CHRISTOPHER STRONG (1933)

Although Colin Clive (mostly known as Dr. Frankenstein in the original 1931 FRANKENSTEIN) plays the title character, it is Katharine Hepburn who is at the center of this film. She plays Lady Cynthia Darrington, a free thinking aviatrix whom, though rich and popular, has never had time in her life for a lover. Clive is Sir Strong, a sturdy, serious minded British type: husband, father, member of Parliament. His daughter (Helen Chandler, Mina in DRACULA) brings her father to a scavanger hunt party as a found artifact, a faithful husband. Chandler's married boyfried (Ralph Forbes) brings Hepburn as a virgin. Clive and Hepburn, both feeling quite out of place at a wild party, bond and soon begin an affair which hurts everyone around them, including Chandler, who comes to look upon Hepburn as a mentor, and Clive's wife (Billie Burke). Hepburn sets out to break some flying records (egged on, no doubt, by being referred to as "just a girl"), but Clive talks her into giving up flying for him. However, when she finds out she's pregnant, she goes for an altitude record, breaks it, then commits suicide by crashing the plane rather than have Clive leave his family for her. The movie's most infamous moment is Hepburn's appearance in a wild silver moth outfit--she's wearing it to a party, but it feels jarringly out of place in the serious discussion she has with Clive. The acting all around is solid, and even Clive, who is usually a stick or a neurotic (or both), is OK, though his chemistry with Hepburn comes and goes. Burke's dithery mannerisms are completely absent here. Even though there are pre-Code elements, the ending is still drearily moralistic, punishing Hepburn for being an unconventional and "uppity" woman. [TCM]