TCM Schedule for Friday, August 7, 2015 -- Summer Under The Stars - Katharine Hepburn

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Last edited Wed Aug 5, 2015, 09:51 PM - Edit history (1)

Today's Star is Katharine Hepburn, who was nominated 12 times for the Academy Award, all as Best Actress, and won four times. Jack Nicholson also has 12 nominations (8 as Best Actor and 4 Best Supporting Actor nominations) and three wins (two Best Actor trophies and one Best Supporting Actor). Hepburn beat out previous acting nomination record holder Bette Davis (a double winner who was nominated 10 times for an Academy Award, all of them Best Actress nods, and who had also received a write-in nomination in 1934, which was unofficial) with her 11th nod and 3rd win for The Lion in Winter (1968) (a record she extended with her 12 nomination and fourth win for On Golden Pond (1981). Hepburn herself was surpassed by Meryl Streep, with 17 nods (14 in the Best Actress category, 3 in the Best Supporting Actress category) and three wins (two in the Best Actress category and one Best supporting actress award). While it is possible that Nicholson and Streep might equal her four Oscar acting wins, it is improbable that her record of four wins in the top category will ever be surpassed. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- Little Women (1933)
The four March sisters fight to keep their family together and find love while their father is off fighting the Civil War.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas
BW-116 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Adaptation -- Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- George Cukor, and Best Picture

Katharine Hepburn wrote in her autobiography, "This picture was heaven to do - George Cukor perfect. He really caught the atmosphere. It was to me my youth!"


8:00 AM -- Sylvia Scarlett (1935)
A female con artist masquerades as a boy to escape the police.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Brian Aherne
BW-95 mins, CC,

Howard Hughes visited the set one day, landing his amphibious plane near the beach where they were filming. Hughes said he stopped by to say hello to his good friend Cary Grant but in actuality he wanted to meet Katharine Hepburn, whom he was fascinated by. The film The Aviator (2004) recreates this first meeting of theirs.


9:50 AM -- A Vitaphone Pictorial Revue No. 4 (1936)
This short film contains three unique segments, involving materials testing, Air Force physical exams, and winter swimmers. Vitaphone Release 2036.
BW-8 mins,


10:00 AM -- Quality Street (1937)
A woman masquerades as her own niece to get back at a neglectful suitor.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Franchot Tone, Eric Blore
BW-83 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Score -- Roy Webb (musical director), with score by Roy Webb

Katharine Hepburn and Joan Fontaine both appeared in productions of The Lion in Winter (Hepburn in a 1968 film version, Fontaine in a 1979 Austrian stage production) and both passed away at the age of 96.


11:30 AM -- Bringing Up Baby (1938)
A madcap heiress upsets the staid existence of a straitlaced scientist.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charlie Ruggles
BW-102 mins, CC,

Howard Hawks had some difficulty getting Katharine Hepburn to stop overacting during the early stages of production. "The great trouble is people trying to be funny," Hawks observed. "If they don't try to be funny, then they are funny. I couldn't do any good with her, so I went over to an actor who was a comic for the Ziegfeld Follies and everything, Walter Catlett, and said, "Walter, have you been watching Miss Hepburn?" He said, 'Yeah.' "Do you know what she's doing?" 'Yeah.' And I said, "Will you tell her?" He said, 'No.' "Well," I said, "supposing she asks you to tell her?" 'Well then, I'l have to tell her.' So I went over to Kate, and I said, 'We're not getting along too well on this thing. I'm not getting through to you, but there's a man here who I think could. Do you want to talk to him?' She came back from talking with him and said, 'Howard, hire that guy and keep him around here for several weeks, because I need him.' And from that time on, she knew how to play comedy better, which is just to read lines." Hepburn also asked Hawks to give Catlett a role in the film so she could call on him for further help. Hawks cast him as the town constable.


1:15 PM -- Pat And Mike (1952)
Romance blooms between a female athlete and her manager.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Aldo Ray
BW-95 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin

The writers, Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, were close friends of Hepburn and Tracy, and wrote the film to showcase Hepburn's athletic abilities.


3:00 PM -- Adam's Rib (1949)
Husband-and-wife lawyers argue opposite sides in a sensational women's rights case.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday
BW-101 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin

Katharine Hepburn, George Cukor and Garson Kanin managed to turn Judy Holliday's performance into a screen test for Born Yesterday (1950). In particular, one long scene in which Doris recounts how and why she shot her husband was written as a near monologue for the character. Holliday shot her close-up of the speech in one take. Then Hepburn refused to shoot more than a few brief reaction shots, thus forcing Cukor to focus the entire scene on Holliday. That scene convinced Cohn to test Holliday. After three tests (she borrowed a gown from Hepburn for one of them), he finally cast her over such glamorous stars as Rita Hayworth, Lucille Ball and the young Marilyn Monroe. Hepburn would later explain her generosity to Kanin: "It was the kind of thing you do because people have done it for you."


