Sylvia Scarlett (1935)

Director: George Cukor                                   Writers: Gladys Unger & John Collier
Film Score: Roy Webb                                    Cinematography: Joseph H. August
Starring: Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Brian Aherne and Edmund Gwenn

In 1935 Katherine Hepburn went to RKO studio head Pandro Berman on the success of only a few films she had made, and all but bullied him to allow her to film Sylvia Scarlett based on the novel by Scotsman Compton Mackenzie, so sure of its success that they also lobbied for a percentage of the profits. But at a test screening, when Hepburn and Cukor realized how bad it was, they begged Berman not to release it in exchange for making their next film for free. Already out a million dollars on the production, however, he was hardly going to shelve it, and probably thought it would teach them a lesson when he released it anyway. The film tanked so bad at the box office that she was indebted to Berman for the rest of her time at RKO, and her career only really recovered after teaming with Cary Grant again in Bringing up Baby. The only thing of any note about the picture is that it was the very first teaming of Hepburn and Grant.

The film begins in Marseilles in the aftermath of the death of Katherine Hepburn’s mother. When father Edmund Gwenn confesses that he has embezzled funds from his company, she gives him her dowry and dresses like a man so that they can escape to England ahead of the police. They meet Cary Grant on the passage over. He looks at them with great suspicion and he eventually turns them into the customs officers who discover the lace that Gwenn was smuggling over from France. It turns out that Grant is a thief himself, and used the two as decoys so that he could get his own good smuggled in. When the three meet again on the train they make a pact to go in together and begin running small cons in London together. The only problem is Hepburn is entirely too moral to go through with them all, much to the consternation of Grant. Eventually they take to the countryside with a comedy variety show where they meet Brian Aherne, the only one who is able to coax her back into a dress.

By far the biggest problem with the film is Hepburn, but it seems everyone in the cast is guilty of overacting. She is utterly unconvincing as a man, and whether it’s putting on a Cockney accent or speaking French or pretending to be drunk, Hepburn’s performance is entirely too broad and over the top. It’s actually painful to watch. Most of the plot is simply an excuse to get the cast into costumes and act crazy. Brian Aherne, as the painter playboy is just as loud and obnoxious as the rest of the cast when he shows up, though Dennie Moore as the wacky maid out shouts just about everyone. Cary Grant seems to be trying way too hard, which seems to me the sign of a weak script and poor direction, but he was the only one in the production who garnered positive notices. On loan from Paramount, he had been doing far more serious roles, and the comic lightness he displayed was more like what he would play later in his career. Sylvia Scarlett is one of those films where the audience of the day got it right and it was a box office dud for good reason.