 |
| Spencer Tracy is a reporter & Katharine Hepburn is the widow of a wartime hero, in MGM’s 1942 suspense drama, “Keeper of the Flame.” |
MGM’s suspense story Keeper of the Flame is certainly one of two dramas
that Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn made, from their 9 movies collectively.
(The opposite was The Sea of Grass.) This movie
premiered on the finish of 1942, with its political overtones, a 12 months after the Pearl
Harbor assault. FDR’s administration strongly inspired Hollywood to make
motion pictures that impressed patriotism.
MGM’s Huge Daddy, L.B.
Mayer, was additionally a giant American flag waver, who had simply made Mrs. Miniver, and who reportedly did not
like Keeper of the Flame. The story
of a revered American hero who seems to be a cultish fascist wasn’t precisely
what FDR and Papa Mayer had in thoughts! I can see this darkish political thriller given
the inexperienced gentle at WB or RKO, the place grittier motion pictures have been made.
 |
| Regardless of the MGM gloss and a few diva posturing, the message of 1942’s “Keeper of the Flame” is as well timed as ever. |
So, Metro’s ensuing Keeper of the Flame appears a relatively odd
entry. The movie was based mostly on controversial I.A.R. Wylie’s novel, with a
screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart, who was unapologetically political, and
later blacklisted. Stewart appears impressed by the then-recent Citizen Kane within the telling of the
investigation behind the loss of life of a bigger than life public determine. Cinematographer
William H. Daniels noir-like pictures, the in depth use of units
as an alternative of location or exterior capturing, numerous matte work to recommend opulent
mansions and scenic properties, makes this all really feel like a darkish fairytale.
Some say that Keeper of the Flame was additionally impressed by
the lifetime of William Randolph Hearst. Others have stated Charles Lindbergh, which
feels nearer to the mark, IMO. There have been definitely sufficient world figures with
secret fascist leanings on the time. Lindbergh, who got here from modest means,
grew to become a world-wide hero, then a political determine, preaching isolationist and
anti-Semitic and racist theories. By the late Nineteen Thirties his status was
tarnished; by the early ’40s, FDR had remoted Lindbergh! The timing makes him
the probably inspiration for Keeper of the
Flame.
 |
| Director George Cukor on the set of 1942;s “Keeper of the Flame,” with stars Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn. |
Regardless of the generally
prosaic plotting, the story’s premise, sturdy forged, and clever course
by George Cukor, all make the movie price watching. Spencer Tracy is at his
finest, along with his strong and restrained efficiency as reporter Stephen O’Malley, who
is an admirer of the revered public determine Richard Bennett, who has died in a mysterious
automotive accident. Tracy is goal as the person who’s intent on getting on the
reality, regardless of surrounding suspicion that he’s only a muckraker on the lookout for
scandal. Spence’s interacting with Hepburn, little one actor Darryl Hickman, and the
array of distinctive character actors, is fascinating. Spence was really certainly one of
the primary of the naturalistic movie actors.
 |
| Spencer Tracy is a rock because the principled reporter decided to get on the reality, relating to a useless hero and his spouse, in 1942’s “The Keeper of the Flame.” |
Katharine Hepburn, in
certainly one of her final glam main woman roles, has the showier position because the haunted
widow of the hero. Underneath favourite director George Cukor, Hepburn is generally
restrained, although a few of that Metro diva posturing seeps via. As her
character is conflicted and motivations misunderstood, Kate’s Christine Bennett
permits for some dramatic moments. Hepburn is undercut a bit by the over-lavish MGM
manufacturing values, together with her widow wafting via the mammoth mansion in Adrian
robes. Particularly within the first scene, the place Kate seems like a ghost in a
white robe, carrying an arm filled with lilies to put earlier than the portrait of her
useless husband. At the least, Kate did not reprise her calla lily speech from Stage Door!
 |
| Spencer Tracy’s reporter first encounters Katharine Hepburn’s widow as she wafts into the library in white, inserting flowers at her late husband’s portrait, in 1942’s “Keeper of the Flame.” |
I used to be struck that
Kate’s grieving character was a foreshadowing of Hepburn in certainly one of her latter
day triumphs, 1959’s Instantly, Final
Summer season. In each motion pictures, Kate’s characters are distracted over bigger than
life useless individuals and decided to guard their reputations, although for
completely different causes. In each Keeper and
Instantly, the cherished one was in actuality
a sordid character. Each of Kate’s characters are confronted with a hero who’s
looking for to seek out out the reality. And a few of Kate’s speeches in Keeper are consistent with Instantly’s Violet Venable.
