Katharine Hepburn on TCM: KEEPER OF THE FLAME, SUMMERTIME

Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi in David Lean's Summertime (top); Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant in Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby (bottom)

Katharine Hepburn having her own private day as part of Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" series doesn't make my pulse race or my heart palpitate. I mean, Hepburn could be an outstanding actress, but her movies are always playing on TCM, and many have found their way onto DVD and, way back when, VHS. [Katharine Hepburn schedule.]

(Mr./Ms. TCM, for next year, how about a John Gilbert Day or a Ramon Novarro Day or a Catherine Deneuve Day or a Sessue Hayakawa Day or a Nancy Carroll Day or a Lizabeth Scott Day? Heck, I'd gladly accept a Polly Moran Day.)

Among the eleven Hepburn vehicles being presented by TCM (in addition to David Heeley's 1993 documentary Katharine Hepburn: All About Me), my favorite is Howard Hawks' 1938 screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby, co-starring Cary Grant. I'm just not sure how funny a movie can be after 18 viewings. (Actually, I've only watched it twice; but avid TCM'ers have probably watched that one at least a dozen times.)

A less famous — but also frequently shown — Hepburn movie I'd recommend is the fairy-taleish Quality Street (1937). Some care neither for the movie nor for Hepburn's performance; I found both, for lack of a better word, charming. Cora Witherspoon is also great in it. George Stevens directed.

Elia Kazan's The Sea of Grass (1947) and John Cromwell's Spitfire (1934) are only for die-hard Hepburn fans, but both Dorothy Arzner's Christopher Strong (1933) and George Cukor's Keeper of the Flame (1942), however flawed, are definitely worth a look.

Whether Dorothy Arzner's lesbianism influenced her gender-bending take on Christopher Strong I don't know, but it's there. That in itself adds some welcome complexity to the tale of an aviatrix who falls for a married man (Colin Clive).

In Keeper of the Flame, we get melodrama mixed with politics, as Hepburn, in the title role, discovers that democracy can't exist without sociopolitical transparency. I don't think anyone would argue against that — except those in power, of course — but Keeper of the Flame's anti-fascism, partly thanks to George Cukor's old-school direction, is quite tame, especially when compared to something like Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, released the year before.

Hepburn is excellent in Summertime (1955), which earned the actress and director David Lean Academy Award nominations. Veteran Isa Miranda should have received a supporting nod, as well. She's good.

In his autobiography, playwright/screenwriter Arthur Laurents complains that Summertime, the film version of his play The Time of the Cuckoo, diluted the play's effectiveness by having Katharine Hepburn (not Shirley Booth) play someone named "Jane Hudson" (not "Leona Samish"). Laurents then goes on to explain the importance of a character's name for the audience's perception of the character itself.

That's all fine, but I'm glad the much-too-obvious Leona became the more generic Jane — you can see in the character what the actor conveys; not what the author imposes on you — and that Hepburn got to do a beautiful job with the part.

Rossano Brazzi played Jane's love interest in the film; Dino Diluca was Leona's near-paramour onstage.