 |
| James Stewart and Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story (1940). C: Joseph Ruttenberg D: George Cukor |
Question: What do The Women (1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Gaslight (1944), That Forsyte Woman (1949), Julius Caesar (1953), Brigadoon (1954), The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), Gigi (1958), and BUtterfield 8 (1960) have in common? Answer: They were all filmed by Joseph Ruttenberg, one of the greatest cinematographers of the Golden Age. He was known for his black and white photography and for his talent with lighting. Until the breakup of the old studio system, he worked his entire career at MGM.
Ruttenberg worked with the great directors and actors of the Golden Era—John Ford, Fritz Lang, William Wyler, George Stevens, George Cukor, Vincente Minnelli, plus Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Katharine Hepburn, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, William Powell, Cary Grant, James Stewart, Ronald Colman, and many others. He won four Oscars for his work, more than any other cinematographer.
🌎🌎🌎
James Stewart won a Best Actor Oscar for his leading performance in this film. Stewart had made twenty-five feature films before The Philadelphia Story (1940). But only one of them allowed him to show his true talent: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), in which he gave a career-making performance as the junior Senator from Missouri, Jefferson Smith.
Stewart spent the World War 2 years as a flight instructor for the U.S. Army Air Corps, forerunner of the Air Force. Afterward, he picked up where he left off in Hollywood and continued to ride high for the next twenty years, starring in films like It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Call Northside 777 (1948), Rope (1948), The Stratton Story (1949), Winchester '73 (1950), Harvey (1950), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), The Naked Spur (1953), The Glenn Miller Story (1954), Rear Window (1954), Strategic Air Command (1955), The Man from Laramie (1955), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), Vertigo (1958), Bell Book and Candle (1958), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), How the West Was Won (1963), and Shenandoah (1965).
🌎🌎🌎
The Oscar for Best Actress of 1940 went to Ginger Rogers for Kitty Foyle. I would have given it to Katharine Hepburn. But she had been labeled "box office poison" within the industry in 1938, despite three Oscar-nominated performances and one win for Morning Glory (1933). She was a great actress whom the public hadn't warmed up to.
Her performance as Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story changed the public perception of her. (Hepburn, Stewart, and Cary Grant reprised their roles in a radio play of The Philadelphia Story for Lux Radio Theatre in 1942.) Her popularity went up—it couldn't have gotten any lower—and then began to soar with Woman of the Year (1942), playing opposite Spencer Tracy.
🌎🌎🌎
George Cukor directed Hepburn in Woman of the Year. He directed her in The Philadelphia Story. He directed her in her debut film, Bill of Divorcement (1932). In fact, he directed her ten times and was Hepburn's favorite director. He directed the early Hepburn-Tracy films. In addition to those, Cukor directed Dinner at Eight (1933), Little Women (1933), Holiday (1938) with Hepburn and Cary Grant, The Women (1939), Gaslight (1944), Born Yesterday (1950), A Star Is Born (1954), and My Fair Lady (1964). Ten of his films were nominated for Best Picture Oscars. And he was one of six directors to work on The Wizard of Oz (1939), five of whose work went uncredited, including his.
