Love Among the Ruins

George Cukor, 1975, tv (8.6*)
This wonderful UK comedy that takes place in I believe the Edwardian era is another reminder of just how far ahead their tv productions are compared to the U.S. – over there these are just as good as feature films with tenfold budgets and huge pr campaigns.

Katharine Hepburn plays an aging actress who is being sued by a younger man for breach of promise. The lawyer she unwittingly hires, Laurence Olivier, is actually a former lover from several decades back, who she has forgotten but who is still in love with her. In fact, her new lawyer never really got over his youthful attachment. There are some classic scenes of them alone as he tries to stir her memories.

As this involves a court case, in which Hepburn’s estate and reputation both are on the line, we get to see a different side of both characters than we see in private – here the two are acting in Hepburn’s best interest, so the two actors involved are now giving us a performance within another performance, pretty classy indeed.

Everything about this production is top quality, you might say sublime. Cukor won an Emmy for his direction, as did the writer, James Costigan, also the costumes and set design. Both Oliver and Hepburn won primetime acting Emmys, as the tv film won six overall. It's nice to see the two actors beyond their prime but obviously still better than just about anyone else alive.

This is the perfect type of G-rated comedy they should and could make much more often than once a decade or so. Cukor also directed the classics My Fair Lady (1964) and The Women (1939).

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The Women

George Cukor, 1939, bw (8.0*)
This pleasant bit of fluff is one of the first, most archetypal of the all-talk films, where the characters don’t do a lot actually, they just talk about their lives, a style later copied by The Big Chill, Diner, Metropolitan, and My Dinner With Andre. This group of women congregate at a dude ranch out west, and discuss their philandering husbands, new romances, and other 'women's issues'.

What made this film was the expert direction of master George Cukor (My Fair Lady) and the cast: Rosalind Russell, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Paulette Goddard, Bary Boland, Joan Fontaine, Marjorie Main, Hedda Hopper (as a columnist, naturally; she always plays herself). The dialogue and script are witty, never dull, and though hard to classify as comedy or drama, or to give it’s flimsy stories much weight, it’s still a sparkling film to watch today, and likely the first to feature an all-female cast - no doubt it's a film of a stage play, it has that look as a film.

In a year considered one of Hollywood’s best, this film stood above the more celebrated, along with Goodbye, Mr. Chips and The Rains Came.

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Born Yesterday

George Cukor, 1950, bw (8.1*)
You’d have to look hard to find a comedic performance as funny as Judy Holliday in this film, which won her a well-deserved Oscar®. She has a perfect delivery, just the right lilt in her voice to show bored disdain. Wealthy junkman Broderick Crawford is in DC to “get the government he paid for”, renting in an expensive suite with girlfriend Holliday, his lawyer and a bodyguard-gofer. He thinks his slightly daffy escort could use an upgrade in manners and education for the DC elite, and hires William Holden, a local freelance writer hanging around for an interview, to tutor Holliday in proper conversational English, with hilarious results. Of course, with time together the pair develop a chemistry and develop some plot twists you won’t see coming. Holliday’s is one of the great performances in comedy history, one of the few to win an Oscar®.

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Adam's Rib

George Cukor, 1949, bw (8.8*)
Classic b&w comedy doesn't get any better, as Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn play married lawyers who end up on opposite sides in a courtroom when a jealous wife, a hilarious Judy Holliday, shoots philandering hubby Tom Ewell, but not fatally. Tracy prosecutes her for attempted murder, while Hepburn defends the wife, perhaps to antagonize and match wits with Tracy. This was one of the first women's lib films that dealt with (in)equality of the sexes, especially in a court of law. Watch for a hilarous sequence involving rival suitor David Wayne's song about Kate, "Farewell Amanda", which becomes a big radio hit.Tracy also has one of his classic scenes using his acting skills to max comedic effect. Terrific screenplay, Oscar-nominated, from husband-and-wife Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon.

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My Fair Lady

Dir: George Cukor, 1964 (9.8*)
Best Picture (AA, BAA, GG)

One of the best Broadway/London musicals, the score by Lerner and Lowe is untopped, with the best lyrics of any musical, all related to the story. The film starts with a bang the whole point: "Why Can’t the English" (teach their children how to speak). The entire story is about linguistics, that the way a person speaks defines him, and that any type of character can be created if given the right instruction.

This was the premise of the original George Bernard Shaw play "Pygmalion", which was transformed into My Fair Lady by Lerner and Lowe. Rex Harrison creates his stage role here, and is impeccable, winning an Oscar. However, Hollywood gave stage actress Julie Andrews the shaft after she created the Eliza Doolittle role, and replaced her with Audrey Hepburn for the movie, thinking Andrews "not a star" (yet she won the Oscar that year for Mary Poppins!) Hepburn’s singing had to be dubbed by Marni Nixon (who did The King and I and West Side Story as well), so this was the only drawback to the film, which is flawless otherwise. Listen to the London Cast recording with Andrews on CD and you’ll see what I mean and what moviegoers missed. The dvd restoration of this classic musical has the most sumptuous color of any film, there’s even a documentary on the disc about it, with the original art director. One of the best 2-3 musicals ever filmed. 8 Oscars

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The Philadelphia Story

Dir: George Cukor, 1940, bw (8.8*)

AFI Top 100

Terrific classic comedy of the screwball genre. Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant play ex's who have the perfect love/hate relationship, and somehow can't seem to stay away from each other, while reporter James Stewart (Oscar® winner for Supporting Actor) completes this riotous love triangle. He's there to report on Hepburn's upcoming high society wedding, and no one can figure out why ex Grant is there. One of the best of its era and type. Look for Grant grabbing Hepburn's face and shoving her down to the floor, just like we all would like to do at times! 6 nominations, 2 Oscars® (Screenplay, Supp. Actor)

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