AFI's #1 Female Screen Legend...and rightly so!
Added 4/26/2008
This is a great collection of some of Katharine Hepburn's lesser-known movies - from her Academy Award-winning performance in 1933's "Morning Glory" to 1976's "The Corn Is Green."
I wonder that they haven't already done a Cary Grant/Katharine Hepburn movie collection and also a collection of Kate's better-know movies (The Philadelphia Story, Bringing Up Baby, The African Queen, Holiday, Stage Door, etc.)
Morning Glory (1933) - One of the films Katharine Hepburn made early in her career. She won an Academy Award for her performance as Eva Lovelace ("Love is my family name but I'm sure to have some scandals...Doesn't Lovelace have a certain charm that just fits me?"), an aspiring young actress, who makes a huge hit in her first Broadway role. In some ways it has some similarities to 1937's "Stage Door."
Sylvia Scarlett (1936) - The first pairing of superstars Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. I think the two of them were a great screen couple!
Dragon Seed (1944) - I can tell why this movie isn't as well known as her other movies - the plot is pretty slow. They did do a pretty good job making Katharine look Asian - she looks alot different!
Without Love (1945) - One of Katharine Hepburn's nine films with Spencer Tracy. She plays Jamie Jamison, a widow, who rents her house to Spencer Tracy to do his experiments in while he is working on a science project during WWII.
Undercurrant (1946) - This movie, directed by Vincente Minnelli, actually surprised me. The beginning was interesting, but the further it got into the movie the odder it became. How did "The Great Kate" end up with a role like this? I mean it the role didn't fit her and it seemed so different than what she normally plays. (I'd be interested in comments.)
If you aren't a fan of Katharine Hepburn, you will be after watching this collection and if you are this is a must!
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Brilliant Collection
Added 11/10/2007
Katharine Hepburn was, and still is, the greatest Hollywood actress to grace the screen.
This collection is a must as it features 6 fine films -stella performances by Hepburn in each- that had never before been released on Region 1 DVD.
If you are a fan of Hepburn, or a fan of classic Hollywood films - buy this collection.
The special features on each disk leave a bit to be desired (some new documentaries and any behind the scenes or outtakes might have been nice), but the real importance is the films.
And each of them are enjoyable classics.
It holds a firm place in my ever increasing Katharine Hepburn collection, and it should in yours.
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The Corn is Still Green
Added 10/16/2007
Despite the ugliness of the packaging - all that cheap plastic is definitely Un-Kate - there is one gem in the collection that deserves its own separate release: The Corn is Green. It's a made-for-tv movie directed by George Cukor, shot on location in glorious Wales. Hepburn is divine, but supported for a change by a galaxy of marvelous players. Rent the Bette Davis version so you can see how good this is by comparison. Warner's early version of Emlyn Williams' play is dreadful, and Davis was much too young for the role. There was no location shooting in those days, and black-and-white wouldn't have helped it either. All that's left is the value of a good teacher at the right time, and they blew that. Remakes are sometimes a gift to us (think Lord of the Rings) and this is a lovely gift indeed.
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Nice collection
Added 9/7/2007
This is a nice collection of over-looked movies but available much cheaper from BJs, Sams, places like that.
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What lousy film choices
Added 8/29/2007
Katharine Hepburn is a great actress, and she has made scores of first rate films. This collection is ludicrous as a first collection for her. "Morning Glory" is indeed good, and was her first Oscar. "Sylvia Scarlett" is weird and doesn't quite work, but it's definitely of interest - she passes as a man, which is intriguing; Cary Grant is charming and shows his music hall background. But it's also famous as the film Hepburn and director George Cukor APOLOGIZED for after it was made (to the producer). "Undercurrent" is faintly interesting, as Katharine worries if husband Robert Mitchum is dangeorus; but she's hardly at her best as a worried wife. "Without Love" is probably the dullest Tracy-Hepburn film, and Lucille Ball probably gives the best (supporting) performance in it. "Dragon Seed" is a famously bad film which even at the time was ridiculed for all these Caucasions pattering around playing Asians. (Once you get over the disconcerting casting, I admit Hepburn has good moments in it, as does Walter Huston.) I've never seen the tv version of "Corn is Green," maybe it's okay, I don't love that story, and don't love the Bette Davis version either.
But here are brilliant Hepburn films (and performances) that could or should be in a collection: "Little Women," "Alice Adams" (fabulous performance, excellent film), "Stage Door" (great movie, and has the "callalilies" lines), "Holiday," "Bringing Up Baby" (classic screwball comedy, one of the best), "The Philadelphia Story."
"The African Queen" is a fabulous film, needs to be on a US dvd soon. All these OTHER Tracy-Hepburn are worthy: "Woman of the Year," "Adam's Rib," "Pat and Mike," "State of the Union," even "Desk Set" (charming), "Keeper of the Flame" (unusual story), "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." "Summertime" is great; "Rainmaker" is moving and good. She's great in "Suddenly Last Summer," excellent in "A Delicate Balance." Her performance in "Long Day's Journey into Night" is truly great, and psychologically complex. Of her tv movies, "Love Amid in the Ruins" is very good, and it has Laurence Olivier too. Oh, and "Lion in Winter."
Gosh, with this many great movies, how did they come up with this list??? (Maybe rights is a big part of the answer, but even so.) So better to buy your Hepburn films separately for now. Hope a more valuable, less obscure Hepburn collection comes out someday.
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