#sylvia scarlett

[merciawintersageposting]

peak emmrich aesthetic…

[olivethomas]

Katharine Hepburn in Sylvia Scarlett, 1935

[iveseenitinmovies]

save me Katharine Hepburn in drag as Sylvester Scarlett in the film Sylvia Scarlett.

Katharine Hepburn in drag as Sylvester Scarlett in the film Sylvia Scarlett save me

[clarulitas]

Clarulitas Katharine Hepburn in Sylvia Scarlett (1935) 2024

[thursdaymurderbub]

Screenland magazine, January 1936

[dianneking]

To anyone asking where my gender chaos comes from: I was socialized as female, but these were my role models/fave movies growing up:

Dame Julie Andrews in Victor Victoria - 1982

Katherine Hepburn in Sylvia Scarlett - 1935

Also, I am queer AF

[maudeboggins]

1936 ad for sylvia scarlett

[scholarofgloom]

[tinnycrow]

Why she hop around like that?

[haveyouseenthisromcom]

[yatanis]

[cosmicrhetoric]

my katharine hepburn phase was so funny i went through most of her discography completely happy with the screwball comedies and whatever the hell stage door was and then i got to sylvia scarlett (1935) like. alright buddy what's all this then

[iveseenitinmovies]

Katharine Hepburn jumping fences circa 1933

[bornaftermytime]

Source: fb Classic Movie Digest

Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in "Sylvia Scarlett" (1935)

[byneddiedingo]

Edmund Gwenn, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Natalie Paley, and Brian Aherne in Sylvia Scarlett (George Cukor, 1935) Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Brian Aherne, Edmund Gwenn, Dennie Moore, Natalie Paley. Screenplay: Gladys Unger, John Collier, Mortimer Offner, based on a novel by Compton MacKenzie. Cinematography: Joseph H. August. Art direction: Van Nest Polglase, Sturges Carne. Film editing: Jane Loring. Music: Roy Webb. Bear with me while I try to remember the plot of Sylvia Scarlett because I'm not entirely sure that I didn't fall asleep and dream it: When the wife of an Englishman living in France dies, he decides to return to England with his daughter. But because he is suspected of having embezzled money from the company for which he is an accountant, he and his daughter decide that she will disguise herself as a boy because the authorities will be looking for a man traveling with a girl. So on the boat crossing the Channel, they meet a cheerful Cockney con-man, to whom the other Englishman confesses that he's smuggling a bolt of fine lace through customs. But when they arrive in England, the Cockney points them out to the officials and the Englishman and his daughter-disguised-as-a-boy are detained and fined and the lace is confiscated. Then on the train to London, they coincidentally find themselves in the same compartment as the Cockney, who not only repays the fine but even gives the Englishman a little extra money, while also revealing that he's a smuggler with diamonds concealed in the heel of his shoe, and that he turned them in to divert attention from himself. All is square, except that now the Cockney proposes that they team up and run a few cons together. They're not very good at it, so when the Cockney reads an article saying that a rich couple are taking an extended holiday out of the country, he decides that they should rob the deserted house. The plan is thwarted by the maid the couple has left behind, so they persuade her to go on the road with them as traveling entertainers. They hire a wagon and go to Cornwall and give a show that attracts the attention of a rich young artist and his Russian girlfriend. The artist tells the son/daughter that he wants to paint him/her, but he/she swipes a dress and a hat that were left behind on the beach by a woman who has gone swimming and shows up at his studio as a woman, but the Russian girlfriend is outraged to find her there. Meanwhile, the Englishman has taken to drink and fallen in love with the maid and one night wanders out drunkenly in the fog and falls to his death from a cliff. After his funeral, the daughter and the Cockney return to their wagon (the maid has somehow disappeared for good), but they hear a cry for help from the Russian, who has apparently attempted suicide because the artist doesn't love her anymore, so the daughter plunges into the ocean and rescues her, returning her to the artist. Then the Cockney and the Russian decide to run away together, so the daughter and the artist pursue them, winding up on a train and somehow realizing that they're in love with each other. Now, to the point: Why in hell did anyone ever think this made enough sense to film? Or that the completed film would please critics and attract audiences? (It didn't.) But the truth is, it's not unwatchable, and sometimes, if you're in the mood for the utterly bizarre, it's sort of fun to watch, mainly because the Cockney is played by Cary Grant and the son-daughter by Katharine Hepburn, in their first on-screen teaming.* And perhaps because Edmund Gwenn as the Englishman is as charming as ever. And also perhaps because George Cukor is one of the few directors of the period who could leaven this lump of Edwardian nonsense: It's based on a novel by Compton MacKenzie, a now-forgotten writer with a taste for whimsy and a tolerance for sexual ambiguity. The screenplay was mostly written by John Collier, another writer with a decidedly eccentric view of the world, with the help of Gladys Unger and Mortimer Offner. Naturally, the Production Code weighs heavily on the ambiguous sexuality of the film, though we are never really quite sure whether the artist played by Brian Aherne is more attracted to Sylvia than to Sylvester. (Hepburn is quite beautiful as either.) But mostly the film gives us a chance to see Grant before Archibald Leach, the product of a troubled working-class family, completely became "Cary Grant," the embodiment of sophistication: There's a darkly threatening sexuality to his character, Jimmy Monkley, that's compelling and makes us wonder why Hepburn's Sylvia should prefer Aherne's much softer Michael Fane. Sylvia Scarlett has a cult following today that it doesn't entirely deserve, but it remains a fascinatingly mad mess. *They went on to make two more films for George Cukor, Holiday (1938) and The Philadelphia Story (1940), but their most memorable work together was for Howard Hawks on Bringing Up Baby (1938).

[thursdaymurderbub]

Screenland magazine, January 1936