This complex movie may have been a bit risqué for audiences in 1936, but as one of three films Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant made with George Cukor, it remains an idiosyncratic gem. Based on the Compton Mackenzie novel, SYLVIA SCARLETT has become a cult classic because of Hepburn's performance as the daughter of a grieving, compulsive gambler who tries to alleviate their financial misery by stealing expensive French lace. In order to smuggle it out of the country, Hepburn chops her hair and masquerades as a boy; when she meets cockney jewel thief Jimmy Monkley (Grant) on a ship to England, it's just the beginning of a cascade of gender-confusion issues--23 years before Billy Wilder's SOME LIKE IT HOT--yet unlike that film, SYLVIA SCARLETT is not all for laughs. The tension between good humor and hard luck is most deftly displayed by Grant, whose charismatic jewel-thief persona would later be tapped for Alfred Hitchcock's TO CATCH A THIEF.
When authorities go after a con artist, he and his daughter are forced to go on the run. In order to fool the cops, the young woman disguises herself as a man, which leads to comedic complications when she meets an attractive member of the opposite sex. This daring George Cukor film stars Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.
Theatrical release: January 1936
The film was shot entirely in Southern California.
SYLVIA SCARLETT was Cukor's last film for RKO.
This was the first screen pairing of Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.
SYLVIA SCARLETT caused scandal at the time of its release because of its gender-bending themes, but has since found a cult following.
DVD Features:
Keep Case
Single Side - Dual Layer
Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
Mono 1.0 - English
Subtitles - English - Closed Captioned
Subtitles - English, French - Optional
Cinematographer
Joseph H. August: American Director of Photography
Writer
Gladys Unger: Screenwriter
Art Director
Van Nest Polglase: Art Director
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