Why LITTLE WOMEN (1933) is a very big deal

“There’s one thing George and I agree on. Actually, we agree on almost everything. I don’t know anything we don’t agree on. One thing we really agree on is, we love LITTLE WOMEN. We loved doing it. And we love the film we made.” (Katharine Hepburn in Chandler, 83)

LITTLE WOMEN (1933) was nominated for three categories in the 6th annual Academy Awards (1932/33): George Cukor for directing, RKO studios for best production, and Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Heerman for writing (adaptation). Though the film came in third for direction and best production, husband and wife writing team Mason and Heerman walked away with the Oscar. Funnily enough, Katharine Hepburn was nominated, not for her performance as Jo, but for her role as Eva Lovelace in MORNING GLORY (1933), her first of four Oscar wins. Hepburn always insisted she was nominated for the wrong film.

David Lean's SUMMERTIME (1955)

Jane Hudson (Katharine Hepburn) has finally earned herself a personal holiday in Venice, Italy. An unmarried professional, she travels alone, hoping to discover she knows not what in this exotic new city. She meets handsome antique dealer Renato de Rossi (Rossano Brazzi) and after a bit of a rocky start, they have a brief, but passionate, affair. At the height of their romance, Jane abruptly terminates their relationship and returns home alone, but with the memory of her great love in Venice.

The most famous scene of the film is when Hepburn falls backwards into a canal while taking a picture. Although warned about the dangers of making contact with the polluted water in the canals, Hepburn insisted on doing her own stunt work. Passersby were informed that Hepburn was in fact an excellent swimmer, so they weren't to be alarmed when she tipped into the water. The effect is marvelous, although Hepburn did contract an eye infection as a consequence. Years later she remembers the incident:

"I had no fear, but if I had known just how toxic the garbage in the canal was, or what kinds of problems it would produce for me for the rest of my life, I would have been afraid.I still wouldn't have let someone else do it for me, although it might not have been as hard on someone tougher-skinned than me. My skin has always been sensitive. I certainly would have put up a bigger squawk about it and suggested they use a dummy. As it was, they did use a dummy, and the dummy was me." (Chandler, 209)

SUMMERTIME is one of what scholar Andrew Britton would call Hepburn's "spinster cycle." It is a film that features Hepburn as a repressed, middle-aged, unmarried professional (214). However, in many ways, this film is feministically progressive because, as biographer William J. Mann points out:

"Rather than a mawkish, tearjerker ending, SUMMERTIME gives us the rare portrait of a woman who decides the love of a man isn't necessary to make her whole." (Mann, 399)

SUMMERTIME is one of the few romantic movies I've seen that allows the female protagonist end the picture without a husband, or at least the potential of a husband. Yet the film concludes successfully - it is not a tragic ending. The Hepburn character is permitted to maintain the dignity and self-respect she earned as the story unfolded. Although at the beginning of the film, Jane displays an almost self-pitying loneliness, she doesn't ultimately satisfy that loneliness with a male companion. I think it becomes clear that societal pressures had convinced Jane that marriage (or sex) was necessary to be a whole woman, but after experiencing a very fulfilling sexual relationship with a man, she realizes that she is not, in actually fact, an incomplete woman without a man. Once Jane has proven to herself that she is perfectly able to attract and satisfy a man, she no longer feels the desire to maintain such a relationship indefinitely. So, she rides off into the sunset alone, but not lonely.

SUMMERTIME was based on the play "The Time of the Cuckoo" by Arthur Laurents, who also wrote the plays-turned-movies WEST SIDE STORY (1961) and GYPSY (1962). Apparently, Laurents was not impressed with the finished product of this film, claiming that "Kate's movie-star wattage blindsighted director David Lean" (Mann, 399). It is certainly true that the English director David Lean (DR. ZHIVAGO (1965)) altered the script a great deal. In her autobiography, Hepburn commented on Lean's perfectionism:

"[David] threw out everything but the main plot... David was always very fussy about a script and removed everything that didn't interest him - so this movie is really David in Venice." (Hepburn, 253)

"There were two love affairs;  one was mine with Rossano Brazzi in the story, and the other, David's with Venice." (Hepburn interview, Chandler, 202)

Director David Lean filming
Venice's famous Piazza San Marco

Lean was a perfectionist when it came to directing. In DR. ZHIVAGO (1965) he delayed filming for several days to have a field of poppies planted. The result was spectacular. For the red glass goblets in SUMMERTIME, he had several test goblets of different shades, sizes, and shapes hand blown before he selected the perfect one to use in the film. When I first saw SUMMERTIME, I was blown away by the way Lean had really captured the beauty of Venice, with all its magnificent colors, the canal culture, and the wonderful history of art around every corner. When David Lean won the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990, Billy Wilder asked him what his favorite film (that he directed) was:

