TCM Schedule for Friday, August 20 -- Summer Under The Stars -- Katharine Hepburn

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It's Katharine Hepburn day at TCM! We don't get to see any of her four Oscar-winning roles, and only three of her eight Oscar-nominated roles. But we do get to see five of the nine Tracy/Hepburn collaborations (Woman of the Year (1940), Keeper of the Flame (1941), Without Love (1945), The Sea of Grass (1947) and Adam's Rib (1949)), as well as two of her four films with Cary Grant (Bringing Up Baby (1938) and The Philadelphia Story (1940)). Enjoy!


6:00am -- Spitfire (1934)
A backwoods faith healer falls for a married man from the big city.
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Robert Young, Ralph Bellamy, Martha Sleeper
Dir: John Cromwell
BW-87 mins, TV-G

The rights to the play "Trigger" were purchased with Dorothy Jordan in mind for the lead. However, Katharine Hepburn agreed to star on the condition that she could leave for New York on November 16, 1933 to appear in the play "The Lake". Shooting of the two final scenes ran about 6 hours late on November 15, 1933, but director John Cromwell was dissatisfied with the results and wanted to reshoot them. Miss Hepburn refused at first, citing the terms of her contract. She then demanded, and received, $10,000 (in addition to her $50,000 salary) to stay an extra day for the reshoot.


7:30am -- Christopher Strong (1933)
An aviatrix's affair with a married man could cost her her career.
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Colin Clive, Billie Burke, Helen Chandler
Dir: Dorothy Arzner
BW-78 mins, TV-PG

Katharine Hepburn replaced Ann Harding.


9:00am -- Katharine Hepburn: All About Me (1993)
In a rare interview, Katharine Hepburn shares her memories and memorabilia.
Cast: Katharine Hepburn
Dir: David Heeley
C-70 mins, TV-G

Features clips from more than half of Hepburn's films.


10:15am -- Mary of Scotland (1936)
Biography of the flighty Scottish queen who was brought down by love.
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Fredric March, Florence Eldridge, Douglas Walton
Dir: John Ford
BW-124 mins, TV-G

Both Ginger Rogers and Bette Davis were interested in playing Elizabeth. Director John Ford wanted Tallulah Bankhead for the part, but Florence Eldridge. Fredric March's real-life wife, won the part.


12:30pm -- Quality Street (1937)
A woman masquerades as her own niece to get back at a neglectful suitor.
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Franchot Tone, Eric Blore, Fay Bainter
Dir: George Stevens
BW-83 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Score -- Roy Webb (musical director) and score by Roy Webb

Based on the play by J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan.


2:00pm -- Undercurrent (1946)
A sheltered woman realizes that either her husband or his mysterious brother is a psychopath.
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Robert Taylor, Robert Mitchum, Edmund Gwenn
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
BW-116 mins, TV-PG

Katharine Hepburn and Robert Mitchum didn't get along. One day she told him, "You know you can't act, and if you hadn't been good looking you would never have got a picture at all. I'm tired of working with people like you who have nothing to offer."


4:00pm -- The Sea Of Grass (1947)
Husband-and-wife ranchers take opposite sides in a range war.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Walker, Melvyn Douglas
Dir: Elia Kazan
BW-124 mins, TV-PG

In his autobiography, Elia Kazan said of this film: "It's the only picture I've ever made that I'm ashamed of. Don't see it." I've seen it. It's a lesser work of Tracy and Hepburn, but it isn't that bad. It's just a kind of western soap opera.


6:15pm -- Keeper Of The Flame (1942)
A reporter digs into the secret life of a recently deceased political hero.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Richard Whorf, Margaret Wycherly
Dir: George Cukor
BW-101 mins, TV-PG

Louis B. Mayer was very unhappy about the film's political content, thinking it noncommercial. Katharine Hepburn too felt that the storyline was too dull and needed to be pepped up with some romance. She complained to producer Victor Saville about this but he ignored her comments, so Hepburn went directly to Mayer who was only too happy to make the film into a more conventional Hollywood romance.


What's On Tonight: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: KATHARINE HEPBURN


8:00pm -- Woman Of The Year (1942)
Opposites distract when a sophisticated political columnist falls for a sportswriter.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter, Reginald Owen
Dir: George Stevens
BW-114 mins, TV-PG

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr.

