The Iron Petticoat (1956)

(On Cable TV, March 2021) As far as unusual screen couplings go, Katharine Hepburn and Bob Hope is about as interesting as it comes. Stuck in a film where she plays a cold-hearted Soviet defector and he plays an American officer tasked with keeping tabs on her (and letting her discover the hedonistic joys of the west), their clashing style makes about half of the result’s entertainment factor. The inspiration from Ninotchka is obvious (both the equally similar Jet Pilot and Silk Stockings would be released the next year), especially in the way she is portrayed as a humourless automaton-like product of a caricatural Soviet regime. The production history of the film was… tumultuous, with the original script being a Hepburn vehicle pairing her with someone like Cary Grant. When Hope came onboard, the script was rewritten to suit his broad comic style (incidentally making him the lead, at her expense), and the finished film feels as if Hepburn is a stranger in her own film, trying to keep up with Hope’s constant mugging and wisecracking. To be fair, a lot of it is actually funny — the quips work and seeing Hepburn stuck in a straighter-than-straight role is amusing in itself. (As a romance, though? Eh.)  The Cold War comedy atmosphere is almost charming at this point and the film would make a splendid double-bill with Silk Stockings, even if it pales in comparison. In narrative terms, The Iron Petticoat does the strict minimum to get the characters to a happy ending — the film’s strongest point comes in the earlier dialogue rather than the wrapping-up of the tale. A must-see for fans of Hepburn, the result is fascinatingly uneven and almost a case study of what happens when two mismatched leads are stuck in the same project.