A Year with Kate: Love Among The Ruins (1975)
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 at 3:00PM
Episode 41 of 52: In which Katharine Hepburn does a TV movie with Laurence Olivier and George Cukor, which might have been disappointing if it wasn't so good.
Whew! What a nice change of pace this breezy little comedy is after so many dramas. Don't get me wrong, I love Great Actresses performing Great Roles in Great Films, but sometimes you just want to curl up on the couch with a glass of wine and laugh with your friend Katie, y'know? It's been 2 months since our last comedy (or less, depending on whether you laugh as hard as I do during The Lion in Winter), and I for one was cautiously excited to see Kate return to comedic form in Love Among The Ruins.
I say "cautiously excited" because even though so many of you pointed out how good this movie is, its existence a TV movie (albeit an Emmy Award-winning one) depressed me. The fact that three giants of the Studio Era - George Cukor, Katharine Hepburn, and Sir Laurence Olivier - were forced to make their triumphant reunion on the small screen, when only a decade before they had commanded CinemaScope and roadshow releases, proved to me once and for all that by 1975, Old Hollywood was dead. And while I by no means begrudge the birth of New Hollywood and the waves of startling creativity that came from the auteurs of 70s counter culture, I nonetheless mourn the way we did (do?) treat our aging giants. So it was with bittersweet feelings that I turned on the television.
Kate delivering some quality sass to dumbstruck Olivier
It turns out that there is such thing as worrying too much. I almost ruined the movie for myself before it began, and that's a damn shame, because this movie is delightful. Our Own Kate stars as Jessica Medlicott, a flirtatious widowed actress who's not nearly as airheaded as she first appears. Larry Olivier plays Sir Arthur Glanville-Jones, the barrister pining after Jessica who must defend her honor (and money) in court against a jilted young paramour. That’s the extent of the plot. The film itself is (to borrow a phrase from a friend) a spun sugar sculpture: weightless, sweet, and basically devoid of any nutritional value, but beautiful nonetheless.
Love Among The Ruins is really an excuse to reunite Kate with director George Cukor (with whom she last worked twenty four years ago in Pat & Mike) and to allow her to play opposite longtime offscreen pal Larry. Fortunately, no excuse is really needed, as all three are in peak condition together. Cukor, as always, plays to his actors’ strengths, allowing both thespians equal time to declaim Shakespeare and needle each other affectionately. Kate plays Jessica like an aging Susan Vance, several decades older and (maybe) wiser, but no easier for her male counterpart to understand. Fortunately, it turns out Olivier can play endless variations on “exasperated,” making his reactions as enjoyable as her antics. The courtroom scene is the best example of their dynamic:
Overall, Love Among The Ruins feels like a throwback. Nostalgia--which is quickly becoming a prevailing theme in Kate’s later career--permeates the film; both in its plot and in its references. The screwball structure has the fingerprints of a classic Cukor comedy, with the dizzying woman confounding the steady man even as he falls in love with her. The film even sneaks in a sly allusion to Kate’s early (Cukor-created) androgynous image and all the critical vitriol it produced. Kate, like Cukor and Larry, could afford to be kind to her critics at this point in her career. This joyful reunion won six primetime emmys, but unfortunately Kate would never work with Larry again (though she’d have one last film with Cukor). Instead, Kate would return to the big screen with an even more unlikely co-star: John Wayne.
Previous Week: The Glass Menagerie (1973) - In which Katharine Hepburn takes to TV to show that Laurette Taylor can eat her heart out.
Next Week: Rooster Cogburn (1975) - In which Katharine Hepburn and John Wayne star in The African Queen 2: This Time it's a Western!
Reader Comments (7)
Anne Marie: That should be nutritional value, not caloric, with that spun sugar idiom.
So glad that you liked it. It really is lovely work from everyone.
Volvagia - Thanks, fixed!
This was possibly the second Kate movie I saw after The Glass Menagerie and I thought she (and the show) were terrific. I tend to hate (even then) courtroom dramas, but this is far enough removed from today's reality that I could handle it.
I remember even then thinking that Kate must be full of confidence in real life to play a woman who is so clearly deluding herself, and who has so many cracks about aging thrown at her.
I remember loving the banter even though I probably didn't get most of the Englishisms. I watched this with my parents who both approved of it as being G-rated.
About it being on TV, I have absolutely no issue with that whatsoever, and I'm glad that all three of the main people didn't either. I'm sure someone pitched it to the movie studios but I think it played very well on TV, even with the commercial interruptions of its era. Since the movie is in part about holding on to pride and self-delusion and not acknowledging the passage of time (and then finally confronting it), the fact that it played on TV seems very appropriate. Facing reality and all that.
"Kate plays Jessica like an aging Susan Vance,"
SOLD!!!
Nothing else is needed, I am now 1000% there.
In a way it's a pity that those three giants had to move from features to television but at least by doing that they were able to make quality programs front and center rather than being stuck in some awful supporting part that lasted about ten minutes or in Cukor's case trying to get a project off the ground that ended up hopelessly in turnaround.
It's wonderful to see the fluffy Kate resurface, alas for more or less the last time. She and Olivier would seem an unlikely fit despite their decades long friendship but they are irresistible together. He plays his agitation/imperviousness with just the right balance and both lay on the charm pretty thick. A delightful experience.
Looking forward to next week's surprisingly simpatico pairing with the Duke.
Anne Marie, I'm really pleased you enjoyed this lovely confection, it wasn't so out of place on TV.
It's just like musicians of a certain age, any excuse to get the band back together, or in this case
record a wonderful duet with some vocalist you haven't had a chance to work with.
Hepburn and Olivier are both enjoying themselves and are a treat to watch. What more could we ask for?