Rent Sylvia Scarlett (1935)

Archibald in Chrysalis, Hepburn in Drag, Comedy in Ruins - Sylvia Scarlett review by griggs

There’s a reason nobody puts this one up alongside Bringing Up Baby or Holiday. The ingredients look promising—Hepburn, Grant, a dash of cross-dressing intrigue—but what lands on screen is flat and baffling. The plot plods when it ought to fizz, and Hepburn’s delivery grates more than it charms.

Then there’s Cary Grant, or rather Archibald Leach still in transition. His accent wobbles so wildly it veers into Dick Van Dyke-in-Mary Poppins territory—hardly the smooth transatlantic purr we came to know. Instead of the Grant of cocktail shakers and double entendres, we get a rough draft searching for his voice. The result isn’t romantic comedy, it’s comic misfire.

And yet, through modern eyes, there’s a guilty pleasure. Hepburn striding in a suit, cross-dressing confusions, queer-coded tension hanging thick in the air—it’s almost more fascinating in its accidents than its design. The film fails as entertainment but succeeds as a time capsule of queerness before Hollywood had the words.

BetterThan You Think - Sylvia Scarlett review by Cato

Some of the reviews don't have a good word to say about this film, mainly because it didn't enjoy box office success. However I think we have to consider it in a better light, in that it was made in 1935 and deserves interest from those of us who enjoy watching old movies. Katharine Hepburn is great, even if Cary Grant doesn't come across very well as a crook. And Edmund Gwenn is an excellent washed up father. The Hungarian director George Cukor brings a delightful middle European feel to the film. There's still a lot to enjoy in this film, even if it didn't make a lot of money.

Maximum Melodrama. - Sylvia Scarlett review by Steve

Really strange adaptation of a novel by Compton MacKenzie, which combines extreme melodrama with the comedy of masquerade. It was conceived as a vehicle for Katharine Hepburn who plays an adolescent girl who presents as a boy to protect her crooked father (Edmund Gwenn) from the law... And in disguise, falls in love with a male artist (Brian Aherne).

Most of the interest now is in the theme of gender fluidity, especially in the context of its gay director, George Cukor.  And there is some pleasant midsummer make belief as the cast- including pre-stardom Cary Grant as a matey Cockney rogue- transforms into a company of players who travel by caravan to entertain rural audiences.

Hepburn has that abrasiveness which made her an awkward romantic lead in the '30s. This is her spell as 'box office poison'. But she is perfectly androgynous. Grant is fun and keeps the mood buoyant. This can be enjoyed as that odd kind of amplified melodrama which was everywhere in the early studio period, but really can't be done anymore.

The RKO bosses hated it, and it bombed. Anyone looking for subtlety, should go elsewhere. This is a dreamlike fantasy of a time and place that never happened, where people behave in whimsical ways and romance transpires by irrational means. This is hardcore melodrama; a long ago realm of magical escapism. And on those terms, it has considerable charm!