 |
| Katharine Hepburn as one other haunted mourner in white, in 1959’s “Instantly, Final Summer season.” |
,
The male secretary
character, Richard Whorf’s Clive, slavishly gives reporters speeches and
data over the late hero’s works. Protecting to the purpose of obsessive, Clive
comes throughout like a male model of Rebecca’s
Mrs. Danvers, even to the purpose of beginning a hearth within the finale!
 |
| Spencer Tracy, as the simple reporter decided to write down the reality of a late hero, with the revered man’s assistant trying on with mistrust, performed by Richard Whorf. From 1942’s wartime suspense drama, “Keeper of the Flame.” |
Darryl Hickman because the
little one of the groundskeeper, who idolized Bennett, is a bit overwrought. That is
principally from the way in which his character is written, relatively than carried out. A younger
Howard da Silva is immediately recognizable by his voice because the boy’s protecting
father.
 |
| Darryl Hickman performs one of many kids who’re devastated by their hero’s loss of life, in 1942’s political drama, “Keeper of the Flame.” |
Percy Kilbride is a
hoot because the close-mouthed cabbie who doesn’t like snoops. Audrey Christie as
the brash reporter with a crush on Tracy is such a stereotype that she comes off
like a Glenda Ferrell clone. I discovered her efficiency instantly irritating.
Stephen McNally has an early position as a competing reporter—he stored reminding me
of Zachary Scott!
Margaret Wycherly has
a area day because the hero’s aged, demented mom. Previous Mrs. Bennett’s scenes
offer you an concept the place her son bought his concepts on class superiority. The mom
goes off on how as soon as she was a maid to the rich, and due to her son’s
success, SHE now lives in a giant home, declaring, “Huge individuals stay in large homes!”
Mockingly, I had simply considered a clip of Mary Trump speaking about her namesake
grandmother, and the way she had come from Scotland and was a maid to the Carnegie
household. Later, Mrs. Trump lived in an enormous dwelling with husband Fred after he
climbed up the ladder as a realtor/landlord.
 |
| Margaret Wycherly is riveting because the demented mom of the deceased “hero,” in 1942’s wartime suspense drama, “Keeper of the Flame.” |
On a lighter be aware,
newcomer Forrest Tucker was borrowed by MGM to play Hepburn’s good-looking cousin.
Six foot, 4 inch Tucker was a giant boy, and director Cukor was not above
hiring younger beefcake for greater than their on-screen expertise!
 |
| Forrest Tucker performs Katharine Hepburn’s brooding younger cousin in “Keeper of the Flame.” That is Audrey Christie, annoying because the brash gal reporter! |
The baroque music
rating is by Bronislaw Kaper—was he MGM’s reply to Bernard Herrmann? Kaper’s
rating is each bombastic and creepy. I all the time hated his intrusive rating for the
later BUtterfield 8, a cross between
a Tom and Jerry cartoon and a horror film!
The climactic scene,
when Richard Bennett’s actual leanings are revealed by Hepburn’s Christine, is
chilling. The speech on fascism is fascinating and the way insidiously it happens might
appear acquainted to some trendy audiences. The widow of the “hero”
speaks of individuals’s group gullibility in worshipping false idols, for a motion
that pits completely different teams of individuals in opposition to every each other, all of the
whereas seizing energy. Christine tells the reporter, “Of
course they didn’t name it fascism. They painted it pink, white, and blue. They
referred to as it Americanism.” Immediately, it may be referred to as Nationalism? Or maybe
Bennett’s plan can be Challenge 2025?
 |
| Katharine Hepburn performs the keeper of the key recordsdata, in addition to “The Keeper of the Flame!” |
Cukor later stated he
discovered Keeper of the Flame synthetic
and he was proper. But, there’s a message that’s nonetheless true, and interesting
that it was informed on the top of the USA patriotic motion in
lastly supporting WWII.
Right here’s
my take a look at Katharine Hepburn in an identical later position the place she’s grieving and
glossing over the status of her late poet son, with Montgomery Clift because the
physician decided to get on the reality, in 1959’s Instantly, Final Summer season. My evaluation:
https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2018/03/suddenly-last-summer-1959.html
 |
| “Keeper of the Flame” was Tracy & Hepburn’s 2nd movie pairing, after their basic debut in “Lady of the 12 months.” Parker Posey at occasions jogs my memory of Kate Hepburn! |