Keeper of the Flame (1942) Review

1942-1946 was an irregular time in Hollywood. The US was engulfed by World War II and Hollywood was forced to support the war effort by creating more or less propaganda pictures. Perhaps the audiences wanted a way to escape the realities of the war so the Three Little Pigs took on Adolf Wolf in the Tex Avery short Wolf Blitz and Batman was fighting to stop a Japanese criminal mastermind in the cliffhanger series. Oddly enough this era also produced some of the best films ever made. Keeper of the Flame is no exception.

As the second of nine films that Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy made together Keeper of the Flame begins with a car racing down a storm-trodden road. The car, driven by someone we don't see, careens of a broken bridge and crashes into a ravine. The killed driver we learn is Robert Forrest. He's somewhat of a hero among the American people. He spends the majority of his time speaking out against fascism in Germany and giving hope through rousing speeches and essays. The entire country mourns his death like they would a president. Newspaperman Steven O'Malley (Tracy) is motivated to write a biography on Forrest. First though he must get through to Forrest's widow Christine (Hepburn) who has become a recluse following her husband's death. As Steven probes the story of Robert's life, with the help of a lead secretary named Clive Kerndon (Richard Whorf), he finds that not all about Robert was as it seemed and his death may have not been an accident.

You won't ever see me say that Katharine Hepburn gives a bad performance because, quite frankly, one does not exist. Her role as Christine is one of her best. We don't see Christine until nearly a quarter into the film so we wonder who she is or what she feels. There's no dialogue when she first appears. A lesser actress would have required a long speech to convey what Hepburn does in very few facial expressions. Spencer Tracy is equally brilliant in the film and has a remarkable ability to create a fully realized character based on Donald Ogden Stewart's screenplay.

The story is one of the best mysteries that Hollywood has put out. Until the last ten minutes we wonder what the truth is. We know that there is a secret that Christine and Clive are keeping from Steven but are not sure what and we naturally attempt to come to our own conclusions. Was he having an affair? Where was he going when he crashed his car? The whole film has a wonderful atmosphere surrounding it. It's a film that is horribly overlooked by so many people today.

★★★★