A young woman’s engagement is thrown into chaos by the unexpected return of the father she has never known.
Hilary Fairfield (John Barrymore), a shell-shocked veteran of the Great War, escapes from the mental asylum where he has spent years and returns to his family home. He arrives on the day his wife, Meg (Billie Burke), is planning to finalise their divorce in order to marry another man. His daughter, Sydney (Katharine Hepburn), who has no memory of her father, is also preparing for her own wedding. As Sydney becomes acquainted with the tragic stranger, she finds her loyalty torn between her fiancé and her duty to her father, forcing her to confront the shadow of hereditary illness that hangs over her family.
The film is most significant as the screen debut of Katharine Hepburn. Director George Cukor cast the stage actress against studio wishes, a decision that launched one of Hollywood’s most enduring stars and initiated a creative partnership that would produce nine more films. Cukor’s production gives the stage-bound material a fluid, cinematic quality, creating a potent melodrama. The drama hinges on the contrast between Hepburn’s fierce, modern energy and the affecting performance by John Barrymore as the tormented patriarch, a man struggling to reconnect with a world that has moved on without him.
Production Co: RKO / 70 mins / 1932
Director: George Cukor
Producer: David O. Selznick
Screenplay: Howard Estabrook, Harry Wagstaff Gribble
Cinematography: Sidney Hickox
Music: Max Steiner
Main Cast: John Barrymore (Hilary Fairfield), Katharine Hepburn (Sydney Fairfield), Billie Burke (Meg Fairfield), David Manners (Kit Humphreys), Paul Cavanagh (Gray Meredith), Henry Stephenson (Doctor Alliot)
