Hepburn’s stardom defied convention

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There’s a scene in the 1959 film “Suddenly, Last Summer,” Joseph Mankiewicz’s lurid version of Tennessee Williams’ play, in which Katharine Hepburn, then 52, made one of cinema’s more memorable entrances.

From an elevator shaft tucked within the rotting heart of a New Orleans’ mansion, her character, Violet Venabal – a cruel, complicated shrew if there ever was one – can be heard bellowing from the high reaches of her home.

She’s fawning over her dead son, Sebastian, a homosexual recently eaten by urchins, and when she does come into view, lowering into the scene like a crystallized spider from its web, there she is in a wheelchair, eyes flashing as they did in her youth, her trim frame cloaked in white because “that was Sebastian’s favorite color.”

Her first line in the movie is a classic: “My son, Sebastian, always said, ‘Mother, when you descend it’s like the goddess from the machine. Just like an angel coming to Earth.'”

The same could be said for Hepburn, though she likely would have snorted at that observation had it been posed to her while she was alive. Indeed, with her characteristic bluntness, she probably would have said there was nothing goddess-like about her.

Her fans may have disagreed. The actress, who died last Sunday at 96, blessed the screen for seven decades, winning an unprecedented four Academy Awards for Best Actress and scoring eight additional nominations along the way. Not bad for a well-to-do surgeon’s daughter from Hartford, Conn., who initially only set out to conquer the Broadway stage – which she did – yet who became a legend because of her work in movies.

Like the best, most enduring movie actors, Hepburn defied convention.

Physically, she was a reed, all angular lines and flat-chested boyishness beneath a toss of auburn curls that framed a square face; she was hardly what Hollywood was seeking at a time when the bold curves of Jean Harlow, Carole Lombard and Mae West were commanding the screen.

Still, much like her Yankee counterpart Bette Davis, Hepburn quickly became a woman Hollywood – and the world – couldn’t do without.

The camera loved her, for sure, especially how her cheekbones moved in concert with the upward slant of her eyes, but it was her fierce streak of independence, her staunch refusal to conform and her seemingly bottomless talent that made her a star.

That she sounded completely different from anyone else didn’t hurt, either.

Her movie career in movieland, as she liked to call it, began opposite John Barrymore in 1932 with “A Bill of Divorcement,” of which she observed, “I was very lucky to be in the film – it was a showy part.”

It was also the beginning of a string of early hits, including “Morning Glory,” for which she won her first Academy Award, and “Little Women” and “Spitfire.” Later, she’d win Academy Awards for her work in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “The Lion in Winter” and “On Golden Pond,” roles the public championed and adored, probably because they helped to soften her tough image.

Known for her honesty onscreen and off, Hepburn had the good sense to occasionally turn that cutting eye on herself.

About her first and only husband, Luddy Smith, whom she cruelly left when she became a star, she wrote in her 1991 autobiography, “Me”: “What the hell would I have done without Luddy – my protector? All he wanted was me, and of course all I wanted was to be a great big hit star in the movies. I am horrified at what an absolute pig I was. I spent his money, I broke his heart. That is the truth.”

Later in the same book, she wrote of her one true love, frequent co-star and soul mate, Spencer Tracy: “Spencer Tracy is a star of real quality. He is an actor’s star. He is a people’s star. His quality is clear and direct. Ask a question – get an answer. No pause – no fancy thinking – a simple answer. He speaks. He listens. He is not wordy. He is not overemotional. He is simple and totally honest. He makes you believe what he is saying.”

She could have been describing herself.

When the movies failed her in the late ’30s – the disappointing receipts of “Bringing Up Baby” left her with the unflattering news that she was box-office poison – she had the business sense to develop her own projects, including “The Philadelphia Story” with Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart. The film was a major success, all were nominated and Stewart won the award.

Apparently, Hepburn liked her poison straight up.

What Hepburn had in spades was energy, a vitality the screen could barely contain. When she made an entrance, usually in pants, long before it was fashionable to do so (she found skirts and dresses unpractical, and soon so did many other women), she seemed to have the world’s throat in her hand – or at least her co-star’s. Likewise, when she left a room, it wasn’t unusual to hear a door slamming behind her. And yet she had our hearts as well as our respect.

In “The African Queen,” she famously screamed, “Leaches!” – and then proceeded to pluck them off Humphrey Bogart’s body. In “Woman of the Year,” she paired with Tracy and proved why she was one of the best romantic leads of our time. And in “On Golden Pond,” she tamed Jane Fonda – no easy feat – and managed to love her stubborn father, Henry.

“I guess that I must try to realize that I have had the most extraordinary use of this body – this back – these legs,” Hepburn wrote in “Me.” “I have subjected them to the toughest treatment and they have performed great feats. I really can’t blame them for sort of stiffening up. They’ve given me great service. They are tired.”

Now, 12 years after she wrote those words, not so suddenly after all, Hepburn, in the dawn of summer, is gone.

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, Thursdays on WLBZ 2 and WCSH 6, and are archived on RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

THE VIDEO-DVD CORNER

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those capped and in bold print are new to video stores this week.

About Schmidt ? A

Adaptation ? A

Analyze That ? C-

Antwone Fisher ? A-

Biker Boyz ? D

Catch Me if You Can ? A-

Comedian ? B+

Dark Blue ? B

Die Another Day ? C+

Drumline ? B+

8 Mile ? C

The Emperor’s Club ? C+

Femme Fatale ? C+

Frida ? B+

GANGS OF NEW YORK ? C

A Guy Thing ? D

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ? B+