DIRECTOR: George Cukor
BOTTOM LINE: Depressed after his wife’s passing and plagued by mounting gambling debts, Henry Scarlett (Edmund Gwenn) flees France for England with teenage daughter Sylvia (Katherine Hepburn) in tow. Since Henry plans to continue his nefarious ways by smuggling yards of lace into England to sell on the black market (and avoid import tax), Sylvia dresses as a boy, who she christens Sylvester, to throw the police off their scent. On the Channel ferry to London, they meet charming con man Jimmy Monkley (Cary Grant), and before you can say “Southampton,” the duo soon becomes a trio despite Jimmy turning Henry over to the authorities to avoid being accosted himself. This was the first time that Grant’s famous Cockney persona began to register on film, and he all but steals the picture. Unfortunately, the film’s themes of sexual fluidity were ahead of its time, and it was a financial disaster for RKO Studios, losing a reported $363,000. It also led to Hepburn being labeled box office poison, a moniker from which she would not recover until signing with MGM in 1940. The film’s standing with critics and the public has gradually improved over the years, and it wears its Queerness proudly. Hepburn continues to do drag even after it is not necessary anymore for the character, and, in one memorable scene, he/she is kissed by a woman! It also marks the only time in which Hepburn, a gay actress, overtly channeled her own sexuality on screen. The film marked the first of four Hepburn/Grant pairings – the others being the next Queer Film on our list Howard Hawks’ Bringing Up Baby (1938) and the Cukor-directed “Holiday” (also 1938) and “The Philadelphia Story (1940). The latter was a triumph for all concerned, including Cukor, Hepburn and Grant. Adapted from the 1918 novel by Compton MacKenzie, the movie also features Brian Aherne as an Englishman who shows an interest in Hepburn’s character but whose ardor quickly vanishes when Sylvester reverts back to Sylvia! Mel Berns, the head of the RKO Makeup Department, created Hepburn’s impressive makeup and hair design. Berns’s work on films such as “Citizen Kane” and “Notorious” still resonates today.
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https://thebrownees.net/sixty-five-queer-films-made-under-the-hays-code-1934-1967
https://thebrownees.net/sixty-five-queer-films-made-under-the-hays-code-1934-1967-table-summary
https://thebrownees.net/fifty-two-post-hays-code-queer-films-released-in-the-decade-1967-1976
