Sylvia Scarlett (1935)

88% of critics liked it
(8 reviews)
56% of users liked it
(817 ratings)

This big-budget 1936 RKO Studios picture lost money, perhaps due to a cool box-office reception to the idea of leading lady Katharine Hepburn in drag, and a rare-for-its-day screen kiss between two women. Edmund Gwenn plays the title character's father Henry, who is obsessed with gambling. His… More This big-budget 1936 RKO Studios picture lost money, perhaps due to a cool box-office reception to the idea of leading lady Katharine Hepburn in drag, and a rare-for-its-day screen kiss between two women. Edmund Gwenn plays the title character's father Henry, who is obsessed with gambling. His daughter Sylvia (Hepburn) has stolen some expensive lace which they hope to smuggle from France to England. To elude police, she cuts her hair short and disguises herself as a man. She and her father board a ship, and a drunken Henry confesses their scheme to Jimmy Monkley (Cary Grant), a jewel smuggler. To divert attention away from him, Jimmy snitches on Henry to the customs officials, and Henry has to pay up or be arrested. Later, Sylvia confronts Jimmy on a train and punches him. Jimmy apologizes and cuts them in on a scheme to steal jewels from a wealthy family, using his friend Maudie (Dennie Moore), a maid in the house. But Sylvia, still disguised as a man, talks Maudie out of it, and she responds with a kiss. Maudie and Sylvia's father fall in love and Maudie, an aspiring actress, invests money in a show to open in a seaside resort. There they are invited to the mansion of a wealthy artist, Michael Fane (Brian Aherne), who is unsettled by Sylvia's obvious affections before finally discovering that she's a woman. Jimmy is attracted to Michael's roommate, the Russian-born Lily (Natalie Paley) -- and from there, the romantic entaglements between the aformentioned parties proceed like a Shakespearean comedy. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 34 min.
Directed By: George Cukor
Genres: Drama, Classics, Comedy

In Theaters: Dec 12, 1935 Wide
On DVD: May 29, 2007

Critic Reviews

Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
A peculiar, rather audacious gender-bender tale, with Katharine Hepburn as a man for most of the film, keeping Cary Grant (and us) on his toes.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Cukor handles these bizarre plot turns with consummate grace.
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis
...one of the strangest concoctions you'll run into: a hokey, exaggerated, old-time, sometimes surreal comedic melodrama, played for the broadest possible laughs.
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis
...an interesting if ultimately fruitless collaboration of two of the screen's biggest legends.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Grant gives one of his most energetic and best film performances ever.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Interesting, but never really compelling offbeat comedy-drama

Read all 6 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

First L

Think fast! Your dad, Edmund Gwenn has been embezzling money and you have to escape the country and you look like Katharine Hepburn. In order to evade the authorities, do you cut off your long braids and pose as a boy? Of course you do! When you and dad run across a smuggler who… More
Think fast! Your dad, Edmund Gwenn has been embezzling money and you have to escape the country and you look like Katharine Hepburn. In order to evade the authorities, do you cut off your long braids and pose as a boy? Of course you do! When you and dad run across a smuggler who looks an awful lot like Cary Grant you decide to keep up the ruse so that you might learn the tricks of being a con man. Unfortunately, you wind up being too honest to do any decent thieving so you decide to start a touring performance troupe (you, your dad, Cary Grant and some other dame you found). When some loud mouth heckles the dame in your group while you're doing your act onstage, you go home with him, and spend the rest of the movie trying to decide whether you love him or Cary Grant. Everyone in this movie is confused and the plot is sloppy/messy, but I thought Hepburn was pretty cute in this gender-bending role (there's even a "lesbian" kiss). Granted, this was probably one of the first films of this kind, but that still doesn't make it very good.
AJ V

This movie is somewhat strange, mostly because I didn't think Hepburn's character had a good enough reason to dress up as a boy. I didn't understand that part, and the movie doesn't explain it. Hepburn and Grant are really good in this movie, though, and… More
This movie is somewhat strange, mostly because I didn't think Hepburn's character had a good enough reason to dress up as a boy. I didn't understand that part, and the movie doesn't explain it. Hepburn and Grant are really good in this movie, though, and it's really funny, so I stopped questioning it.

Cast

            Katharine Hepburn as Sylvia Scarlett

            Cary Grant as Jimmy Monkley

            Brian Aherne as Michael Fane

            Edmund Gwenn as Henry Scarlett

            Natalie Paley as Lily

            Dennie Moore as Maudie Tilt

            Robert A'Dair as Turnkey

            May Beatty
            
            Daisy Belmore
            
            Nina Borget
            
            Thomas Braidon
            
            Elsa Buchanan
            
            E.E. Clive
            
            Edward Cooper
            
            Adrienne D'Ambricourt as Stewardess

            Kay Deslys
            
            Elspeth Dudgeon
            
            Gaston Glass
            
            Robert Hale
            
            Alec Harford
            
            Peter Hobbes
            
            Olaf Hytten as Customs Inspector

            Lilyan Irene
            
            Lorimer Johnston
            
            Gwendolen Logan
            
            Nola Luxford
            
            Ella McKenzie
            
            Frank Moran
            
            Leonard Mudie as Steward

            Lionel Pape as Sgt. Major

            Lennox Pawle as Drunk

            C. Montague Shaw
            
            Michael Visaroff as Purser

            Colin Campbell
            
            Pat Somerset as Bits

            Harrington Reynolds
            
            Patricia Caron
            
            Bunny Beatty as Maid

            Harold Entwistle as Conductor

            George Nardelli as Frenchman

            Dina Smirnova as Russian

            Jacques Vanaire
            
            Carmen Beretta
            
            Connie Lamont
            
            Violet Seaton
            
See full cast