7 Ways Katharine Hepburn Leans In in A WOMAN REBELS (1936)

The post is written in honour of International Women's Day 2015. Scroll to the bottom for more information about how you can be part of the fight against sexism and gender inequality.

A WOMAN REBELS (1936) is about a Pamela Thistlewaite (Katharine Hepburn), a young woman in Victorian England who must raise her illegitimate daughter as her dead sister’s child. Because she is unmarried and doesn’t wish to live with her domineering, unfeeling father, she decides to find work and raise her child on her own. Hepburn’s character is like Hepburn’s own mother, who must rebel against the Victorian gender roles imposed upon her by her older male relatives in order to pursue her way as an autonomous woman. Hepburn’s character has two love interests in the film, both of whom have very few scenes and lines in comparison with Hepburn’s character. Neither relationship is particularly romantic, and it’s hard to believe Hepburn’s complete submission to the man in the final scene. READ MORE...

A Bible and a Gun: ROOSTER COGBURN (and the Lady) (1975)

This post is part of the Build-Your-Own-Blogathon hosted by the Classic Film and TV Cafe. It follows Jennifer Garlen's post about BEND OF THE RIVER (1952), which is another Western that takes place in the American Northwest. For The Great Katharine Hepburn Blogathon earlier this year, Jennifer wrote a great post about ROOSTER COGBURN (1975) as well - be sure to check it out!

"Une Bible et Un Fusil" (a bible and a gun) was the title given to the French translation of Hall Wallis's ROOSTER COGBURN (1975), and it couldn't be a more accurate moniker for this Western starring the most unlikely pairing of Hollywood stars: Katharine Hepburn and John Wayne. By the time of the making of ROOSTER COGBURN, John Wayne had become the symbol of the politically conservative American frontiersman. Hepburn, on the other hand, was well-established as America's high-brow flaming liberal. READ MORE

THE WINNERS of The Great Katharine Hepburn Blogathon!

Thanks again to anyone and everyone who submitted a post to my first ever blogathon, The Great Katharine Hepburn Blogathon! It was a great experience and I look forward to hosting another blogathon in the future. I'd like to say a special thank you to Fritzi at Movies, Silently for the great blogathon advice she gives, and to Will McKinley and Jennifer Garlen for their valuable feedback. I couldn't have done it without you!

23 bloggers sent in articles about the great Kate. It felt like it was my birthday, reading everyone's wonderful thoughts about my favorite actress. Today I put all the submitted blog entries into a hat and randomly drew three winners. DRUMROLL PLEASE!

FOUND OUT THE WINNERS HERE!

The Great Katharine Hepburn Blogathon Has Finally Arrived!

Check out all the awesome entries and prizes at margaretperry.org!

10 Things to Love about WITHOUT LOVE (1945)

Harold S. Buquet's WITHOUT LOVE (1945) is without doubt one of Katharine Hepburn's most underrated films. She plays a Jamie Rowan, a scientist's daughter who rents out part of her Washington DC home to a Pat Jamieson (Spencer Tracy), a scientist who cannot find anywhere to live and work due to the housing shortage of WWII DC. Jamie has given up on love because she tragically lost her first husband, and cannot envision loving anybody else. Pat refuses to have any romance in his life because he has been jilted by the girl he was crazy about. So, the obvious conclusion for this mismatched pair is to enter into a loveless marriage and work together as colleagues on the scientific innovations that will win the war. Well, if you've EVER seen a Hepburn/Tracy movie in your life, you can imagine the laughs these two have before yielding to the inevitable and falling hook, line, and sinker for each other!

"You don't want love in your life, I don't want it in mine. But our reasons are as different as the sun is from the moon. You don't want it because you've had all the worst of it. I don't want it because I've had all the best." (Jamie)

As philosophical as this all sounds, the movie is actually rather light, and full of laughs. Hepburn is as good here as she is in some of her more popular comedies, like BRINGING UP BABY (1938), THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940), or ADAM'S RIB (1949). If you haven't seen it already, WITHOUT LOVE is definitely one to add to your collection. Here are my top ten favorite things about the movie.