Tuesday's Top Three

Here are three more Katharine Hepburn movies that are among my collection.

Alice Adams (1935)

Katharine Hepburn is Alice Adams, a naive young woman who aspires to greater social status. Wanting to escape the confines of her middle-class upbringing, she presents herself to friends as a member of high-society. Then, one night as an elegant party where she really doesn't belong, she falls in love with Fred MacMurray--a veritable Prince Charming who believes Alice's fabricated stories of family wealth. But, when he's invited to meet the Adams, the ruse becomes painfully obvious. The comic highpoint of the film is the dinner party, where the family has hired a maid (Hattie McDaniel) to help with what becomes a total disaster. But, in the end, love conquers all.

This film was a smash success in the 1930s, winning Katharine Hepburn an Oscar nomination. She played the role with such innocence...

Pat and Mike (1952)

Kate plays Pat Pemberton, a college physical education teacher who excels at just about every sport there is. She's also a great athletic competitor, except when her overbearing, worrywart fiancé, Collier Weld, is around. All Pat has to do is see Collier's face on the sidelines and her golf swing loses its power; her tennis game goes haywire. It takes crooked sports manager Mike Conovan (Spencer Tracy, of course) to recognize Pat's outstanding talent. He takes her on as his most important client and handles her with the same loving care that he gives to his favorite racehorse. Naturally, Pat and Mike's relationship is destined to overstep its professional boundaries. The mutual attraction grows from the moment they meet.

I always like this movie... it showed off Katharine Hepburn's amazing athletic ability.

Summertime (1955)

Katharine Hepburn plays Jane Hudson, a jaunty as well as attractive middle-aged secretary from Akron, Ohio, has finally made it to Venice, Italy, for her long-awaited dream vacation. Never-married Jane is a self-described "independent type" who's content, or so she claims, to go it mostly alone, armed with her movie camera. Jane soon discovers that even in a city as beautiful and fascinating as Venice, going it alone can still leave one feeling terribly lonely. All that is about to change, starting with a brief encounter at an outdoor café in the Piazza San Marco, where Jane draws the attention of a handsome antiques-shop owner named Renato de Rossi.

This movie is the reason I had to go to Venice, Italy. Director David Lean understood that Venice could speak without words. Perfect!