BEFORE: OK, no more films about toxic accidents - but last night's film did feature Chevy Chase's character in a very cordial relationship with his ex-wife, and that's a theme that gets repeated here. Tonight I send Birthday SHOUT-out #39 to the late Katherine Hepburn. And linking seemed like it would be difficult, until I remembered that Dabney Coleman from "Modern Problems" was also in "9 To 5" with Jane Fonda, who was in "On Golden Pond" with Katherine Hepburn (last seen in "Stage Door").
THE PLOT: When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.
AFTER: Of course, this film is also about a society wedding, and with great synchronicity, it takes place on a Thursday before a Saturday wedding - and tonight is Thursday, and I'm getting ready to drive to Maryland for a co-worker's wedding. So let's send this one out to a couple of crazy kids, Gina and Zach, who tie the knot this coming weekend. (Personal note: Gina, who gets married in the middle of Season Finale week? Do you know how full my DVRs are going to be when I get back?)
This is a high-pedigree film, was nominated for 6 Oscars and won 2 (Jimmy Stewart as Best Actor, and Best Screenplay) and as I found out in "The Aviator", reversed Kate Hepburn's reputation as being "box-office poison".
So, this is what romantic comedies looked like in the 1930's? It's interesting to see how much things have changed, in just a few generations. For one, there's a very strong stigma against divorce - one of the characters in the love quadrangle was ashamed to even mention that she'd been married before. For Hepburn's character (Tracy Lord, a moniker later semi-adopted by a porn star), there's no hiding the fact that she was also divorced, since it would have been in all the papers. But then when it comes time to get married again (and she simply must do so, or somehow be regarded as "incomplete"), when her stuffed-shirt fiancé doesn't seem like the right fit, oh, well, just marry someone else! And she's got no shortage of choices, with Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant's characters on hand.
The woman is the prize, and marriage is the goal - it just all seems somewhat antiquated, and I kind of thought that Hepburn's sensibilities would have been more ahead of their time. It hardly seems like her character has any choice at all over who she marries or re-marries. It just takes a few drinks for her to see another man as a better choice than her intended - so, really how much in love was she?
NITPICK POINT #1 - do we ever find out why Hepburn and Grant's characters got divorced in the first place? Yes, we see him storming out of their house, and then pushing her to the floor - but what preceded/provoked that? The IMDB plot summary says they married impulsively, and he was a drinker, and she was unforgiving of his imperfections, but I don't recall all of that being stated in the film.
NITPICK POINT #2 - can you just substitute in a new groom like that? Doesn't there need to be a marriage license listing the correct groom? And back then didn't there need to be a blood test or something? Screw it, the guests are here so let's just proceed? I sort of doubt it.
Also, I found the precocious teen sister to be much too...well, precocious.
RATING: 5 out of 10 invitations
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