Katharine Hepburn: All About Me

Turner Classic Movies, as a part of their "Summer Under the Stars" festival for the current month of August, included 12 of Katherine Hepburn's movies to be shown back to back, all day, this past August 5th.

Within the collection of features, which included classics like THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, THE LION IN WINTER, HOLIDAY, LITTLE WOMEN, and LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO THE NIGHT, was this documentary shot in 1993 which presented an inside look into Katharine Hepburn the actress, personality, and overall opinionated woman who managed to become over the years America's Greatest Actress of the Twentieth Century.

Katharine Hepburn herself hosts this documentary which runs a little over an hour long and in it she accounts her early years, her beginnings as an actress (with footage from an early stage production of a college play (A Midsummer's Night Dream), her start in Hollywood and acting with such legends as John Barrymore, and her progression as a film actress, toiling throughout her box-office poison years and into her later career. A great documentary, holding trivia and tidbits about her life on and off screen, her friendships with Laura Lansing and Spencer Tracy, and her overall view of what it was to be herself in an industry that values artificiality. It's great to see her reminisce without qualms about her choices in films she did in the 1930s right after her early success with MORNING GLORY, some which she herself states were quite questionable but kept her evolving as an actress.

For anyone into her life in and out of film, this documentary should be seen in companion to either her own autobiography, "Me," or A. Scott Berg's "Kate Remembered."

People love Katharine Hepburn, she is an icon of a century of Women. Sweet, entertaining, silly, happy, sad, uncooth, sultry, cool, aloof, enduring, abrupt and amazing, only a few words that could be used to describe her or the charachters she portrays.

For so many years she has shyed away from attention, from the public, so why now break that silence? At eighty-five years Miss Hepburn is still, a "show-off" and wants to show off her work once again. She tells us the story of her life, her family, her films, her loves and her hates. She really is an extraordinary woman, and this film proves that, again.

When you see it you feel a great deal of warmth towards this woman, and you begin to know her, although you come away with the sensation that you don't really know her at all. I for one am very interested in this lady, her life enthralls me, her films entertain me and her personality bewitches me. She is the greatest actress that has ever appeared on film. I, like many would give anything to meet this woman, and although it is unlikely that I will ever have that pleasure I am happy to say this film, put me one step nearer, it elaborates on half stories you may have heard and when she tells you something you believe her.

We never saw this documentary when it came out. In a tribute to Katherine Hepburn, TCM showed it, as part of the daily festivity. Director David Heeley, who also co-wrote the material with Ms. Hepburn, clearly demonstrate an impeccable taste in what he carefully picked to show us.

Katherine Hepburn was a woman ahead of her times. She had a sense of self and her own style, something that came to her naturally. Ms. Hepburn was an actress who knew what seemed to suit her talent as we witness in all the movies she graced with her presence.

We are given clips from her films, as well as a tour of her Connecticut home and her surroundings. Also, in the documentary, we see some comments by her peers that speak volumes as to what extent she was admired by the people that came in contact with her. And, yes, she was opinionated, and didn't care to express her views, as she stuck by her principles.

Yes, it certainly was a privileged life.

I remember my first film with Katharine Hepburn. I saw her in Ernest Thompson's "The Golden Pond" which won her fourth Academy Award with Henry Fonda and his daughter Jane Fonda. I believed for a long time that she was Henry's wife and Jane's mother in real life. That was how good she was. I didn't know much about her personal life or her secret longtime affair with Spencer Tracy. Watching this documentary following the Philadelphia Story is a treat. It recaptures her life and legacy. She will be best remembered as one of America's most treasured actresses on film, television or stage. Yet, she didn't have an ounce of vanity. When she talks about Arzner or those lesbian rumors, she jokes them off when it could have destroyed her career. She talks about her only marriage, her New York City townhouse which I used to visit across from my doctor's office. Sadly in 1997, I believe she was living full time in her beloved Connecticut home but yet she still managed to live an amazing life. She manages to garden, bike, and be quite active. She is an inspiration for us all.

Katharine Hepburn was one of those players who put her indefinable stamp on everything she ever did. As she points out even after becoming a personality she deliberately went after roles that stretched her talents. This was one woman not afraid of any of the challenges life brought her.

This is one fine documentary mixing some of Kate's home movies with her film roles and some other candid home movie and newsreel features from her long career. When this documentary came out in 1993 the candle was almost run down, but she had a few good things left in her.

Playing roles like Tracy Lord, or Linda Seton, even Pat Pemberton they were parts that were tailored to the Hepburn image. But as she said taking on Shakespeare, O'Neill, and Greek tragedies are proved parts that dare the player to do them as good as the many who came before. Katharine Hepburn did Shakespeare on stage so we have no record, but you can't tell me that when you watch O'Neill's Long Days Journey Into Night or The Trojan Women you can't see a bit of Kate in her performances.

Of course Spencer Tracy took up a great deal of the documentary. One of the great screen teams of all time, every one of their films, nine of them, rates being called a classic. And the respect that the film community had for both of them. They could never live as they did with today's tabloid press and the internet.

Katharine Hepburn one American original. We'll not see her like again.