A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

After writing my 1,500th review, I started looking for what movie to view next. Taking a look at BBC iPlayer, I spotted a star-studded RKO title,which led to me uncovering Scarlett's secret. The plot:Running away to England from France after getting involved in too many dodgy deals, widower Henry Scarlett decides to try and outsmart the police by getting his daughter Sylvia to dress up as a boy. Getting Sylvia's "Sylvester" act to work,the Scarlett's are soon joined by new partner in crime Jimmy Monkley and dizzy Maudie Tilt. Fooling everyone, Sylvia is shocked when Michael Fane fails to fall for her Scarlett fever. View on the film:Bombing in test screenings and at the box office,director George Cukor & cinematographer Joseph H. August is marked by emergency scars, from jarring, blunt edits to terrible overdubbing. Unsteady with the Comedy, Cukor still shows a flair for Melodrama, with needles of rain across the screen and crane shows to the edges of cliffs looking over how deep the Scarlett's have gone to cover their tracks.Offering to do another film for free if the studio had left this on the shelf, Katharine Hepburn actually gives the standout performance as Sylvia Scarlett a.k.a. Sylvester,thanks to Hepburn clearing relishing the chance to mess around with her ladylike image as mischievous Sylvester. Avoiding the "Box office poison" tag Hepburn got from the movie, Cary Grant gives an unsteady performance as partner in crime Jimmy Monkley, with Grant showing his natural charm in the comedic scenes,but (with a poor fake accent) struggles to carry dramatic tension,in the opening of the Scarlett letter.

"Sylvia Scarlett" is like a screwball comedy that can't commit to being a screwball comedy.Hepburn spends much of the first part of the film disguised as a boy so that she and her father (Edmund Gwenn), who are on the lam because of Gwenn's gambling debts, will be less conspicuous. They meet up with a Cockney shyster played by Cary Grant, who falls for Hepburn once he realizes she's actually a girl. Brian Aherne, playing a handsome gentleman the three come across during their travels, falls for her too. The finale involves a zany chase in which Hepburn and Aherne take off after Grant and Aherne's girlfriend in an attempt to get them back, only to discover once they've set off that they really like each other and don't much care about finding the disloyal lovers.The fact that the film takes on gender issues at ALL makes it a curio worthy of interest, but just WHAT the film wants to do with those gender issues is never clear. Hepburn plays the character like a tomboy who's uncomfortable in her feminine skin, which is completely at odds with the girly girl she portrays in the film's very first scene. The film is never especially funny, but its overall tone is too lighthearted for the dramatic moments to make much of an impact. The editing is ragged and jumpy, which makes me wonder if the studio did some injudicious hacking, leaving elements that that would have made the film make more sense on the cutting room floor.Critics and audiences have largely dismissed this film with an indifferent shrug, and I can't say that I blame them.Grade: C

A fat Cary Grant plays a cockney who speaks like he grew up in Dick Van Dykes underpants and he meets Katherine Hepburn, a French woman who sounds and seems as French as John Wayne eating apple pie.But anyway.....I love Cary Grant's films but this is my least favourite of all of them. It doesn't convince on any level and seems to have been thrown together last minute. The characters are bizarre and entirely unconnected to any real world i've been to recently. It seems that Grant was still on his way up at this point and Hepburn was Hollywood poison. Cukor puts them together and hopes for the best.Grant and Hepburn do their best and it's all harmless fun. Hepburn's boy/girl persona is an interesting diversion and her pursuit of the greasy Aherne quirky but also a little creepy.Certainly not the worst film i've ever seen and definitely worth a look but it doesn't come close to the greats of this era. If you want to waste away an hour or two on some mindless entertainment that doesn't have anything to say about anything then give it a go.A novelty item that isn't great but it's certainly unique

Sylvia Scarlett marks the first time that Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant worked together and it's amazing that the three succeeding films they did all became classics. This one just became a curiosity.Edmund Gwenn is her father and he's been doing a little embezzling on the side in France. Before the law catches up with him the thing to do is flee across the English Channel. So to disguise themselves, Kate cuts off her long tresses and puts on men's clothes. No need to go into the rest of the story, but it was daring enough in 1935 just as The Code was taking affect in Hollywood. The situations Hepburn gets herself involved in are just like those that you've seen in Tootsie, Victor/Victoria, and any number of other films. But the censors clamped heavily down in those days.She's got two men interested in him/her, Cary Grant and Brian Aherne. Grant is a cockney con artist and his role is actually closer to the real Archie Leach that became Cary Grant. Just being Cary Grant was probably the biggest stretch of his talent. Brian Aherne is debonair and charming as Brian Aherne always is.Sylvia Scarlett, when viewed with Bringing Up Baby, Holiday, and The Philadelphia Story just doesn't measure up to those three. Still it's interesting to watch.