Keeper of the Flame (film)
| Keeper of the Flame | |
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| Directed by | George Cukor |
| Produced by | Victor Saville |
| Screenplay by | Donald Ogden Stewart |
| Based on |
Keeper of the Flame by I. A. R. Wylie |
| Starring |
Spencer Tracy Katharine Hepburn Richard Whorf Margaret Wycherly Forrest Tucker Darryl Hickman |
| Music by | Bronisław Kaper |
| Cinematography | William H. Daniels |
| Edited by | James E. Newcom |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,172,000 |
| Box office | $3,222,000 |
Keeper of the Flame is a 1943 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) drama film directed by George Cukor, and starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.
The screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart is adapted from the novel Keeper of the Flame by I. A. R. Wylie. Hepburn plays the widow of a famous civic leader who has suddenly died in an accident, while Tracy portrays a former war correspondent who intends to write a flattering biography of the dead man, only to find that his death is shrouded in mystery. Screenwriter Stewart considered the script to be the finest moment of his entire career, feeling vindicated by the assignment as he believed that Hollywood had punished him for years for his political views. Principal filming began in the last week of August 1942, four months after the release of the novel, published by Random House. The entire picture was filmed on a sound stage, with no location shooting. Hepburn had already begun her extramarital affair with Tracy, and due to his heavy drinking, she became his constant guardian during filming.
The film was screened for the Office of War Information's Bureau of Motion Pictures on December 2, 1942, where it was disapproved of by the Bureau's chief, Lowell Mellett. Keeper of the Flame premiered to a poor reception at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday, March 18, 1943. MGM head Louis B. Mayer stormed out of the cinema, enraged by his having encouraged the making of a film which equated wealth with fascism. Republican members of Congress complained about the film's obviously leftist politics, and demanded that Will H. Hays, President of the Motion Picture Production Code, establish motion picture industry guidelines for propaganda. Cukor himself was highly dissatisfied by the film and considered it one of his poorest efforts. Nonetheless, today the film is seen more positively, with one critic concluding that Keeper of the Flame is "truly provocative in that it was one of Hollywood's few forays into imagining the possibility of homegrown American Fascism and the crucial damage which can be done to individual rights when inhumane and tyrannical ideas sweep a society through a charismatic leader."
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