Review of Sylvia Scarlett (1935) by Jim C — 19 Oct 2005

This film is proof that even bucketloads of acting talent can't buy you a winning movie! It stars Katharine Hepburn as the title character, Cary Grant as the "Cockney" jewel thief Jimmy Monkley and was directed by George Cukor.... and it STINKS! In a nutshell, Hepburn's dad (played by Edmund Gwenn) is a compulsive gambler. To pay the bills, Gwenn embezzles some money and flees France with his daughter and some expensive lace. In order to throw off the authorities, Sylvia is forced to pass herself off as a boy (for reasons unknown). This is one of my main beefs with the film... Sylvia could have just as easily changed her name to something else entirely instead of trying to be a boy. Although I'm no fan of Katharine Hepburn's beauty, she's entirely too pretty to pass for a boy.

So anyway, in the passage over, they meet Monkley (Grant). The first 30 seconds on the screen, Grant tries to affect a stereotypical Cockney accent; he then apparently forgets said accent and spend the rest of the film speaking in his normal voice. A bunch of stuff then happens, blah, blah, blah...

I dunno. I just didn't care for this film. I understand that it was controversial back in the day for its "gender bending" storyline. I just didn't buy it. [i]Some Like It Hot[/i] was a much better film for the "gender bending" genere, although it's more of a straight comedy as this film has moments of seriousness.