Tracy & Hepburn Team in Rare Drama ‘Keeper of the Flame’ 1942

 

Spencer Tracy is a reporter & Katharine Hepburn is the widow of a wartime hero,
in MGM's 1942 suspense drama, "Keeper of the Flame."

MGM’s suspense story Keeper of the Flame is one of two straight-up dramas that Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn made, from their nine films together. (The other was The Sea of Grass.) This film premiered at the end of 1942, with its political overtones, a year after the Pearl Harbor attack. FDR's administration strongly encouraged Hollywood to make movies that inspired patriotism.

MGM’s Big Daddy, L.B. Mayer, was also a big American flag waver, who had just made Mrs. Miniver, and who reportedly didn't like Keeper of the Flame. The story of a revered American hero who turns out to be a cultish fascist wasn’t exactly what FDR and Papa Mayer had in mind! I can see this dark political thriller given the green light at WB or RKO, where grittier movies were made.

Despite the MGM gloss and some diva posturing, the message of 1942's
"Keeper of the Flame" is as timely as ever. 

So, Metro’s resulting Keeper of the Flame seems a rather odd entry. The film was based on controversial I.A.R. Wylie’s novel, with a screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart, who was unapologetically political, and later blacklisted. Stewart seems inspired by the then-recent Citizen Kane in the telling of the investigation behind the death of a larger than life public figure. Cinematographer William H. Daniels noir-like photography, the extensive use of sets instead of location or exterior shooting, lots of matte work to suggest opulent mansions and scenic properties, makes this all feel like a dark fairytale. 

Some say that Keeper of the Flame was also inspired by the life of William Randolph Hearst. Others have said Charles Lindbergh, which feels closer to the mark, IMO. There were certainly enough world figures with secret fascist leanings at the time. Lindbergh, who came from modest means, became a world-wide hero, then a political figure, preaching isolationist and anti-Semitic and racist theories. By the late 1930s his reputation was tarnished; by the early '40s, FDR had isolated Lindbergh! The timing makes him the likely inspiration for Keeper of the Flame.

Director George Cukor on the set of 1942;s "Keeper of the Flame," with stars
Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn.

Despite the sometimes prosaic plotting, the story’s premise, strong cast, and intelligent direction by George Cukor, all make the film worth watching. Spencer Tracy is at his best, with his solid and restrained performance as reporter Stephen O’Malley, who is an admirer of the revered public figure Richard Bennett, who has died in a mysterious car accident. Tracy is objective as the man who is intent on getting at the truth, despite surrounding suspicion that he is just a muckraker looking for scandal. Spence's interacting with Hepburn, child actor Darryl Hickman, and the array of distinctive character actors, is fascinating. Spence was truly one of the first of the naturalistic film actors.

Spencer Tracy is a rock as the principled reporter determined to get at the truth,
 regarding a dead hero and his wife, in 1942's "The Keeper of the Flame."

Katharine Hepburn, in one of her last glam leading lady roles, has the showier role as the haunted widow of the hero. Under favorite director George Cukor, Hepburn is mostly restrained, though some of that Metro diva posturing seeps through. As her character is conflicted and motivations misunderstood, Kate's Christine Bennett allows for some dramatic moments. Hepburn is undercut a bit by the over-lavish MGM production values, with her widow wafting through the mammoth mansion in Adrian gowns.  Especially in the first scene, where Kate looks like a ghost in a white gown, carrying an arm full of lilies to place before the portrait of her dead husband. At least, Kate didn't reprise her calla lily speech from Stage Door!

Spencer Tracy's reporter first encounters Katharine Hepburn's widow as she wafts
 into the library in white, placing flowers at her late husband's portrait,
in 1942's "Keeper of the Flame."

I was struck that Kate's grieving character was a foreshadowing of Hepburn in one of her latter day triumphs, 1959's Suddenly, Last Summer. In both movies, Kate's characters are distracted over larger than life dead people and determined to protect their reputations, though for different reasons. In both Keeper and Suddenly, the loved one was in reality a sordid character. Both of Kate's characters are faced with a hero who is seeking to find out the truth. And some of Kate's speeches in Keeper are in keeping with Suddenly's Violet Venable.