"I can choose without any hesitation. SUMMER MADNESS, or as you call it here in America, SUMMERTIME. It starred my favorite actress, Katharine Hepburn, and it was filmed in my favorite place, Venice. And the subject is the most basic and pervasive of all: not love, but loneliness. The idea of tragic loneliness appealed to me." (Chandler, 204)

Lean and Hepburn clearly had a very good working relationship. They each respected each others as artists before they worked together, and that respect only grew after making SUMMERTIME. Hepburn described Lean as "very basic - he was simple - he was true" (Hepburn, 253). About negotiating for the part, Hepburn says:

"Fortunately, I didn't go as far as to say, 'I would work for free to work for David Lean.' Worse yet, I could've said, 'I'd pay to work for David Lean.' I only thought those thoughts. But I was told I'd said more than enough. Too much. I'd spoiled the negotiation. I didn't care. I was glad. They might have negotiated me out of the part. That happens sometimes, and an actor never knows what wonderful opportunity was lost." (Chandler, 201)

Of Hepburn, Lean said:

"Kate Hepburn is a great natural spontaneous actress. She would never admit to being a lonely person, but professionally no one can convey it better." (Chandler, 205)

"Katharine Hepburn was capable of playing a woman who was smart and independent and had scared off men all her life. She felt she knew what she wanted." (Chandler, 206)

 At one point in the creative process, there was talk of Brazzi's character being portrayed as a gigolo, but Lean was against the concept:

"For Jane to be deceived by a gigolo wouldn't have suited the image that Katharine Hepburn brought with her. The man has to be worthy, not only of Jane Hudson, but of Katharine Hepburn, as well." (Chandler, 206)

There are some other themes in the movie which are also very interesting to watch out for. The concept of the "ugly American" tourist is represented here by the McIlhennys who are on such a tight itinerary, they're are unable to fully appreciate the romance of Venice. The question of what is legitimate romance is also brought up both in the relationship between Jane and Renato and in the relationships of the other guests in Jane's hotel. This problem is combined with the cultural issues that Jane tries to navigate as she attempts to reconcile her puritanical ideals with her "continental" or "European" desires.

The McIlhennys and David Lean's famous red goblets

Critics of the time liked the movie, praising Hepburn's performance in particular.

"Few actresses in films could equal Hepburn's evocation of aching loneliness on her first night in Venice as she wanders, forlorn and proud, like a primly starched ghost in a city of lovers." (Time)

"[Hepburn] is wonderfully effective [as Jane Hudson], making the most of her opportunities for registering pathos and passion." (The New Yorker)

Hepburn and young Gaetano Autiero hang out on set

Despite all this talk about pathos and loneliness, please don't get the impression that this is a glum film. The sentimentality is very deftly undercut with some very comic scenes and with the charming humor in the child character, Mauro, a street child Jane befriends. SUMMERTIME is a great summer flick because it is a light combination of romance and comedy executed with a great deal of intelligence. If you managed to catch it on TCM earlier this week, I'd love to know your thoughts and impressions. Please feel free to leave a comment and start a discussion!

For a great scene-by-scene breakdown of the film and some awesome pix, I recommend "Jenny the Nipper's" article about SUMMERTIME on her blog "Cinema OCD". I can also recommend this review on the blog "Nothing is Written" and this one on "The Oscar Nerd".

Brother Tom's Suicide

Tom (left) and Katharine (right) Hepburn

Tom Houghton Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn's brother, was two years her senior. As children, the two were inseparable. Dr. Hepburn encouraged all his children to  be very athletic, and it has been said that his expectations for his eldest son could be extreme. Tom had developed a nervous tick due to a childhood illness, and Dr. Hepburn pressured him to use willpower to overcome the problem. He believed that any physical accomplishment could be achieved through willpower, hard work, and puritanical habits of living (Barbara Leaming, 1995, 139-140). Unfortunately, tom-boy Kathy proved to be more of an athlete than her brother, a point Dr. Hepburn often pointed out, congratulating Katharine on her athletic prowess within Tom's hearing. Tom was in fact a fairly competent athlete; he simply failed to measure up to his father's high standards for his children. Many Hepburn biographers attribute this failing on the father's part to Tom's low self-esteem as a youth. Dr. Hepburn is often portrayed as a bully and harsh task-master to his children. However, Miss Hepburn and her siblings hero-worshiped both their parents and constantly strove to impress them. On numerous occasions, Miss Hepburn attributed her success to the fact that she was the product of two extraordinary individuals (The Dick Cavett Show, 1974).

