This week’s mystery movie has been the 1933 RKO picture “Christopher Strong,” Katharine Hepburn’s second film and her first in a leading role. It starred Colin Clive and Billie Burke (also in Hepburn’s film debut, “Bill of Divorcement”), with a screenplay by Zoe Akins from a novel by Gilbert Frankau. The photography was by Bert Glennon, settings by Van Nest Polglase and Charles Kirk, music by Max Steiner and transitions by Slavko Vorkapich.

I picked “Christopher Strong” to feature the director, Dorothy Arzner, often described as the only woman director of Hollywood’s golden age.

Ann Harding was originally cast as Lady Cynthia Darrington (New York Times Nov. 20, 1932), the role that eventually went to Hepburn. According to the New York Times (Dec. 11, 1932), “Miss Harding felt that she was miscast in her part and the studio felt that a better part should be given its newest star than was possible in ‘Three Came Unarmed,” which, they believed would be merely ‘another motion picture.’ So Miss Hepburn was switched to Miss Harding’s story… and negotiations were started for ‘Virgie Winters’ (‘The Life of Vergie Winters’) for Miss Harding, Gregory La Cava to direct.”

Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote of Hepburn (May 15, 1933): “A slim, gaunt-featured nymph, this actress, with her sharp, pleasantly unpleasant voice and a penchant for the bizarre in outfits. True star material, she dominates each scene in which she figures.”

…. “Dorothy Arzner directed understandingly — a qualification which women will be quick to note and appreciate — from the script by Zoe Akins.”

Mordaunt Hall of the New York Times said (March 19, 1933): “Magnificently produced, with a splendid cast headed by the talented Katharine Hepburn and the efficient Colin Clive, the film transcription of Gilbert Frankau’s novel ‘Christopher Strong,’ which was at the Radio City Music Hall last week, is another gratifying example of the forward strides made in motion pictures since the linking of the microphone with the camera.”

Hall said: “It is a film that can be seen several times without becoming tedious, for Miss Hepburn and other performers are enormously interesting in their respective roles.”

“Christopher Strong” is available on DVD from Warner Archive for $12.50.

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This week’s unusual mystery movie is “Once Too Often” and I chose it to promote film preservation. “Once Too Often” is otherwise known as …

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1938 Warner Bros. picture “Men Are Such Fools,” with Wayne Morris, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart, Hugh Herbert, Johnnie Davis, Penny Singleton, Mona Barrie, Marcia Ralston and Gene Lockhart. The movie was directed by Busby Berkeley from a screenplay by Norman Reilly Raine and Horace Jackson, based on a Saturday Evening Post story by Faith Baldwin.

As far as I can tell, “Men Are Such Fools” has never been released on VHS or DVD. It aired on TCM in 2011 during a Busby Berkley birthday tribute.

If you look quickly you will see the Tower and Rialto theaters on Broadway during a car chase.

The Tower and Rialto theaters on Broadway, via Google Street View.

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This week’s mystery film has been the 1941 Alexander Korda film “Lydia,” released through United Artists, directed by Julien Duvivier, with Merle Oberon, Alan Marshal, Joseph Cotton, Hans Jaray (“Yaray” in the screen credits), John Halliday, George Reeves, Sara Allgood and Edna May Oliver. The film was based on an original story by Duvivier and L. Bush-Fekete, with screenplay and dialogue by Ben Hecht and Samuel Hoffenstein. The production was designed by Vincent Korda and the photography was by Lee Garmes. The makeup (all the leads were heavily aged for the film) was by the House of Westmore. Music was by Miklos Rozsa.

The movie opened in Los Angeles on Aug. 21, 1941, and received a tepid review from Times critic Edwin Schallert, who said: “This reviewer found the production tedious in the telling. Especially, it would seem, cutting could be invoked in the later scenes…. How men will like the film, one can hardly say. Many will undoubtedly be bored by it.”

It is available on a Region 2 DVD from Amazon for $20.78.

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