what an incredibly relevant monologue and message. katharine hepburn, you were brilliant

what an incredibly relevant monologue and message. katharine hepburn, you were brilliant

Throwing on Keeper of the Flame this evening was a complete spur of the moment decision, just based on the synopsis and top two names I expected a decent little well-acted mystery drama and while this is just that in many ways it also transcended what I thought it could be. I’ve been wanting to get my foot in the door of George Cukor’s filmography for a while now with movies like The Philadelphia Story and My Fair Lady looking right up my alley and even though I probably would’ve never picked this as my intro if I’d known it was him (i didn’t even look at it on letterboxd i just saw a katharine hepburn spencer tracy mystery on amazon and clicked play) but it actually ended up serving as a great intro to his incredibly entertaining style. He really directed this like a charm making these 90 minutes feel no more than 40 to me through some of the cleanest and most effective editing I’ve ever seen in a golden age film and along with the really great score it’s all in all a surprisingly impressive technical experience. I don’t know anything about the book so I’m unsure if I’m praising original author I. A. R. Wylie or screenwriter Donald Ogden Stewart with these next few points but I have to bring them up either way, it’s incredibly ahead of its time in its scathing critique of fascism and capitalist cronyism and beyond that I also thought it served as a great warning against the worship celebrities with how different people can be compared to their public persona. The actual screenplay by Stewart is also quite good, I don’t think it entirely lives up to the brilliance of the concept which definitely comes into play when trying to consider it at a higher rating but the dialogue throughout was clean and, like the cinematography, allowed for Hepburn and Tracy to shine. Speaking of those two stars I really enjoyed them here, this is only my second time seeing Tracy on screen after Judgement at Nuremberg and only my fourth time seeing Hepburn, they had great chemistry together and it gives me an itch to not only see more of their collabs but anything either of them have ever been in. And with an ending that, although good, left just a bit desired for me I can’t rationalize a higher rating but I also can’t emphasize enough how great I found this to be, I’m not sure what I’ll be watching next in Cukor’s filmography but considering this is one of his lower rated movies I’m almost positive I’ll have a good time.

Throwing on Keeper of the Flame this evening was a complete spur of the moment decision, just based on the synopsis and top two names I expected a decent little well-acted mystery drama and while this is just that in many ways it also transcended what I thought it could be. I’ve been wanting to get my foot in the door of George Cukor’s filmography for a while now with movies like The Philadelphia Story and My Fair Lady looking right up my alley and even though I probably would’ve never picked this as my intro if I’d known it was him (i didn’t even look at it on letterboxd i just saw a katharine hepburn spencer tracy mystery on amazon and clicked play) but it actually ended up serving as a great intro to his incredibly entertaining style. He really directed this like a charm making these 90 minutes feel no more than 40 to me through some of the cleanest and most effective editing I’ve ever seen in a golden age film and along with the really great score it’s all in all a surprisingly impressive technical experience. I don’t know anything about the book so I’m unsure if I’m praising original author I. A. R. Wylie or screenwriter Donald Ogden Stewart with these next few points but I have to bring them up either way, it’s incredibly ahead of its time in its scathing critique of fascism and capitalist cronyism and beyond that I also thought it served as a great warning against the worship celebrities with how different people can be compared to their public persona. The actual screenplay by Stewart is also quite good, I don’t think it entirely lives up to the brilliance of the concept which definitely comes into play when trying to consider it at a higher rating but the dialogue throughout was clean and, like the cinematography, allowed for Hepburn and Tracy to shine. Speaking of those two stars I really enjoyed them here, this is only my second time seeing Tracy on screen after Judgement at Nuremberg and only my fourth time seeing Hepburn, they had great chemistry together and it gives me an itch to not only see more of their collabs but anything either of them have ever been in. And with an ending that, although good, left just a bit desired for me I can’t rationalize a higher rating but I also can’t emphasize enough how great I found this to be, I’m not sure what I’ll be watching next in Cukor’s filmography but considering this is one of his lower rated movies I’m almost positive I’ll have a good time.

That final Hepburn monologue is so great. I cannot believe that the term “Box Office Poison” was created in reference to her.

That final Hepburn monologue is so great. I cannot believe that the term “Box Office Poison” was created in reference to her.

spent the entire film starring at katherine hepburn because omg she is stunning in this 
also i did not expect that ending

spent the entire film starring at katherine hepburn because omg she is stunning in this 
also i did not expect that ending

Good little movie with a twist

Good little movie with a twist