Sylvia Scarlett

Early androgyny classic, with a terrific performance by Katharine Hepburn that takes wonderful advantage of her varied talents. One wishes that the film around her had more to give. The tonal changes are hard to take, and the boilerplate romance between Hepburn and Brian Aherne stands in sharp contrast to the film's more fun and subversive elements. As it is, more of a historical curio than a truly great movie.

Even this early in her career, Hepburn has such androgynous energy that she can overshadow even a Cockney Cary Grant.

With Grant and Hepburn I expected something a bit more screwball. It's still a good romantic comedy and everyone does a fine job.

I know this is supposed to be a classic, but I never really warmed to the cross-dressing thing. I guess I'm just not the right audience.

This just isn't interesting y'all

My god was Katharine Hepburn annoyingly awful in this! I now can see why her career stalled a bit in the mid-thirties.

Star Rating: ★★★★

75.50

75.000

While this has some funny parts, it comes across as more like sketch comedy, with each scene only thinly connected to what came before. Hepburn certainly gives it her all, but the movie just doesn't quite feel like it knows in which direction it is going.

This was a film I expected to like a lot. A cross-dressing Katharine Hepburn. A rare "lesbian" kiss. A carefree Cary Grant. The lovable old Edmund Gwenn. All traveling as small-time con-men around the country side. That should easily be a formula for something awesome. Instead the story was awkward. The added love affair with Brian Aherne really took the story off-course to a place it shouldn't have been....