The African Queen (1951)

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105 min – view video trailer

Director: John Huston
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley

IMDB 8.0 / Amazon 4.4 / MRQE 87% / Decent Films A-

Genres: Adventure, Thriller

Oscars: nominated for 4, won 1 (Best Actor)

Ranked #31 Greatest Movies Through 1960, a Zagat Top Movie

In Africa during WW1, a gin-swilling riverboat owner/captain is persuaded by a strait-laced missionary to use his boat to attack an enemy warship. IMDB 8.0 ranking from over 41,252 users

John Huston made better, more powerful films, but none so universally beloved, on first appearance and over the decades since. In this adaptation of the C.S. Forester novel, Humphrey Bogart (who would win the best-actor Oscar) and Katharine Hepburn costar as an unlikely pair thrown together in German East Africa during the First World War. Amazon 4.4 stars from over 262 users

Crocodiles, tsetse flies, mechanical difficulties, African rains and burning sun, sickness, an erratic helmer — all these and more plagued the shooting of The African Queen. Other than the absence of hostile German troops in Africa circa 1950, the harrowing journey of the eponymous tramp steamer was mirrored by the legendary hardships faced by the production filming on location in the Congo. Decent Films A-

MRQE 87% from over 55 reviews

Madison Public Library

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

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112 min – view video trailer

Director: George Cukor
Starrig: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart

IMDB  8.1 / Amazon 4.7 / MRQE 86% / Decent Films A

Genres: Comedy, Romance

Oscars: nominated for 6, won 2 (Best Actor, Writing)

Ranked #40 Greatest Movies Through 1960, a Zagat Top Movie

When a rich woman’s ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself. IMDB 8.1 rating from over 34,558 users

Applying her impossibly high ideals to everyone but herself, Tracy Lord (Katarine Hepburn) is about to marry a stuffy executive when her congenial ex-husband (Cary Grant), arrives to protect his former father-in-law from a potentially scandalous tabloid exposé. In an Oscar-winning role, James Stewart is the scandal reporter who falls for Tracy as her wedding day arrives, throwing her into a dizzying state of premarital jitters. Amazon 4.7 stars from over 178 users

Its witty dialogue, romantic complications, and class-skewering satire are hallmarks of screwball comedy, but George Cukor’s classic The Philadelphia Story doesn’t turn on absurd situations, outlandish behavior, or unpredictable plot twists. Instead, it’s a more mature and humanistic social satire, a comedy of manners skewering every kind of snobbery: not only the class-based snobbery of the rich against the poor — and the poor against the rich — but also the intellectual snobbery of the literate against the popular, and above all the moral snobbery of the self-righteous against the imperfect. Read full Decent Films review (rated A, Superior artistic-entertainment for Teens & Up)

MRQE 86% from over 47 reviews

Madison Public Library

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

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102 min – G – view video trailer

Director: Howard Hawks
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant

Genres: Comedy, Romance

IMDB 8.1 / Amazon 4.6 / MRQE 87 / Decent Films A+

Oscars: none

Ranked #24 Greatest Movies Through 1960, a Zagat Top Movie

While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard “Baby.” IMDB 8.1 rating from over 28,681 users

Grant and Hepburn are a match made in movie heaven, in sync with each other throughout. Not a great box-office success when first released, Bringing Up Baby has since taken its place as a high-water mark of the screwball form, and it was used as a model for Peter Bogdanovich’s What’s Up, Doc?  Amazon 4.6 stars from over 192 users

The zaniest, most delightful, most romantic screwball comedy of them all, Bringing Up Baby features Katherine Hepburn at her effervescent best and Cary Grant in a marvelous performance combining stuffiness and injured dignity with his usual debonair charm. In a performance reportedly inspired by silent comedian Harold Lloyd, the bespectacled Grant does the slow burn beautifully; and Hepburn’s battering-ram personality and non-sequitur repartee are irresistible rather than irritating. From the rollicking dialogue to the daft situations to the deft physical comedy, Bringing Up Baby has it all. Read full Decent Films review (rated A+, Superior artistic-entertainment and for Kids & Up)

MRQE 87% from over 47 reviews

Madison Public Library

Holiday (1938)

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95 min – view video clips (did not find a trailer)

Director: George Cukor
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan

Genres: Comedy, Romance

IMDB 7.8 / Amazon 4.7 / Decent Films A+ / Movie Mom A+

Oscars: nominated for 1, won 0

Ranked #69 Greatest Movies Through 1960, a Zagat Top Movie

A young man falls in love with a girl from a rich family. His unorthodox plan to go on holiday for the early years of his life is met with skepticism by everyone except for his fiancée’s eccentric sister and long suffering brother. IMDB 7.8 rating from over 6,696 users

This absolutely charming, wholly engaging romantic comedy is the hidden gem of the four collaborations of Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Most everyone’s seen The Philadelphia Story, but few know of this unorthodox, hilarious comedy of life among the rich and privileged. Amazon 4.7 stars from over 106 users

Dialogue and characterizations are note-perfect, and the story never missteps. This is one of the great ones. Decent Films A+ , superior artistic/entertainment value

Cary Grant began in show business as an acrobat, and you can see him show off some of that prowess in this movie. BeliefNet Movie Mom A+

MRQE links to over 28 reviews

Madison Public Library