A Year with Kate: Grace Quigley (1984)
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 at 2:01PM Episode 46 of 52: In which Katharine Hepburn makes a comedy about suicide with Nick Nolte because she's a living legend and she can do whatever she wants.
The truth about a career that spans seven decades, is that for the majority of that career, you'll be what’s traditionally thought of as “old.” Hollywood does not like “old.” The magnificent part of watching Katharine Hepburn age has been watching her flip old age (and Hollywood) the bird. True, her head wobbles, her hair is gray, and her voice is reedy. Still, she leaps after hot air balloons, bicycles, hauls wood, and even wins Academy Awards at an age far past what would traditionally be considered “her prime.” For the past few years, Kate has looked old, sounded old, and even talked about being old, but the stubbornly energetic woman has never felt old. Which is why Grace Quigley is more than a little scary.
Grace Quigley (originally titled The Ultimate Solution of Grace Quigley) is meant to be a black comedy about assisted suicide. Think Arsenic and Old Lace by way of Harold and Maude. Nick Nolte stars as a neurotic hitman with the misfortune of meeting Mrs. Quigley (our own Kate), an octogenarian who blackmails him into starting a business with her: killing people who want to be killed. Homicidal hilarity ensues, or would, except it isn't very funny. Despite a striptease set to Tchaikovsky, a hearse chase, and several attempts at witty banter, the movie vacillates between morbidity and dullness. The problem is threefold: 1) director Anthony Harvey (who’d beautifully directed Kate in The Lion in Winter and The Glass Menagerie) lacks the light touch needed for black comedy. 2) Nick Nolte’s character is about as good at killing people as he is at delivering one-liners (which is to say not good at all). Most importantly, 3) For the first time onscreen, Katharine Hepburn looks so frail that it is uncomfortably easy to believe she wants to die.
Kate's brush with death and life affirmations after the jump.
During the filming of Grace Quigley, Kate crashed her car into a tree. She fractured her ankle, and was effectively hobbled for a few months. Even when Kate got back on her feet, she never fully recovered. The short term result was that the Kate’s customary charisma is lacking. She seems so tired and sad. Several times while watching Grace Quigley, I re-checked IMDb to verify that this movie was really only made 2 years after On Golden Pond. Kate looks as though she's aged a decade, not a few years. As Mrs. Quigley, Kate performs with an undercurrent of fragility, not because of great, risk-taking acting, but because she’s actually fragile.
Without Kate’s natural ebullience, Grace Quigley is DOA. There is a colorful cast of side characters, but unfortunately thanks to the nature of the story, they keep getting bumped off. Attempting to make a comedy about assisted suicide in 1983 was gutsy - it’s no less controversial a topic now than it was 30 years ago. To get an audience to accept the premise of the film, they must root for the people who want to commit suicide, but not mourn the characters. Unfortunately, the film tips towards sadness too often when characters describe their reasons to die - loneliness and money are prevailing reasons. This is the final nail in the coffin for the film’s comedic elements.
Grace Quigley was the first sign that, at age 74, Katharine Hepburn was allowing herself to slow down. She would remain busy in the 1980s, and begin working on her soon-to-be-smash-hit autobiography. However, the films Kate made were fewer, shorter, and smaller. Nonetheless, Katharine Hepburn regained some of her zeal. As the septuagenarian said,
“I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun.”
Previous Week: On Golden Pond (1981) - In which Katharine Hepburn makes Oscars history by asserting that old people are interesting.
Next Week: Mrs. Delafield Wants To Marry (1986) - In which Katharine Hepburn stars in a geriatric version of The Way We Were.
Reader Comments (18)
This is one of the three of her films that I've never been able to track down. I'm hoping with the Christmas season approaching some station will show her last, One Christmas, and that someday TCM will break down and show A Bill of Divorcement but this one seems particularly elusive.
The description is not alluring but for completeness sake I'll keep pursuing it telling myself the whole time it can't be worse than The Iron Petticoat, Spitfire or Dragon Seed!
At least Kate will be getting some of her snap back next week in Mrs. Delafield.
«The Trojan Women» is the only one I haven't seen. Once I caught a bit of it but it was half over so i told myself, "next time." That was over 30 40 years ago.
After reading this, I think I am glad I have never seen it. I love Hepburn and appreciate Nolte. No real reason in my book to sully my pleasant memories of their work.
i thought she got down right pretty awful - including that warren beatty movie - toward the end. like watching sassy katharine hepburn playing feisty katharine hepburn. let's all be honest here. never a big fan - i much preferred stanwyck, davis and myrna loy. "The LOOOONS! Nah-mahn!"
