Christopher Strong (1933)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Dorothy Arzner

Writers:

Gilbert Frankau (novel)
Zoe Akins (screenplay)

Release Date:

31 March 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Higher and higher! Faster and faster! She gave herself to the great god Speed, and tried to run away from the fires within her!

Plot:

A famous female flier and a member of Parliament drift into a potentially disastrous affair.

Plot Keywords:

Party | Treasure Hunt | Marriage | Nobility | London England

Cast

Katharine Hepburn	...	Lady Cynthia Darrington
Colin Clive	...	Sir Christopher Strong
Billie Burke	...	Lady Elaine Strong
Helen Chandler	...	Monica Strong
Ralph Forbes	...	Harry Rawlinson
Irene Browne	...	Carrie Valentine
Jack La Rue	...	Carlo
Desmond Roberts	...	Bryce Mercer

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #1544-R)

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

Newsreel footage of parades and famous flights were used in the movie.

Quotes:

Lady Cynthia Darrington: I wouldn't have loved you if you'd been a usual man. And you wouldn't have loved me if I'd been a woman who didn't take this kind of thing seriously.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Women Who Made the Movies (1992) (V)

Soundtrack:

Blue Lagoon

Early Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn is a beautiful and accomplished aviatrix in "Christopher Strong," a 1933 film also starring Clive Owen and Billie Burke, and directed by Dorothy Arzner. Hepburn's role of Lady Cynthia is loosely based on Amelia Earhart, a young, ambitious career woman who is not interested in marriage and home but rather accomplishment. She's an early feminist, and the role is perfect for Hepburn, who with her androgynous looks and strong performances would go on to play many such roles in her very long career.

"Christopher Strong" is of interest because it's early Hepburn, has a feminist theme in the early '30s, and also because it's pre-Code. Arzner does a great job depicting the love affair of Hepburn and Owen and yet shows nothing, with a hand reaching up and checking the time on a small clock...then the light is turned off and plunges the room into darkness after the lovers exchange a few words.

The problem with the movie is that it's badly dated, a '30s melodrama with tremulous, "we must be honorable," pip-pip and all that rot dialogue. Owen tells everyone at a party that he will never be unfaithful to his wife, that it is a moral charge he holds high - and seconds later he meets Hepburn and you can tell he's already falling. Owen is an odd choice of a romantic partner - he's not exactly the man one would give up everything for.

A bigger problem is the performance of Billie Burke, a fine actress. She is extremely sympathetic as the suffering wife - so sympathetic, in fact, and Hepburn seems so callous about the whole thing for most of the film, that one sides with what I'm sure is the wrong person. Also, putting up with your husband's infidelity and not saying anything brings us right back into aggressive non-feminism.

I am forced to agree with one of the other comments - yes, it is directed by an important director, yes, it stars an important, legendary star, yes, it's early feminism, and yes, it's not that great a movie, rather, an artifact. Worth seeing? To catch Hepburn in that moth costume - absolutely.