{"id":30083,"date":"2013-03-22T15:18:19","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T22:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=30083"},"modified":"2021-01-20T00:44:12","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T07:44:12","slug":"sylvia-scarlett-1935","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=30083","title":{"rendered":"Sylvia Scarlett (1935)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Are you a girl dressed as a boy? Or are you a boy dressed as a girl?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Sylvia-Scarlett-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Sylvia-Scarlett-Poster-241x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"241\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-30086\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Sylvia-Scarlett-Poster-241x300.jpg 241w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Sylvia-Scarlett-Poster-103x128.jpg 103w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Sylvia-Scarlett-Poster.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 241px) 100vw, 241px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA young French woman (Katharine Hepburn) flees to England with her embezzling father (Edmund Gwenn), disguising herself as a boy to escape notice. During their voyage, they befriend a con-artist (Cary Grant) and begin a life of crime and performance-art together, joined by a ditzy maid (Dennie Moore) who Gwenn soon marries. When Hepburn becomes enamored with a handsome artist (Brian Aherne), she exposes her true identity &#8212; but is Aherne really in love with a beautiful Russian (Natalie Paley)?\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Brian Aherne Films<\/li>\n<li>Cary Grant Films<\/li>\n<li>Edmund Gwenn Films<\/li>\n<li>Gender Bending<\/li>\n<li>George Cukor Films<\/li>\n<li>Katharine Hepburn Films<\/li>\n<li>Love Triangle<\/li>\n<li>Thieves and Criminals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary begins his review of this unusual cult flick (also discussed at length in his first <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?page_id=5986\"><em>Cult Movies<\/em> book<\/a>, which I cite here) by noting that &#8220;for years [director] George Cukor would say this box-office flop was the one embarrassing blot on his and Katharine Hepburn&#8217;s illustrious careers&#8221;, but that &#8220;in the mid-sixties it began turning up with increasing frequency on college campuses and in repertory theaters, and a cult for the film took root&#8221; &#8212; one that is &#8220;equally the result of both the unique style of the picture and the unconventional presentation of sex roles&#8221;. Interestingly, &#8220;critics of thirties never mentioned the sexual implications of the film&#8221;; indeed, given that &#8220;during this period&#8230; subjects like transvestism and bisexuality were taboo&#8221;, it&#8217;s &#8220;remarkable that&#8230; no one mentioned the strange things that happen&#8221;, such as &#8220;Hepburn kissed on the lips by Paley, who thinks she&#8217;s a boy and tries to seduce him&#8221; (the point at which 3\/4ths of the preview audience walked out), or Aherne &#8220;invit[ing] &#8216;Sylvester&#8217; to sleep with him&#8221;, and later quipping, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what it is that gives me a <em>queer<\/em> feeling when I look at you&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>While <em>Sylvia Scarlett<\/em>&#8216;s transgressive sexual politics surely make it a favorite with the LGBTQ crowd, it&#8217;s also notable for its transgressive <em>gender<\/em> politics &#8212; i.e., the way in which Sylvia &#8220;gains [both] stature&#8230; in [her father&#8217;s] eyes [as well as] independence&#8221; once she cuts off her hair and pretends to be a boy, and how &#8220;by dressing in men&#8217;s clothes, she is able to free that latent part of herself&#8221; &#8212; i.e., &#8220;being athletic&#8221; and &#8220;speak[ing] her mind for the first time&#8221; &#8212; that was &#8220;previously kept hidden by convention&#8221;. Indeed, &#8220;only by pretending to be a male can Sylvia open up the world for herself and bring out her real self&#8221;; and &#8220;only as a male can Sylvia control her own destiny and make her own rules&#8221;. Along those lines, Peary points out that &#8220;few pictures are so rooted in theater&#8221;, and that &#8220;no film is more concerned with &#8216;acting&#8217; as a method (rather than a profession) for living one&#8217;s life&#8221;, given that &#8220;it&#8217;s populated by characters whose lives revolve around disguise and deception&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>In <em>Cult Movies<\/em>, Peary ends his review by conceding that &#8220;<em>Sylvia Scarlett<\/em> is far from a great film&#8221;. He points out that Cukor couldn&#8217;t &#8220;decide whether he was filming a comedy or a drama&#8221;, that it&#8217;s &#8220;dull at times&#8221;, and that there are &#8220;too many moments when characters display cruelty that is sadistic and hard to watch&#8221;. I would also add that Dennie Moore&#8217;s performance as Maudie the maid very quickly gets on one&#8217;s nerves, and that the character played by Paley is sorely underdeveloped. Yet <em>Sylvia Scarlett<\/em> remains &#8220;one of the most interesting films of the thirties&#8221; despite its flaws and faults, and is certainly must-see viewing for all film fanatics simply for its enduring cult status. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Katharine Hepburn as Sylvia\/Sylvester (nominated by Peary as one of the Best Actresses of the Year in his <em>Alternate Oscars<\/em>)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Sylvia-Scarlett-Hepburn.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Sylvia-Scarlett-Hepburn.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-30085\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Sylvia-Scarlett-Hepburn.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Sylvia-Scarlett-Hepburn-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Sylvia-Scarlett-Hepburn-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>A refreshingly fluid presentation of sexuality and gender<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Sylvia-Scarlett-Sexuality.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Sylvia-Scarlett-Sexuality.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-30084\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Sylvia-Scarlett-Sexuality.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Sylvia-Scarlett-Sexuality-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Sylvia-Scarlett-Sexuality-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, for its cult status. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cult Movie<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0027067\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/836\/sylvia-scarlett#articles-reviews?articleId=12762\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1936\/01\/10\/archives\/katharine-hepburn-and-edmund-gwenn-in-sylvia-scarlett-at-the-radio.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.combustiblecelluloid.com\/classic\/sylviascarlett.shtml\">Combustible Celluloid Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=7596&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/film\/sylvia-scarlett-1936\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Are you a girl dressed as a boy? Or are you a boy dressed as a girl?&#8221; Synopsis: A young French woman (Katharine Hepburn) flees to England with her embezzling father (Edmund Gwenn), disguising herself as a boy to escape notice. During their voyage, they befriend a con-artist (Cary Grant) and begin a life of crime and performance-art together, joined by a ditzy maid (Dennie Moore) who Gwenn soon marries. When Hepburn becomes enamored with a handsome artist (Brian Aherne),&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=30083\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30083"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64621,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30083\/revisions\/64621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}