Katharine Hepburn: All About Me (1993) (TV)

Director:

David Heeley

Writers:

David Heeley (writer)
Katharine Hepburn (writer)

Release Date:

18 January 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Filmmaking | Spencer Tracy | Bryn Mawr College | Home Movie | Connecticut

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy.

Cast

Katharine Hepburn	...	Herself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dorothy Arzner	...	Herself (archive footage)
Lauren Bacall	...	Herself (archive footage)
John Beal	...	Himself (archive footage)
Pandro S. Berman	...	Himself (archive footage)
Humphrey Bogart	...	Himself (archive footage)
George Cukor	...	Himself (archive footage)
John Ford	...	Himself (archive footage)
Cary Grant	...	Himself (archive footage)
Leland Hayward	...	Himself (archive footage)
Howard Hughes	...	Himself (archive footage)
John Huston	...	Himself (archive footage)
Natalie Paley	...	Herself (archive footage)
Barry Pinto	...	Birthday Party Guest
Steven Pinto	...	Birthday Party Guest
Spencer Tracy	...	Himself (archive footage)
Richard Wallace	...	Himself (archive footage)

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color | Black and White

Company:

Top Hat Productions

Trivia:

Featured on the 2-disc Special Edition DVD of The Philadelphia Story (1940).

Quotes:

Katharine Hepburn: Listen to the song of life.

Movie Connections:

Features Adam's Rib (1949)

Woman, Thou Art Fascinating

Turner Classic Movies, as a part of their "Summer Under the Stars" festival for the current month of August, included 12 of Katherine Hepburn's movies to be shown back to back, all day, this past August 5th.

Within the collection of features, which included classics like THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, THE LION IN WINTER, HOLIDAY, LITTLE WOMEN, and LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO THE NIGHT, was this documentary shot in 1993 which presented an inside look into Katharine Hepburn the actress, personality, and overall opinionated woman who managed to become over the years America's Greatest Actress of the Twentieth Century.

Katharine Hepburn herself hosts this documentary which runs a little over an hour long and in it she accounts her early years, her beginnings as an actress (with footage from an early stage production of a college play (A Midsummer's Night Dream), her start in Hollywood and acting with such legends as John Barrymore, and her progression as a film actress, toiling throughout her box-office poison years and into her later career. A great documentary, holding trivia and tidbits about her life on and off screen, her friendships with Laura Lansing and Spencer Tracy, and her overall view of what it was to be herself in an industry that values artificiality. It's great to see her reminisce without qualms about her choices in films she did in the 1930s right after her early success with MORNING GLORY, some which she herself states were quite questionable but kept her evolving as an actress.

For anyone into her life in and out of film, this documentary should be seen in companion to either her own autobiography, "Me," or A. Scott Berg's "Kate Remembered."