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn

As Katharine Hepburn's close friend and frequent director, George Cukor was a natural choice to direct, but for her first film with Spencer Tracy, Hepburn wanted Tracy to be as comfortable as possible, so as a quasi-producer, she hired George Stevens, who had directed her in Alice Adams (1935). As Hepburn said, "I just thought he (Tracy) should have a big, manly man on his team - someone who could talk about baseball." Cukor (who was openly gay and known for his friendships with actresses) would later become a good friend of Tracy and would direct both actors in Keeper of the Flame (1942), Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952).


10:00pm -- Without Love (1945)
A World War II housing shortage inspires a widow to propose a marriage of convenience with an inventor.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Keenan Wynn
Dir: Harold S. Bucquet
BW-111 mins, TV-PG

The poem that Katharine Hepburn's character recites while riding in the horse buggy with Paul (Carl Esmond's character) is Sir William Watson's "Song" (1897). Ms. Hepburn's character, however, misquotes the line from the poem. She says, "April, April, with her girlish laughter." The lines she is quoting actually appear in the poem as, "April, April, / Laugh thy girlish laughter."


12:00am -- Bringing Up Baby (1938)
A madcap heiress upsets the staid existence of a straitlaced scientist.
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charlie Ruggles, Walter Catlett
Dir: Howard Hawks
BW-102 mins, TV-G

This movie fared so badly at the box office that Howard Hawks was fired from his next production at RKO and Katharine Hepburn bought out her contract to avoid being cast in the film Mother Carey's Chickens (1938). Coincidentally, Hepburn was labeled "box office poison" on the same day her contract was dissolved.

However, the film was voted the 24th Greatest Film of all time by Entertainment Weekly. Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time" in 2006. In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #88 Greatest Movie of All Time.


2:00am -- The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Tabloid reporters crash a society marriage.
Cast: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey
Dir: George Cukor
BW-112 mins, TV-G

Won Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- James Stewart, and Best Writing, Screenplay -- Donald Ogden Stewart

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ruth Hussey, Best Director -- George Cukor, and Best Picture

The film was shot in eight weeks, and required no retakes. During the scene where James Stewart hiccups when drunk, you can see Cary Grant looking down and grinning. Since the hiccup wasn't scripted, Grant was on the verge of breaking out laughing and had to compose himself quickly. James Stewart thought of hiccuping in the drunk scene himself, without telling Cary Grant. When he began hiccuping, Grant turned to Stewart saying, "Excuse me." The scene required only one take.


4:00am -- Summertime (1955)
A schoolteacher is surprised to find love on a Venetian vacation.
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi, Isa Miranda, Darren McGavin
Dir: David Lean
C-100 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn, and Best Director -- David Lean

When Katharine Hepburn filmed the scene where she falls into the canal, one of her eyes became infected. That infection stayed with her the rest of her life.

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1. Katharine Hepburn Profile

August 30 Stardates: Born May 12, 1907, in Hartford, Conn.; died 2003.
Star Sign: Taurus
Star Qualities: Ravishing bone structure, distinctive speech patterns, independent spirit, glowing presence.
Star Definition: “She has tremendous integrity, a superb sense of humor, self-discipline, courage, generosity. And above all she is a great professional.” – Director Anthony Harvey
Galaxy Of Characters: Susan Vance in Bringing Up Baby (1938), Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story (1940), Patricia Pemberton in Pat and Mike (1952), Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond (1981).

Katharine Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on May 12, 1907, the second of six children to Dr. Thomas N. Hepburn, a noted urologist, and Katharine Houghton Hepburn, a suffragette who worked for women's voting rights and was an outspoken advocate for birth control. She was educated by tutors and at private schools before entering Bryn Mawr University in 1924. After earning her B.A. in drama in 1928, she joined a stock company in Baltimore and married socialite Ludlow Ogden. Although she divorced him six years later, she credited "Luddy" for opening doors in New York that allowed her to find some work. She eventually landed a role on Broadway, Warrior's Husband which led to a movie offer from RKO. She went to Hollywood at $1,500 a week to star opposite John Barrymore in George Cukor's A Bill of Divorcement (1932).

