[6]

Katharine Hepburn plays a daring aviator, her first starring role, in Christopher Strong. You can see a lot of the attitude and behavior that would later define her career in this early talkie. But the film, directed by Dorothy Arzner, is far from a triumph for feminist viewers. Hepburn’s character begins an affair with a married man and ends up paying the ultimate price for her “sins.” The film is otherwise a passable drama that moves fairly quickly. Hepburn’s acting style is miles ahead of her highly theatrical co-stars, Colin Clive and Billy Burke. Hepburn also deserves credit for giving a serious performance in what has to be one of the silliest masquerade costumes of the decade, a silver lamé moth suit with curly antennae.