The film stars Spencer Tracey and Katharine Hepburn in one of their many pairings. Tracey is excellent as Stephen O'Malley, the journalist who has been covering the war in Europe, and has come home to write about the funeral of national hero Robert Forrest. Katharine Hepburn is fine as the enigmatic widow Catherine Forrest, though her performance is rather subdued, which takes some getting used to, since the characters she portrays are generally rather fiery. Oddly, since they had great chemistry- on and off the screen- which can be seen in some of their other movies like Adam's Rib, in my opinion what worked the least in this film is the romance between the two. It feels tacked on and unnecessary to the story line. As it turns out, this is because it was tacked on; according to IMDB, Hepburn felt that the script was too dull, and wanted a romance added to give it some zing. When the producer wouldn't agree, she went above his head to Louis B. Mayer, who was already having doubts about the economic viability of a purely political film. He readily agreed to having a romance added, so one was hastily written in, and in my opinion, it doesn't work really well.
In my next post, I'll discuss how Robert Forrest intended to impose his will on the U.S.A., and how all of this relates to what's going on in the world today.