Sylvia Scarlett

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Petty fraudster Edmund Gwenn and his daughter Katharine Hepburn (disguised as a boy to fool pursuing cops) join forces in England with cockney jewel thief Cary Grant, artist Brian Aherne, an eccentric maid and a Russian adventuress. Their picaresque escapades and emotional entanglements defeat the script and George Cukor's direction. A bemused public gave the thumbs down to this sprawling and tedious account of Compton Mackenzie's novel, and the film hasn't improved with age. However, it has its moments, and Hepburn, giving her all and flamboyantly sporting drag, makes Sylvia something of a cult figure in this age of sexual ambiguity and ambivalence.