Sylvia Scarlet (1935) Queer Film B-

DIRECTOR: George Cukor

Depressed after his wife’s death and drowning in gambling debts, Henry Scarlett (Edmund Gwenn) flees France for England with his teenage daughter, Sylvia(Katharine Hepburn), in tow. Because Henry intends to resume his petty smuggling—this time sneaking bolts of lace into England to dodge import taxes—Sylvia disguises herself as a boy, christening the persona “Sylvester” to throw the authorities off their trail. On the Channel ferry, they encounter Jimmy Monkley (Cary Grant), a charming grifter whose survival instincts are so sharp that he promptly turns Henry in to save his own skin. By the time they reach Southampton, the duo has become a trio.

This is the first film in which Grant’s Cockney persona truly registers, and he nearly walks off with the picture. Its themes of gender play and sexual fluidity were far ahead of their time, and audiences didn’t know what to make of it; RKO reportedly lost $363,000, and Hepburn was swiftly branded “box office poison,” a stigma she wouldn’t shake until signing with MGM in 1940.

The film’s reputation has steadily improved, and today it wears its queerness with pride. Hepburn continues her drag performance long after the plot no longer requires it, and in one memorable moment she is kissed by a woman. It remains the only film in which Hepburn—a gay actress—so overtly channels her own sexuality on screen.

It was the first of four Hepburn–Grant pairings, followed by Howard Hawks’s Bringing Up Baby (1938), George Cukor’s Holiday (also 1938), and the triumphant Philadelphia Story (1940), which revitalized Hepburn’s career and showcased all three artists at their peak.

Adapted from Compton Mackenzie’s 1918 novel, the film also features Brian Aherne as an Englishman briefly smitten with “Sylvester,” only to lose interest the moment the boy reverts to Sylvia. Mel Berns, head of RKO’s makeup department, created Hepburn’s striking hair and makeup design—work of a piece with the sophistication he later brought to Citizen Kane and Notorious.

Cinematography: Joseph H. August

RKO

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Coda: *Grant and *Hepburn would next star in Howard Hawks’s Bringing Up Baby, whereGrant answers the front door wearing a flimsy negligée because Hepburn has hidden all his clothes. When Hepburn’s aunt (May Robson) demands an explanation, he throws up his hands and exclaims,Because I just went gay all of a sudden!—leaping into the air on the word gay. The film never again suggests that Grant’s character is gay, queer, or homosexual, which raises the linguistic question: how common was gayas a synonym for homosexuality in 1938?

The answer is that the usage existed but was not yet mainstream. By the late 1930s, gay, meaning “homosexual,” circulated widely in queer subcultures but remained largely unknown to the general public, who still heard the word as “carefree” or “frivolous.” Grant’s line, therefore, functions as a sly double entendre—innocent enough to slip past censors, unmistakable to those in the know.

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