La flamme sacrée

Original title: Keeper of the Flame

1942
Approved
1h 40m

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

3.3K

YOUR RATING

Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in La flamme sacrée (1942)

Play trailer2:05

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58 Photos

Political Drama Suspense Mystery Drama Mystery

Journalist Steve O'Malley (Spencer Tracy) wants to write a biography of a national hero who died when his car ran off a bridge. Steve receives conflicting reports and tales that make him que... Read allJournalist Steve O'Malley (Spencer Tracy) wants to write a biography of a national hero who died when his car ran off a bridge. Steve receives conflicting reports and tales that make him question what the truth about the hero is.Journalist Steve O'Malley (Spencer Tracy) wants to write a biography of a national hero who died when his car ran off a bridge. Steve receives conflicting reports and tales that make him question what the truth about the hero is.

Director
- George Cukor
Writers
- I.A.R. Wylie
- Donald Ogden Stewart
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

3.3K

YOUR RATING

Director
- George Cukor
Writers
- I.A.R. Wylie
- Donald Ogden Stewart
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Freddie Ridges
(as Horace McNally)

Percy Kilbride

Orion Peabody

Audrey Christie

Jane Harding

Darryl Hickman

Jeb Rickards

Donald Meek

Mr. Arbuthnot

Howard Da Silva

Jason Rickards
(as Howard da Silva)

William Newell

Piggot

Walter Bacon

Mourner
(uncredited)

Barry Bernard

Forward American Boy
(uncredited)

Clifford Brooke

William
(uncredited)

Steve Carruthers

Reporter
(uncredited)

Ricardo Lord Cezon

Boy
(uncredited)

Director
- George Cukor
Writers
- I.A.R. Wylie
- Donald Ogden Stewart
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Désirs secrets

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Louis B. Mayer was very unhappy about the film's political content, thinking it noncommercial. Katharine Hepburn too felt that the storyline was too dull and needed to be pepped up with some romance. She complained to producer Victor Saville about this but he ignored her comments, so Hepburn went directly to Mayer who was only too happy to make the film into a more conventional Hollywood romance.

Goofs
In the denouement scene in the arsenal, while standing near the safe, Christine begins wearing a rain coat which then becomes a fuzzy cloth coat.

Quotes
Christine Forrest: But what was really shocking to me, was the complete cynicism of the plan. Each of the groups was simply to be used until its usefulness was exhausted. Hates were to be played against hates. If one group threatened to get too powerful, it would be killed off by another group. And in the end, those poor little people who never knew to what purpose they were lending themselves would be in the same chains, cowed and enslaved.

Connections
Edited into Les cadavres ne portent pas de costard (1982)

Soundtracks
Marcia Funebre
(uncredited)
from "Symphony No.3 in E Flat Major "Eroica", Op.55" (1806)
Music by Ludwig van Beethoven
played as background music during the funeral

User reviews71

Featured review

Enduring parable

Even though the story about fascism on the home front is strongly connected to its time period during World War II, the film's deeper warning remains true -- people who play hero to the masses may not be what they appear.

Great performances from the great team, Tracy and Hepburn. The atmosphere of mystery and gradual revelation of the amazing truth makes the film absorbing and tense. Though the film is not well known, this is definitely a classic.