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!