Katharine Hepburn as another haunted mourner in white,
in 1959's "Suddenly, Last Summer."

,

The male secretary character, Richard Whorf’s Clive, slavishly offers reporters speeches and information over the late hero's works. Protective to the point of obsessive, Clive comes across like a male version of Rebecca's Mrs. Danvers, even to the point of starting a fire in the finale!

Spencer Tracy, as the straightforward reporter determined to write the truth of a
late hero, with the revered man's assistant looking on with distrust, played by
Richard Whorf. From 1942's wartime suspense drama, "Keeper of the Flame." 

Darryl Hickman as the child of the groundskeeper, who idolized Bennett, is a bit overwrought. This is mostly from the way his character is written, rather than performed. A young Howard da Silva is instantly recognizable by his voice as the boy’s protective father. 

Darryl Hickman plays one of the children who are devastated by their hero's death,
in 1942's political drama, "Keeper of the Flame."

Percy Kilbride is a hoot as the close-mouthed cabbie who doesn’t like snoops. Audrey Christie as the brash reporter with a crush on Tracy is such a stereotype that she comes off like a Glenda Ferrell clone. I found her performance immediately irritating. Stephen McNally has an early role as a competing reporter—he kept reminding me of Zachary Scott!

Margaret Wycherly has a field day as the hero's elderly, demented mother. Old Mrs. Bennett’s scenes give you an idea where her son got his ideas on class superiority. The mother goes off on how once she was a maid to the wealthy, and because of her son's success, SHE now lives in a big house, declaring, “Big people live in big houses!” Ironically, I had just viewed a clip of Mary Trump talking about her namesake grandmother, and how she had come from Scotland and was a maid to the Carnegie family. Later, Mrs. Trump lived in a huge home with husband Fred after he climbed up the ladder as a realtor/landlord.

Margaret Wycherly is riveting as the demented mother of the deceased "hero,"
in 1942's wartime suspense drama, "Keeper of the Flame."

On a lighter note, newcomer Forrest Tucker was borrowed by MGM to play Hepburn’s handsome cousin. Six foot, four inch Tucker was a big boy, and director Cukor was not above hiring young beefcake for more than their on-screen talent!

Forrest Tucker plays Katharine Hepburn's brooding young cousin in "Keeper of the Flame." That's Audrey Christie, annoying as the brash gal reporter!

The baroque music score is by Bronislaw Kaper—was he MGM’s answer to Bernard Herrmann? Kaper’s score is both bombastic and creepy. I always hated his intrusive score for the later BUtterfield 8, a cross between a Tom and Jerry cartoon and a horror movie!

The climactic scene, when Richard Bennett's real leanings are revealed by Hepburn’s Christine, is chilling. The speech on fascism is fascinating and how insidiously it occurs may seem familiar to some modern audiences. The widow of the “hero” speaks of people's group gullibility in worshipping false idols, for a movement that pits different groups of people against each one another, all the while seizing power. Christine tells the reporter, “Of course they didn’t call it fascism. They painted it red, white, and blue. They called it Americanism.” Today, it might be called Nationalism? Or perhaps Bennett’s plan would be Project 2025?  

Katharine Hepburn plays the keeper of the secret files,
as well as "The Keeper of the Flame!"

Cukor later said he found Keeper of the Flame artificial and he was right. Yet, there is a message that is still true, and fascinating that it was told at the height of the United States patriotic movement in finally supporting WWII.

Here’s my look at Katharine Hepburn in a similar later role where she’s grieving and glossing over the reputation of her late poet son, with Montgomery Clift as the doctor determined to get at the truth, in 1959’s Suddenly, Last Summer. My review:

 https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2018/03/suddenly-last-summer-1959.html

"Keeper of the Flame" was Tracy & Hepburn's 2nd film pairing, after their classic
 debut in "Woman of the Year." Parker Posey at times reminds me of Kate Hepburn!