Laura Lansing Slept Here

"Laura Lansing Slept Here" is a most unusual film. This is because later in life, Katharine Hepburn made relatively few films and seemed pretty selective in her roles. Yet, oddly, here she stars in a quirky sit-com sort of film...the sort of thing you just wouldn't expect from her. Now I am not saying it's a bad movie...but it is rather slight and sure looks like a pilot episode of a TV series that never materialized.

The story starts off very poorly (hence my score of only 6) and my advice is to resist the urge to turn off the DVD! It's good...but you need to wade through some relatively shallow writing to get to the better stuff!

When the story begins, you learn that Susan (Hepburn) is a rather clueless lady. She's a successful author but has been living the high life for so long that she's completely lost touch with the average reader...and as a result, her books no longer sell. So her publisher makes a bet...that she can't live a normal life with a normal family. She takes the bet and soon moves in with a Long Island family...complete with various problems. At first, Susan does NOT fit in well...she's bossy and imperious...and clueless. But over time, she grows and the family begins to like her...and she decides to help them in her own special way.

The first 15-30 minutes didn't impress me. But the story DID get better and was actually eventually quite charming. It's too bad that it started off so poorly...and it's a shame that the 'normal' family she moves in with lives in, of all places, Hicksville! Now isn't that subtle?!

By the way, I saw this on DVD and the film did not have captions but really needed them. The picture itself was only fair.

My favorite part about this was the 1980s score, and everything 1980s! There's something cozy about that era. Something that felt easy going about it.

My least favorite part about this movie is that the family that Lansing goes to stay with not all that likable in the first place. When they do turn around and start to love her, I don't understand how such a change could have happened in such a short time. And besides how they felt about Laura, I still didn't find the family all that likable.

And a trifle little thing that kept bugging me throughout was how the TV set directly on the floor! I'm sorry, but I grew up in a TV cabinet household, if you didn't have a cabinet, you had a little table or something that you set the TV on. For the TV to just sit directly on the floor and for you to have to look down at it, no thank you! That's about as bad as today, where people tend to put their TVs up high close to the ceiling, where we have to look up at it. Whatever happened to eye level?!

One thing I really loved about it though, was that the character of Laura Lansing had some words of wisdom sprinkled throughout that would serve as good things for us to remember. She wasn't a perfect character, but she wound up being very likable!

Anyway, overall, a pretty good movie for people who like 1980s movies that are light, easy-going, and especially feature film stars from the golden age in their more sophisticated years.

In her last dozen years of performing Katharine Hepburn went to television for several made for TV movies and each one of them was tailored to Kate's unique personality. If you were a Katharine Hepburn fan there's no way you could not love any one of them even though they're not the caliber of the material that won her four Best Actress Oscars.

Kate plays the title role in Laura Lansing Slept Here and where she's sleeping is Hicksville on Long Island. A frank conversation with her dutch uncle of a publisher Lee Richardson has told her she's lost touch with her reading audience and has become infatuated with her own celebrity. Richardson works out a bet with Hepburn that she can't spend a week with an average normal family. He's even got the normal family on tap. It's an accountant who works in his office and his wife Joel Higgins and Karen Austin and their three kids.

At first Hepburn comes on like a female version of Sheridan Whiteside, but gradually the family warms up to her and her life experience proves invaluable to Higgins, Austin and their offspring.

Hepburn is also rejuvenated creatively. If in real life that were ever possible because Kate never disappoints her audience in style or in substance. There's so much of her invested even in the worst of her performances on the big screen or small.

Fans of the great Kate will love Laura Lansing Slept Here. And I predict a few fans will be made if they see this movie.

Even if you've never seen Katharine Hepburn in a film when she's younger, you'll absolutely fall in love with her in Laura Lansing Slept Here. She's an adorable little old lady, with spunk and charm twice as large as her stature. She plays a famous romance novelist who gets sucked into a bet by her publisher, Lee Richardson. Lee accuses her of being out of touch with her readers and challengers her to survive for one week in a normal family's home. For their trouble, the family will be paid $500 per day. How lucky, to get $3500 and spend a week with Katharine Hepburn!

The family is struggling for money, the teenage daughter Schuyler Grant has attitude, the husband Joel Higgins is distracted by a floozy at the office, and the wife Karen Austin lets her appearance take third priority to raising their three children and being mindful of their pocketbook. When Kate moves in, there's only the slightest adjustment period before she starts improving everyone's lives. While the story might give you a little cavity, I find the sweetness charming. Kate is adorable; where would the fun be in portraying her as an unreasonable grouch? It's much more enjoyable to see her helping out and making a difference. She truly is delightful, and there are several scenes where you'll want to reach into your television and give her a big hug. For Kate Hepburn fans, this is a must-see. For others, it's still a must-see. You'll probably become a fan after the first ten minutes.

This film brings back very fond memories of my grandparents and I, sitting in their den, watching this film on TV together when I was a young kid. We sat there in their den eating Dairy Queen Dilly Bars and generally happy with the content of the film. I remember seeing my grandmother laugh a lot and really seemed to enjoy it. This film had to be memorable enough that I still remember it almost 20 years later. We laughed together at this film and overall, despite being a "B film" was an excellent cast, but of course, with Ms. Hepburn...this should go without saying. This was a good, clean, wholesome film, with family at the center and warmth. It did not need nudity, sex, swearing or other vulgarities to make it one of the more memorable films from my childhood. Granted, having my grandparents with me to watch it really made the surrounding environment really comforting as well. I dido the other writer commenting before me who suggested this film should be shown on TV again and out on video.