family photo a few months before Tom's death
Katharine  far left, Tom standing in rear

Mrs. Hepburn had a very tight circle of friends living in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. Many of them were friends from her Bryn Mawr days, and several were also involved in the social reform movements of the time. Tom and Katharine occasionally stayed with their "aunts" Mary Towle and Bertha Rembaugh, and it was during one of these visits that tragedy struck. When Tom didn't come down to breakfast one morning, 14-year-old Katharine went to fetch him from his attic bedroom. Upon entering the room, she first noticed that the tie from one of the curtains was missing so the drapes hung loose on that side. Then she saw her brother's body, suspended by the curtain tie from one of the ceiling beams, his bent legs clearly able to reach the ground. In a state of shock, Katharine got Tom down from the beam and lay him on the bed. After ascertaining that he was indeed dead, she recalled having seen a doctor's house on their street. She went to the house and rang the bell. The housekeeper answered the door and Katharine told her, "My brother is dead," to which the housekeeper replied, "Then the doctor can't help him, can he? and closed the door in Katharine's face (Hepburn, Me, 1991, 47).

Fearful that her aunt Mary Towle might become hysterical, Katharine went next door to Aunt Bertha's to break the news. The rest of the incident becomes a bit of a blur. Miss Hepburn later remembered her parents coming and crossing on the ferry with Tom's body. Mrs. Hepburn's father had also committed suicide and you must remember that there was a rather strong stigma surrounding suicide in those days (Barbara Leaming, 1995). Suicide was translated as mental instability and was believed to be an inherited trait. Therefore, a history of suicide in the family was not only something one wanted to keep from public knowledge, it also bred the fear that oneself or one's offspring might be threatened by the same problem. One can only imagine how horrified Mrs. Hepburn must have been to discover that her eldest son had succumbed to the same cause of death as her own father. In a documentary about Katharine Hepburn, her brother Bob recalls being at home with Mrs. Hepburn when she received the call from New York that Tom was dead. Even many years later, Bob was reduced to tears as he recalled his usually composed mother slumping over on the kitchen table as she answered the phone call from New York (All About Me, 1993).

Tom's school photo as it appeared
in the local newspaper reporting his death.

There was much public speculation concerning the cause of Tom's suicide. As I've said, some biographers attribute Dr. Hepburn's bullying to a development of low self-esteem. Tom's death was never discussed in the family. In later years, Miss Hepburn speculated that it must have been an accident. No one in the family could find any cause for Tom to suddenly become depressed or suicidal. In her autobiography, Miss Hepburn relates how she seems to remember Tom telling her, during that fateful visit to New York, "You're my girl, aren't you? You're my favorite girl in the whole world" (Hepburn, Me, 1991, 46). But even Miss Hepburn admits that that could be a memory she constructed many years later, half wishing, half hoping it had once been real. One possibility is that Tom was trying to perform an elaborate stunt described by Dr. Hepburn some months prior to Tom suicide. Dr. Hepburn was from Virginia and he would tell a story about how he and his African American friends would play pranks on the northern football teams who came to compete in the south. He showed his children how there was a special knack of tying a rope so that one could suspend oneself from a tree by the neck without cutting off your air supply. Although it is very difficult to find such antics amusing today, it is possible that Tom was trying this stunt but that he lost control of the slippery curtain tie (Hepburn, Me, 1991, 48).

As you can imagine, Tom's death had a dramatic effect on young Katharine. When she returned to the girls school she was then attending, she became frustrated by all the impertinent questions her classmates demanded of her concerning her brother's death. She felt that she lived in a different world than those girls, because she had been forced to grow up so abruptly. She described her new philosophy of life as "onlines:" "What I meant by it was that I wanted to be independent, to separate myself from all the others and never again to care so much about another person, so I would never feel the pain I felt when my teenage brother hanged himself" (Charlotte Chandler, 2010, 1). Katharine left school and began to take lessons from various tutors around Hartford. She much preferred this method of study, not only because it removed her from the society of her nosy peers, but also because it allowed her to play golf competitively; she became quite a champ. She loved riding her bike all over Hartford to her lessons and golf classes.

Katharine would feel the consequences of this less formal schooling when it came to preparations for her entrance to her mother's alma mater, Bryn Mawr College. She had to study extra hard for her entrance exams, just barley scraping the minimum passing marks in chemistry. And, having been away from the society of her peers for so long, she was unprepared for the social life of the all-girl college. Tom's death changed her life irreparably, shaping her into the independent woman the world would come to admire.