In The Philadelphia Story, Katharine Hepburn pulls off an impressive trick: creating a character we struggle to identify with—who distances herself from others purposefully—but whom we can’t help rooting for anyway.
On Cate & Kate in The Aviator (2004) and Summertime (1955).
As stars onscreen, Hepburn and Tracy were 100 proof, one of the most successful pairings in American cinema. Offscreen, they were Hollywood’s open secret: a clandestine couple that managed a long-running affair by being invisible in all the right places.
George Cukor's Holiday was neither the first nor last Hepburn and Grant pairing, but here it feels as if they're inventing a new type of relationship—one marked not only by fizzling flirtation or witty repartee, but also deeply infused with loss.
Bringing Up Baby might be directed by Howard Hawks, but it’s Katharine Hepburn who leads the fugue.
