This curious little movie from 1935 is notable for being the first on-screen collaboration of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. They subsequently went on to make three better and more successful movies (Holiday, Bringing Up Baby, and The Philadelphia Story).
Henry Scarlett (Edmund Gwenn) a widower, lives in France with his daughter Sylvia (Hepburn). To escape an embezzlement charge, Henry flees to London, and takes his daughter – disguised as a boy to avoid recognition – with him. On the journey, they met cockney ne’er-do-well Johnny Monkley (Grant) and together with Johnny’s friend Maudie (Dennie Moore), having unsuccessfully tried to make money as con artists, they decide to become a travelling entertainment group. All goes well until Sylvia falls for a an artist – but he thinks she’s a boy…
Grant and Hepburn were both fairly near the start of their film careers when they made this – and it shows. Much as it pains me to say it, I thought the acting from both of them was far below the standard which audiences are generally used to seeing. Grant’s cockney accent is awful, and slips frequently, while Hepburn appears to be over-acting throughout – almost shouting out her lines.
Added to that is the fact that the script is also very patchy, and it’s tough to know what kind of film this is actually meant to be. It’s described as a comedy drama, but it is’t very funny or dramatic. The story line meanders, and doesn’t really seem to go anywhere, and Dennie Moore’s voice became irritating very early on.
Overall, it’s worth seeing once, if only to further appreciate the quality of the films which Hepburn and Grant subsequently co-starred in, but this is not a film I will be rushing to see again.
Year of release: 1935
Director: George Cukor
Writers: Compton MacKenzie (book), Gladys Unger, John Collier, Mortimer Offner
Main cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Edmund Gwenn, Dennie Moore, Brian Aherne
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