Catch a Classic! Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month: Katharine Hepburn
Mark your calendars for 8pm, Thursday nights on Turner Classic Movies, TCM, in the month of June as they celebrate their ‘Star of the Month,’ Katharine Hepburn.
Thursday, June 1
“Box Office Poison/Earlier Roles”
TCM, beginning at 8pm
Everett Collection
One of the most lauded and loved stars of stage and screen, Katharine Hepburn excelled at portraying sophisticated and independent women. TCM gives Hepburn the Star of the Month honors every Thursday in June with films spanning the 60-plus years of her illustrious career. The tribute starts tonight with some of the not-so-illustrious films from her “Box Office Poison” years, which began with the critically praised but commercially failing (and now a recognized screwball comedy classic) Bringing Up Baby (1938), costarring Cary Grant. Following that is Break of Hearts (1935), a drama also featuring Charles Boyer; Sylvia Scarlett (1935), a romantic comedy that marked Hepburn’s first onscreen pairing with Grant and was helmed by her frequent director George Cukor; the 1936 historical drama Mary of Scotland, costarring Fredric March and directed by John Ford; and Quality Street (1937), a period comedy that was the third of Hepburn’s three collaborations with director George Stevens. The lineup concludes tomorrow morning with three of Hepburn’s earliest films: Christopher Strong (1933), a drama directed by Dorothy Arzner that was Hepburn’s second feature; the 1934 drama The Little Minister; and another 1934 drama, Spitfire, costarring Robert Young and Ralph Bellamy.
Thursday June 8
“An Honor to Be Nominated”
TCM, beginning at 8pm
Everett Collection
Turner Classic Movies’ monthlong Thursday night celebration of legendary actress Katharine Hepburn continues tonight. Over her 60-plus-year big-screen career, Hepburn received 12 Oscar nominations for Best Actress, a number only bested by Meryl Streep’s 17 nods in that category. Hepburn won four of her Best Actress nominations, a record for a performer, and those titles will all be seen next week on TCM. Tonight’s lineup features five of the movies for which Hepburn received a Best Actress nomination but did not win, spanning a wide time range of her career: the drama Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1962), based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Eugene O’Neill (who wrote the screenplay); the Southern Gothic mystery Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), in which costar Elizabeth Taylor also received a Best Actress Oscar nomination; The Philadelphia Story (1940), the classic romantic comedy costarring Cary Grant, James Stewart and Ruth Hussey; Woman of the Year (1942), the romantic comedy/drama that marked the first of many professional pairings — and the personal one — between Hepburn and costar Spencer Tracy; and the romantic drama Alice Adams (1935), in which Hepburn received the second Best Actress nomination of her career.
Thursday June 15
Star of the Month: Katharine Hepburn: “Oscar Wins”
TCM, beginning at 8pm
Everett Collection
Turner Classic Movies’ monthlong Thursday night celebration of Hollywood icon Katharine Hepburn continues tonight with a lineup of all four of the films in which she won her record four Best Actress Oscars (out of 12 nominations in that category overall throughout her career). First is the classic comedy/drama Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), which also earned Hepburn’s costar, and longtime personal and professional partner, Spencer Tracy a Best Actor nomination in his final film appearance. Hepburn also won the Best Actress Oscar the following year with tonight’s next film, the historical drama The Lion in Winter (1968); she tied with Barbra Streisand, who won for Funny Girl. Following that is the drama On Golden Pond (1981), in which Hepburn gave her last Best Actress-winning appearance, and the evening concludes with her first Best Actress-winning appearance, in the drama Morning Glory (1933), which was only her third screen credit.
Thursday June 22
Star of the Month: Katharine Hepburn: “Kate the Great”
TCM, beginning at 8pm
As Turner Classic Movies’ monthlong Thursday night salute to Hollywood icon Katharine Hepburn continues this evening, the actress’ female-empowering roles are on display, beginning with the romantic comedy Holiday (1938), costarring Cary Grant and directed by George Cukor in one of his several collaborations with Hepburn. Another of those collaborations came in the next film, an adaptation of the literary classic Little Women (1933). Following that is the Victorian-era drama A Woman Rebels (1936); Undercurrent, a 1946 film noir directed by Vincente Minnelli, and costarring Robert Taylor and Robert Mitchum; and Stage Door (1937), a drama also featuring Ginger Rogers and Adolphe Menjou.
Thursday June 29
Star of the Month: Katharine Hepburn: “Hepburn and Tracy”
TCM, beginning at 8pm
Everett Collection
This final evening in Turner Classic Movies’ monthlong Thursday salute to legendary star Katharine Hepburn offers a lineup of five of the nine films that she made with longtime partner and frequent costar Spencer Tracy (a few others have already aired earlier in the month). The first four of tonight’s featured titles are romantic comedies; the evening concludes with a drama. The lineup features Desk Set (1957), the couple’s eighth onscreen pairing; Without Love(1945), which marked the third time they appeared together; Pat and Mike (1952), in which Hepburn gives a Golden Globe-nominated performance in her seventh onscreen pairing with Tracy; Adam’s Rib (1949), the pair’s sixth time working together; and Keeper of the Flame (1942), Hepburn and Tracy’s second film.
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