I clearly remember that I saw this movie long after its release as a double feature in an ancient theatre due to my sudden love for Kate after watching On Golden Pond in VHS. I didn't like it and I've never seen it again.
joel6 - It's not worse than SPITFIRE. Nothing is worse than SPITFIRE. (Except maybe DRAGON SEED.)
Despite jimmy's dire warnings I hope everyone sticks around. Only six weeks left!
I don't think I ever saw the whole film, I remember that I saw the trailer and read the reviews but it looked like such a clunker that I decided to pass on it. You get bonus points for even tracking this film down.
Anne Marie, you pose one of the most difficult questions that actors face, when do you retire from a profession and a lifelong career? Kate Hepburn was extemely adept at breaking past the barriers and doing such great work for decades. But time eventually catches up. It's tough to face quitting and even more difficult to know when. I wish OGP had been the last film that Hepburn had done, going out on that high note. But her love for acting kept seducing her back:. It's an admirable quality in a person, I admire and respect her passion even if the results are not so admirable.
I don't think you should ever quit. If you love what you do and the offers are there, keep at it. Who cares what people say of your career (especially Hepburn's). Olivier's last screen appearance was a wordless cameo in the wheelchair. With high notes such as hers, the low points don't really matter. The only ones keeping score are the living. The dead are probably way over it and there are far more of them.
I wish Bette Davis had quit after Death on the Nile, because I couldn't stop watching. With Hepburn I stopped watching after On Golden Pond (although I couldn't resist checking out Love Affair), so it was less depressing.
Henry: Wordless? Not entirely. Cameo? Also not exactly, if you're referring to War Requiem. I think "anchor of the frame story" isn't something you can call a "cameo."
Purchased this film on DVD last week (this great blog has coincided with a Katharine Hepburn film marathon of my own). I was wary (there are very few Youtube clips) but oddly enough I enjoyed it - though I felt vaguely uncomfortable with the second "job" and if she had gone through with her original plan then who was going to look after poor Oscar?! It seemed strange to see her in a film with a Pretenders soundtrack and car/hearse chases (I don't know why). She does seem much older than On Golden Pond and some of the camera shots (looking over Kate's shoulder) seemed to emphasise and draw attention to the head shake. But I'd certainly watch it again (which isn't something I can say about A Delicate Balance, another recent purchase). Apparently the DVD version is a much shorter version than was originally screened. I'd be curious to know what was cut.
Ned - Where did you find it on DVD? I searched high and low and only found it on VHS. What was the runtime? Now I'm curious about what might have been cut as well.
I bought it via amazon.co.uk (I live in the UK). It's titled 'The Ultimate Solution... ' and the running time is given as 93 minutes. However its actual run time was 87 minutes which according to Wiki was the theatrical release (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Quigley). The DVD is region free but PAL encoded.
Being old, I saw GQ (in real time) shortly before Prizi’s Honor – and I remember thinking Huston could have been the perfect person to tackle the subject matter of GQ since he was in a creative high back then - wouldn’t it have been great if he and Hepburn had a late career reunion?
I saw this in 1985 in Spain and dubbed in Spanish. I enjoyed it. Since moving back to the US I saw it again in English. The most disturbing about this is that the ending in Europe was COMPLETELY different and so much more meaningful! I am saying that the ending in Europe made sense of the whole movie, without it, it drops flat on its face.
Hello to writer and readers. The movie you watched is an inferior version hacked together by a moron. Please see the following: http://www.theparallaxreview.com/columns/cannon_corner/the_ultimate_solution_of_grace_quigley.html
I was interviewing the late Martin Zweiback (the writer of "Grace Quigley") back in 2014 and he was kind enough to send me a copy of the writer's cut (which is 93 minutes, not 76 minutes like the Spanish import version.) It most likely has the same darker, less sappy ending, though. What I am absolutely dying to see is the original 102 minute version of Harvey's that screened (and got booed) at Cannes. THAT is a truly rare item.
From the beginning to the end, I thought this movie was absolutely CHARMING! I laughed OUT LOUD so many times throughout the first half of the movie I texted my mom 4 times saying how much I was enjoying it & how I couldn't believe I had never even HEARD of this movie, then I saw the downright mean reviews that seem to me more like purposeful SABOTAGE. This was such a fun movie, & the teaming of Nick & Katherine was wonderful. It was endearing to see their relationship blossom, & his sweet smile when she asked if he wouldn't mind calling her "mom", let you know he grew up without one. When you can say so much with just a smile...ACTING. Katherine was so delightful & her role was so fun & quirky, & it was so nice to see her in such a fun movie, I just LOVED it!! You people who wrote this nasty, cruel review are assholes.