear him down with her razor beamed logic. She'd be the athletic one with Barbara right alongside, camping out. Maybe Bette might not be. I'd like to hear them talk about their leading men; their careers cross-pollinated with several actors: Bette and Barbara shared Brent & Fonda; Bette and Kate shared Tracy; only Barbara worked opposite The King. Only Kate worked with Cary Grant. All three could share their Bogart stories. I'm not really seeing Joan Crawford at the table with these three. I love Joan, but she seems the Glamorous Movie Star ( not that anything's wrong with that ) while the other three seem like Actresses, to me. I see the three of them having a healthy work ethic and respect for each other. Two Yankees ( Connecticut & Massachusetts ) and one kickass Brooklyn girl ( represent, Missy!!! )

I have been blessed and lucky to have actually seen all three actresses in my life. I saw Hepburn on Broadway in "COCO CHANEL." Her skin was as smooth as alabaster. I could not believe I was actually watching her. Lincoln Center honored Barbara Stanwyck's career. I sat in the next to the last row in Alice Tully Hall, begging the gods of Kodak that if they let my photo come out I'd never ask for anything again. After William Holden introduced her, there was a standing ovation and several people ran down to the front of the theatre, me included with my Canon. I saw Bette Davis interviewed by John Springer at Town Hall ( where I also saw him interview Myrna Loy & Joan Crawford. ) Bette was so tiny...Bette was so funny. Bette was fierce.

But to see them together...ha! That didn't and probably would have never happened, too much competitors they were. But what does it cost me to imagine it? Bet they would have had a healthy respect for each other. They have nothing to prove...to each other. I would love to have seen them have a conversation at lunch. I would sit at their feet.

Today is Kate's turn this Summer Under the Stars at TCM. I've cringed. I've admired and pitied. I've enjoyed much of Hepburn's work. She made being a Career Girl a little different than Rosalind Russell's type. I don't know if Hepburn makes it look easy or just effortless. Where do you reach down to be the shy awkward Alice Adams? Is it the same place you go to pull out Mary Tyrone? Or Eleanor of Aquitaine? Katharine Hepburn is one of my favorite actresses.

And she certainly did it her way.

Click on her iconic pose from "Christopher Strong" to see five-minutes of her interview back in 1979 with Morley Safer.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

It would have been so much fun just to observe and listen!

[moira finnie]

After watching Katharine Hepburn in Song of Love (1947-Clarence Brown) this morning, I decided that:

1.) Kate never radiated anything maternal, despite playing the mother of eight in this movie and moms in The Sea of Grass and A Lion in Winter. It's not her fault, and it certainly doesn't take away from her acting in many roles, but maybe she just wasn't cut out for motherhood.

2.) The last time my scalp hurt this much from watching a movie was when I checked out Patty McCormack's pigtails in The Bad Seed. Hepburn's Clara Schumann wore her hair scraped back and up into a tight chignon that had to have given her a headache. It certainly gave me one...but maybe that was the script of this movie, (...though the music was beautiful & Henry Daniell's Franz Liszt was great fun to see).

[JackFavell]

I LOVE the idea of the BIG THREE having a girls night out! I am with you all the way, Maven, imagining what might have been said and the dynamics changing within the group at every moment.

The older I get the more interesting Kate gets. Here is a woman who, by her own report had no fear, and yet..... and yet.... there is something in Kate that always makes me wonder about that...Something does not jibe for me with this image she very carefully projected of herself, of not having a weakness, or a docile feminine side. I think the truth is something far different from the image we have of her, the one she purposely put forth.

I see her so differently now than I did when I was young. When I was young, Hepburn was my ideal role model. I wanted to be an actress, much like Jean Simmons in the movie of that name, and for me, Kate was the definition of an ACTRESS. Fearless, wearing pants, stalking her roles like a big game hunter and always having the last laugh, winning even in losing. No matter how awful some of her performances seemed back then, one had to agree she had chutzpah, and though most thought her movie career was over with a string of defiantly different roles, she was able to buy the rights to The Philadelphia Story and remake herself by sheer will. She was bold and strong and didn't care what people thought, so the story goes. I wanted to be her so badly, probably because I did care and did not fell I had power over my own life.

But now, when I watch her, I can't help but see a very different Kate. I think of her romances with Howard Hughes, John Ford and Spencer Tracy. These relationships are not those of a strong willed, self assured woman. Why did she continually fall for married men, or gifted men with deep seated problems?

And although Kate is a great actress, her performances in Alice Adams, Quality Street, and Summertime have such a ring of truth about them that I can't help but wonder where they came from. I'm sorry but no one is that good an actress that they can portray an emotion that they've never had. One can reimagine one's self in different circumstances, but you cannot portray the specific emotion of being hurt if you've never been hurt at least in some little way. I see a hurt, small person inside that huge Hepburn image. A woman who is afraid.

So these performances, my favorites actually, are really a window for me, into the soft side of Hepburn that I think has existed all this time and that was hidden most certainly from the public, possibly from friends and acquaintances too. A side that was weak and desperate to be noticed, to be loved. A side that would do anything for love. How could she identify with Alice Adams, who makes up a persona for herself, in order to be seen a certain way, as better than she is, or stronger, or more desirable? How could she identify with a woman who has never left home, who sees Venice in Summertime as a last chance, but doesn't want anyone to know how naive she is? How can she play an old maid with such tenderness and pity, who turns herself inside out for a man until she resembles a completely different girl, a flirt? Even in The Lion in Winter, Kate is a woman with two faces, one a wife spurned, growing old, and the other, a powerful woman who must maintain an image of strength in order to stay alive. My goodness, all her great roles have this dichotomy, a scared woman in a mask worn for the public. Stage Door, Sylvia Scarlett, The Philadelphia Story, Pat and Mike, Long Day's Journey Into Night..... Isn't this a glimpse into the real Hepburn?

