Christopher Strong (1933)

Powerful

Fresh and Exciting

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Aviation is my hobby, and I DVRed this to see if it had any worthwhile aviation footage. The scene with the takeoffs for the around the world race is actually the beginning of the Dole Air Race (financed by the pineapple magnate), a tragic fiasco that lead to a number of deaths, two aircraft never found, and only a few of the contestants actually making it from Oakland to Honolulu. Hepburn's plane (G-FERN) might be the famous Winnie Mae, a Lockheed Vega, that was the first plane flown solo around the world by Wiley Post, the pilot that was killed with Will Rogers in Alaska. I must admit, I really did not pay much attention to the plot after listening to some English drawing room dialogue at the beginning.

This was Katherine Hepburn's second film, and she gives a very strong performance indeed (pun intended). She plays a young woman aviator, clearly based upon Amelia Earhart, who has never loved a man and, although beautiful, is convinced that 'there is nothing about me that a man could love'. How wrong she is, as the character Sir Christopher Strong, played sturdily if stodgily by Colin Clive with an upper lip so stiff it cracks, proceeds to demonstrate by cheating on his wife, the wimpish and idle Billie Burke, who likes to lie in bed in a lace bed jacket or welcome guests to soirees in a warbling affected voice. This is such a period piece that anyone who wants a genuine glimpse of pre-War London 'society' should make a point of watching it. How artificial can manners get? Talk about a veneer of politesse thinly covering a seething mass of prejudice, arrogance, and superciliousness! The film was sensitively directed by Dorothy Arzner (1897-1979), the only important female director in Hollywood between 1927 and 1943, who made 21 films in those years, of which the best known today is probably CRAIG'S WIFE (1936) with Rosalind Russell. Although one can imagine being attracted to Hepburn, it is difficult today to imagine anyone taking a character like Christopher Strong seriously, as he is so incredibly boring and formal that any modern woman faced with having to spend a day with him would probably become suicidal very quickly. But in the 1930s, people like that were simply everywhere. Some of the 'fun parties' shown in this film are truly extraordinary. If you can sit back and pretend that you are alive in 1933 and all the 'strange stuff' is normal, then you will get a lot out of this film. It is based on a novel by the popular author of the day, Gilbert Frankau. You would never know that on the other side of the Atlantic, the Great Depression was underway, since the frivolity and frolicsome behaviour of these London socialites gives an effervescent air of limitless wealth and privilege. And it is perfectly natural that Katherine Hepburn has her own private plane in which she can fly around the world solo if she feels like it, and does. Like I said, this is a period piece, and because Hepburn throws her all into it, the drama is powerful within its period limitations.

Chiefly of interest as one of Katharine Hepburn's early RKO films, "Christopher Strong" is worth a look for her fans, yet other than that, it's pretty much just another melodrama. Hepburn plays a feminist flier who falls in love with the married man of the title, played by Colin Clive. Lots of tears and hand-wringing follows as the affair deepens. I like Hepburn in the role, she is always interesting to watch, but even now (as she did back then) she seems a bit too arch to really connect to the audience. I have no idea why she falls for Clive in this one. The man is as stiff as a board and not that attractive. Helen Chandler's performance as Clive's troubled daughter fascinated me. Chandler herself was an alcoholic, and she is unnervingly right for her role. Billie Burke also stars as the wife who Clive cheats on. It's a pre-code so we even get a bedroom scene of sorts, but the film reaches a very post-code solution by the end. All in all, a decent melodrama from Arzner, and a striking Hepburn (she wears the moth suit in this one) performance, but not really anything great here.

This was one collaboration that drew attention. Lesbian film director Dorothy Arzner and film actress Katharine Hepburn. For God sakes, both women wore pants in town when it was seen as scandalous. Anyway, the legendary Kate plays a female aviator much like Amelia Earhart who falls in love with a married man known as Christopher Strong or Sir since he is titled. I loved the old black and white films especially since I think they provide so much more than today's films. Anyway, Kate's character and Strong have an affair. I love the scene where she wears that silly costume. Kate's role as the other woman could have been scandalous back then if it wasn't so obvious to the Strong family. Billie Burke better known as Glinda, the good witch in the Wizard of Oz, plays Lady Strong. I loved Katharine Hepburn and I think a lot of people did whether they were colleagues, friends, relatives, or whatever. I think she would become the other woman in the Spencer Tracy relationship in reality. Oh well, the film is worth watching if just for that costume.