Keeper of the Flame (1942) - film review

After a traumatic stint in Europe, war correspondent Stephen O’Malley returns to the United States to write the biography of Robert Forrest, a renowned public figure who recently died in a tragic accident.  A national hero with an impressive service record, Forrest was a powerful and wealthy industrialist who was regarded as the living embodiment of the American dream.  No one has an unkind word to say about him and O’Malley intends writing a fitting tribute to a great man.  To find out more about his subject, he attempts to contact Forrest’s widow, Christine, but she is strangely reluctant to agree to an interview.  Eventually, O’Malley’s persistence pays off and Christine Forrest agrees to collaborate with him on the biography.  Almost immediately, the writer realises that something is not as it should be.  Christine appears to be concealing something about her husband’s past, something that could tarnish his reputation as an unsullied hero.  As O’Malley strives to resolve the mystery, he gradually begins to see the true Robert Forrest, and he is appalled by what he discovers...

Hot on the heels of their successful first screen pairing in Woman of the Year (1942), Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn were brought together for a rematch in this sombre anti-Nazi propaganda piece.  Although the film has drawn some pretty severe criticism, often written off as a poor man’s Citizen Kane, Keeper of the Flame was effective, and quite daring, in exposing the threat posed by home-grown fascists at a time when public and political attention was mostly directed towards the war in Europe and the Far East.

Originally, MGM were reluctant to cast Hepburn as the female lead and it was only through her insistence that the actress landed the part of the mysterious Christine Forrest.  Whilst it may not be their most successful screen partnership, Hepburn and Tracy each turns in a superlative performance, the subtle sexual tension between them adding a frisson to their characters’ ambiguous relationship.   By this time, the two actors had developed a close friendship and had embarked on their legendary extra-marital affair.  This posed problems for director George Cukor, who had his work cut out trying to placate two of Hollywood’s most temperamental stars. 

Although the film was not a great success when it was first released, and was lambasted for its perceived left-wing bias by staunch supporters of the Republican Party, Keeper of the Flame is now considered a good example of the American wartime propaganda film.  More importantly, it is a cogent reminder of how easily public opinion can be manipulated and controlled by those who have wealth and influence, something that is probably the greatest threat to our democracy and the values that we hold dear.  Considering the power that the media has today, bolstered by the cult of the celebrity, the film is probably more relevant today than it was when it was first released.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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