Episode 18 of 52 of Anne Marie's chronological look at Katharine Hepburn's career.
In which I'm not entirely sure what's going on but it seems to involve boy scouts and fascism.
So, you’re a major studio with a bona fide hit on your hands. You’ve thrown two Academy Award winners, neither a matinee idol in their own right, into a romantic comedy, and the sparks between them burst with unexpected chemistry. The result is a commercial and critical smash that will garner two Oscar nominations and one win (for Best Screenplay). Clearly, another movie between Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn is desired. The next question is: how do you follow an immediate classic?
If your answer is “with a heavy-handed, jingoistic melodrama about fascism,” then you’re crazy, but you’re also right. The tonal about-face from the lighthearted Woman of the Year to Tracy and Hepburn’s next film, Keeper of the Flame, is severe enough to cause whiplash. [more...]
Donald Ogden Stewart’s screenplay is a touch of Rebecca and Citizen Kane, a heaping spoonfull of anti-fascism, and enough left-leaning criticism of public figures like Charles Lindbergh and William Randolph Hearst to overshadow the film’s ultimately patriotic message. Steven O’Malley (Tracy), a cynical war correspondent, returns to America to uncover the truth about the death of a well-loved political figure named Robert Forrest. The more Steven learns about Forrest and his aloof widow, Christine (Kate), the more the reporter questions how power can corrupt a man, and how a man can corrupt a nation.
This is beginning to sound a lot like the introduction to one of my favorite genres...
"The calla lilies are in bloom again..." Wait, wrong movie.
Keeper of the Flame is a proto-film noir, one of those gothic melodramas from the early 1940s that foreshadows the darkness that would consumed crime thrillers in the next decade. The film contains the seeds of noir: the cynical hero who’s seen too much, a mystery that threatens his last shreds of hope, a murder, a distant dame who could be dangerous, even a girl Friday for the hero to lean on. However, most important to the film is the brilliant black and white cinematography by legendary cinematographer William H. Daniels. (Daniels’ filmography is a lesson in Classic Hollywood; everything from Greta Garbo to The Naked City to How The West Was Won.) For Keeper of the Flame, Daniels casts the world around Stephen O’Malley in perpetual shadow. Low-key lighting throws objects and people into stark contrast, giving the entire film an unnatural, gothic eeriness. This is doubly true when O’Malley finally penetrates Forrest’s mansion. The shadows the mansion casts are simultaneously cavernous and claustrophobic.
Daniels’ light plays especially well over Spencer Tracy’s craggy features. Tracy was not what one would call classically handsome, but he was interesting to look at thanks to his world-worn wrinkles and the focused intensity of his performances. Steven O’Malley is no exception; as the plot grows increasingly ridiculous, it’s Tracy’s intensity that carries it almost to the threshold of plausibility.
But what of Kate? Kate stinks. Christine Forrest isn’t a true femme fatale, but she’s still a woman with a secret to hide. The film relies on her being fascinating enough to hold O’Malley’s interest, grief-stricken enough to hold the audience’s sympathy, but distant enough to seem dangerous. Kate can’t quite manage to balance all three. In fact, her incredible chemistry with Tracy is mostly smothered under the weight of her ponderous performance, which leans woodenly on grief. Kate is aided not at all by Daniels’ contrast lighting - which highlights the geometric lines of her face until she looks almost alien - and her angular hairstyle. She spends the majority of the film looking like a stoic Vampira. Unfortunately, we’re about a decade away from that being a viable style option. The good news in Kate’s failure is it shows how far she has yet to go. In fifteen years, she’ll play another widow desperate to keep secrets and preserve the memory of a great man, but that will be one of the best performances of her career.
Keeper of the Flame is as odd in Kate’s partnership with Spencer Tracy as it is unlikely. Originally, Kate wasn’t supposed to be in the film, but she bullied her way on in order to help the alcoholic Tracy get through filming. It may have prolonged Spencer’s sobriety, but it ended Kate’s box office mojo. The film inspired few box office returns, but much hand-wringing from higher ups worried about angering important political figures. Though offscreen Tracy and Hepburn's affair had just begun, Kate wouldn’t be paired onscreen with Spencer for another three years. But oh, what a strange few years those will be.
Previous Weeks: A Bill of Divorcement, Christopher Strong, Morning Glory, Little Women, Spitfire, The Little Minister, Break of Hearts, Alice Adams, Sylvia Scarlett, Mary of Scotland, A Woman Rebels, Quality Street, Stage Door, Bringing Up Baby, Holiday, The Philadelphia Story, Woman of the Year,
Next Week: Stage Door Canteen (1943) - In which Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, and a stripper walk into a bar... (Available on Amazon & Netflix)