4:45 PM -- Woman of the Year (1942)
Opposites distract when a sophisticated political columnist falls for a sportswriter.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter
BW-114 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay -- Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr.

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn

Tracy and Hepburn's first of nine films together. The first scene shot was the characters' first date, in a bar. Katharine Hepburn was so nervous she spilled her drink, but Spencer Tracy just handed her a handkerchief and kept going. Hepburn proceeded to clean up the spill as they played the scene. When the drink dripped through to the floor, she tried to throw Tracy off by going under the table, but he stayed in character, with the cameras rolling the entire time.


6:45 PM -- The Dick Cavett Show: Katharine Hepburn (Part One) (1973)
Katharine Hepburn appears on The Dick Cavett Show in an interview that originally aired September 14, 1973.
C-68 mins, CC,

Hepburn on fashion -- "I wear my sort of clothes to save me the trouble of deciding which clothes to wear."



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: KATHARINE HEPBURN



8:00 PM -- Alice Adams (1935)
A small-town girl with social ambitions falls in love with a local playboy.
Dir: George Stevens
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Fred MacMurray, Fred Stone
BW-99 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn, and Best Picture

There was a disagreement among Katharine Hepburn and George Stevens about the post-party scene. The script called for Hepburn to fall onto the bed and break into sobs, but Stevens wanted her to walk to the window and cry, with the rain falling outside. Hepburn could not produce the tears required, so she asked Stevens if she could do the scene as scripted. Stevens yelled furiously at Hepburn, which did the trick and the scene was filmed Stevens' way, and Hepburn's tears are real.


10:00 PM -- The Lion In Winter (1968)
England's Henry II and his estranged queen battle over the choice of an heir.
Dir: Anthony Harvey
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Jane Merrow
C-134 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Katharine Hepburn (Tied with Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl (1968). Hepburn became the third performer to win consecutive awards, and the first to win three awards for lead roles. Anthony Harvey, the film's director, accepted the award on her behalf.), Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- James Goldman, and Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical) -- John Barry

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Peter O'Toole, Best Director -- Anthony Harvey, Best Costume Design -- Margaret Furse, and Best Picture

Katharine Hepburn bested Peter O'Toole as the top dog on the set. Known to be something of a tyrant on most of his shoots, O'Toole meekly obliged when she told him "Peter, stop towering over me. Come and sit down and try to look respectable." O'Toole readily admitted in her presence that she reduced him "to a shadow of my former gay-dog self." "She is terrifying. It is sheer masochism working with her. She has been sent by some dark fate to nag and torment me." Her reply: "Don't be so silly. We are going to get on very well. You are Irish and you make me laugh. In any case, I am on to you and you to me."

Peter O'Toole later named his daughter Kate after Katharine Hepburn.


12:20 AM -- A Wee Bit Of Scotland (1949)
This short film focuses on the history, culture, and people of Scotland.
C-10 mins,


12:30 AM -- Mary of Scotland (1936)
Biography of the flighty Scottish queen who was brought down by love.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Fredric March, Florence Eldridge
BW-123 mins, CC,

According to A. Scott Berg's memoir "Kate Remembered", Katharine Hepburn was already chosen for Mary but they had trouble casting Elizabeth. At one point Hepburn, who had by then been nicknamed "Katharine of Arrogance", suggested that she play both roles. Supporting player John Carradine asked, "But if you played both queens, how would you know which one to upstage?" She was not amused at the time but roared with laughter when retelling the story years later.


2:45 AM -- The Dick Cavett Show: Katharine Hepburn (Part Two) (1973)
Katharine Hepburn appears on The Dick Cavett Show in an interview that originally aired October 2, 1973.
C-70 mins, CC,

Hepburn on marriage -- 'It's bloody impractical. "To love, honor, and obey". If it weren't, you wouldn't have to sign a contract.'


4:00 AM -- Undercurrent (1946)
A sheltered woman realizes that either her husband or his mysterious brother is a psychopath.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Robert Taylor, Robert Mitchum
BW-116 mins, CC,

Katharine Hepburn and Robert Mitchum didn't get along. One day she told him, "You know you can't act, and if you hadn't been good looking you would never have got a picture at all. I'm tired of working with people like you who have nothing to offer."