Immediately, Hepburn cut a figure no actress could match: her lean angularity, well-bred exterior, sharp wit, and precise diction shot her to stardom. She scored a commercial triumph with just her third film, Lowell Sherman's Morning Glory (1933, Oscar® winner); and a string of rich parts followed: Jo in Cukor's fine adaptation of Little Women (1933); a young social climber in George Stevens' brooding, romantic tale Alice Adams (1935, a second Oscar® nomination), the wealthy, aspiring actress in Gregory La Cava's Stage Door (1937, one of her few hits in this period); a headstrong stage star in George Stevens' delightful comedy of errors Quality Street (1937); and as the deliriously eccentric socialite who romances Cary Grant in Howard Hawk's classic screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby (1938).

Despite these rich and varied roles that displayed her capabilities in both drama and comedy, they rarely proved to be commercial hits. The Independent Theatre Owners of America officially labeled Hepburn as "Box-Office Poison" and she soon left RKO to revive her fortunes on the stage. She returned to Broadway in late 1938 to star in The Philadelphia Story. Her performance as Tracy Lord, the spoiled socialite who develops an understanding heart when she must choose between two suitors, drew critical raves from the New York press. Ever savvy, she purchased the screen rights to the play and was able to parley her way back to Hollywood on her own terms, including her choice of director (George Cukor) and co-stars (James Stewart and Cary Grant). The film version in 1940 was a box office smash, earned Hepburn her third Oscar® nomination, garnered her a contact with MGM, and made her a bankable film star again.

Her next film, Stevens' lovely romantic comedy Woman of the Year (1942, another Oscar® nomination), would kick off a 25-year partnership (on and off the screen) with Spencer Tracy. Few critics, let alone moviegoers, were expecting the chemistry and comic brio that these two stars would create when they were first paired. Hepburn's biggest box office hits of the '40s were films co-starring Tracy: Cukor's Keeper of the Flame (1942); Harold Bucquet's underrated Without Love (1945); Elia Kazan's soapy melodrama The Sea of Grass (1947); Frank Capra's political satire State of the Union (1948), and of course, Cukor's superb battle-of-the-sexes farce Adam's Rib (1949).

By the '50s, Hepburn stood alone when it came to infusing roles with elegance, dignity and emotional resonance: Rose Sayer, the tough missionary in John Huston's The African Queen (1951, Oscar® nomination) opposite Humphrey Bogart; the lithe athlete in Cukor's charming light comedy Pat and Mike (1952), again with Tracy; the lonely spinster who finds love for the first time while vacationing in Venice in David Lean's Summertime (1955, Oscar nomination); as Lizzie Curry, the plain looking woman who yearns for a fruitful life in Joseph Anthony's The Rainmaker (1956, Oscar® nomination) with Burt Lancaster; the office manager who falls in love with efficiency expert Spencer Tracy in Walter Lang's slight farce Desk Set (1957); and as the delusional Mrs. Venable in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Suddenly Last Summer (1959) with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift.

Her output slowed considerably by the '60s, but she still offered some fine performances in the few films she made: her astoundingly tortured take as the drug-addicted Mary Tyrone in Sidney Lumet's Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962, Oscar® nomination); the liberal, wealthy mother in Stanley Kramer's interracial comedy Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967, Oscar® winner) which would be her ninth and final film with Tracy; and as Eleanor of Aquitaine in Anthony Harvey's medieval saga The Lion in Winter (1968, Oscar® winner). She returned to Broadway in 1969 where she earned critical praise for Coco, a musical version of the life of Coco Chanel.

Toward the end of her career, Hepburn made a few appearances that continued to entertain her fans: a fine Amanda Wingfield in Harvey's television adaptation of The Glass Menagerie (1973, Emmy nomination); an aging actress who falls in live with her barrister, Laurence Olivier in Cukor's telefilm Love Among the Ruins (1975, Emmy winner); Mark Rydell's homey On Golden Pond (1981, her record setting fourth Oscar for lead actress); an old woman who assists hit man Nick Nolte in the odd black comedy Grace Quigley (1984); and her last theatrical film appearance, playing Warren Beatty's aunt in Glenn Gordon Caron's Love Affair (1994). With her declining health, she retired from public life in the mid-'90s. As one final, fitting tribute, the American Film Institute recently ranked her as the greatest actress of all time. Hepburn is survived by a sister, Margaret Hepburn Perry; a brother, Dr. Robert Hepburn; and 13 nieces and nephews.

by Michael T. Toole

* Films in Bold Type will air on 8/20