Junto Boys

I was sorry to hear about Katharine Hepburn last week. She didn’t quite make 100, but what a long life and career.

Here are some lesser-known favorites of mine:

STAGE DOOR (1937) A great cast the pits Ginger Rogers against Katharine Hepburn. Hepburn is the rich girl who is resented by all of the other boarding house actresses. The same scenario played out in real life as Hepburn and Rogers feuded off screen as well.

BRINGING UP BABY (1938) Well known, but not really seen by anyone but film buffs. Hepburn chases and finally wins the serious professor, Cary Grant. It’s full of sight gags and great dialogue. A box office turkey upon release, Brining Up Baby is now recognized as a work of genius.

WOMAN OF THE YEAR (1942) This was the first Spencer Tracy – Katharine Hepburn film and it was a good one. Tracy plays a sportswriter and Hepburn a columinst for the same paper. They begin by fighting each other in their columns until they run out of material and get married. Hepburn is such a well-connected busy personality she has no time for Spence and their marriage. Soon Tracy feels like the neglected wife. He even gets upset when she doesn’t comment on his new hat. This was a good one to show potential girlfriends, because you could get a good feel for their personalities by how much they identified with Hepburn. One girl loved the movie until Spencer got fed up and left and Hepburn tried to win him back by showing him she could make breakfast. She felt that it was a betrayal of her character. I laugh every time I think of that.

PAT AND MIKE (1952) Hepburn plays a champion athlete and Tracy plays her coach/agent. Hepburn was a good enough athlete to pull it off and it is full of laughs. Even young Charles Bronson shows up in a bit part.

LION IN WINTER (1968) Hepburn plays the older Queen Eleanor who is only let out of prison for special occasions. Peter O’Toole plays King Henry II who is worried about leaving his kingdom to one of his three lousy sons. Every plot description makes this movie sound boring, but the dialogue and plot are so well-written that it is really a treat.