Summer Under the Stars: Katharine Hepburn

Star of the Day: Katharine Hepburn

The Iron Petticoat (1956) - "Captain Vinka Kovelenko defects from Russia, but not for political reasons. She defects because she feels discriminated against as a woman. Captain Chuck Lockwood gets the order to show her the bright side of capitalism, while she tries to convince him of the superority of communism..."

gif by me

I really owe my interest in classic movies to the Hepburns: Audrey and Katharine. Audrey's the one whose films inspired and enthralled me (not to say that I don't love Katharine's films!) yet I think Katharine's the one who had a greater impression on me in my formative years. 

I was 15 when Katharine Hepburn died and though I'd only seen a few of her films at that point, I was riveted with the wall-to-wall coverage of her death and the retrospectives that appeared on television. I remember reading a biography that came out soon after her death (which doesn't have the greatest reputation, I've since learned) and parts of it stuck with me. 

Her willingness to be herself at all costs. How she married once but then realized it wasn't for her. How she wore pants even though it wasn't the style and when the studio threw them out, walked around in her underwear until they were returned. She was intelligent, witty, stylish, and confident in herself; and if I could have ever found a way to tell her how much she meant to me as a teenager, who knew she didn't want to stay confined to a small town and wanted to live life on her own terms, it'd be one of the greatest honours of my life. 

All of this to say... I've seen a majority of the films featured on her day, and really, how do you narrow down such a legacy? Some of my favourites featured yesterday include Bringing Up Baby (grumble grumble that it's not available on TCM Canada so I couldn't actually watch it), Woman of the Year, Adam's Rib, Desk Set, and The Lion in Winter. 

One of the rare ones I hadn't seen was The Iron Petticoat, a comedy starring Katharine as a Russian avatrix trying to convince all-American Bob Hope to be a communist. I love her, so I loved this. I think the uninitiated are content with sticking Katharine Hepburn's legacy into the more dramatic box, but she was such a skilled comedienne, too.