And this is what I find fascinating in Hepburn, arguably her best roles are as women who have recreated themselves, put on a front, and are dealing with one shot at a different life of their choosing. Will they make the mistake and remain as they are? I get a strong feeling that Kate identifies with these women the most. Why?

I watched her performance this morning in Mary of Scotland, and found it unutterably sad. The movie does not work, but has some things going for it. Hepburn is so very soft here, this is a real stretch for her, one would think. She does a good job with a pretty scattered screenplay by Dudley Nichols. She doesn't actually DO anything, which is odd for the Hepburn of this period. There are no mannerisms, no strong vocal inflections. She portrays Mary as a small woman who makes many mistakes because of her emotion, a woman swayed too easily by honor, a woman falling in love, a woman incapable of the decision making skills a queen must have, a woman who has been played by everyone near her, and who still refuses to believe it. Mary is really not much different from you or I, just a woman, but also just a pawn to bring Scotland to it's knees. She is pushed this way or that, by men and a woman who would have her throne for themselves, and who think her stupid. Except she's not, she's simply an open book that anyone can read, even her enemies. This woman is no queen. Certainly when you compare her to Eleanor of Aquitaine....

So is this perhaps the only time that Hepburn played a woman simply as she is? without guile, unable to put on that different face? I think something happened to Hepburn when she worked for John Ford. Aside from their private relationship, I think her performances from here on in are deeper, richer, and more moving. She stops trying so hard and just is. She lets the mask slip completely for this performance. From 1936 on, she would forever be playing with it, letting us have only the occasional glimpse of Hepburn the real, the true and the scared.



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[mrsl]

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I was never an enormous fan of Kate Hepburn. It depended a lot on the part she was playing and who her co-star was. As much as I like John Wayne, I was not crazy about Rooster Cogburn, and the same goes for Bringing Up Baby. I loved her in the many movies she made with Tracy, and her confusion about her husband Robert Taylor, in Undercurrent. I think my favorite of her is in the Pearl S. Buck book/movie.

Moira mentioned the films she played a mother and her lack of maternal chemistry. In several interviews I've seen her admit with no problem that she never felt that she should be a mother, in fact she stated once that she was too vain to go through the motions of having a child and too busy to care for it without giving up part of her work ethic. I admire that over these actresses that have kids then leave them to be raised by nannies, and governesses. I get really irritated by Angie Jolie and her group of what (?) 7 or 8 by now? Adopted children over a certain age need a lot of love and attention, but when you get a whole group of them like she has, she cannot possibly give them each the things they need. Oh, they look great in the little photo shoots coming and going on the train, or plane, but it's easy for nanny to dress the little dolls up to be put on display. I desparately miss both Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock, but I respect them each for cutting their work load down drastically to stay home and be moms.

Kate knew that way back in the late 30's and stuck to it. That decision also allowed her to be available to be free to join Tracy whenever she wanted to. I'm not crazy about their 30 year romance, but I do understand his religious beliefs, and his standing behind them, and I also understand falling in love with someone when you're already committed to another person.
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[JackFavell]

Anne, I agree, I think Hepburn knew who she was, and who she wasn't, she didn't have time or inclination to fake it and that's great, at least she wasn't a phony. Not everyone is cut out for motherhood, and it's better to acknowledge it than to try and smother that part of you by pretending. That's the worst thing I think anyone can do.

kingrat, thanks very much. I've been thinking about Hepburn's buried vulnerability for a long time but the thought never really crystallized until very recently. It's what I like best about her, and not too many people ever mention it.

I completely agree about Wayne, Fonda, and Stewart. When they let out the thing that they probably most tried to hide, it's like magic. It's what makes us watch a star, the thing that keeps us looking. Directors always say that the accidents are usually the best parts of their movies, and maybe this is why? Because things the actor can't control about their own personalities slip out?

I actuallt think Bette and Joan still had IT throughout most of their later careers, but I am probably the only one.

[charliechaplinfan]

I read Mann's book on Katharine Hepburn, it made me view her differently but no less fondly, I did wonder if he had an agenda to pursue. Kate is one of my favourite actresses and icons but I agree with all of you, there are roles she falls short in and they are usually the roles of mother and/or romantic lover, the exception to me is The Lion in Winter and Summertime, I think that's because the children are men. The roles she did do well are amongst my favourite, I love her screwball comedies but struggled vainly with Mary of Scotland, I love her teamings with Tracy but have have failed to find sympathy in other roles, Song of Love is one of those roles for me. I'm glad TCM gave her a day, there's a heck of a body of work out there for her, I hope they chose well.

[JackFavell]

I think those movies you mention are probably her least good ones. I do find her at all times interesting, just as I do Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck in movies that maybe lack something. I don't think anyone failed as grandly as Katharine Hepburn, and frankly, as time goes on, certain of her films that were considered failures greatly appeal to me more and more. Glad no one has mentioned Dragon Seed.

[mrsl]

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Jackie Baby:


I mentioned Dragon Seed, but I couldn't remember the correct name, so I said the Pearl S. Buck book/movie. That was one of my favorite roles from Kate.
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