Bob Hope catches up on his reading in The Iron Petticoat, a very peculiar 1956 picture in which Hope plays an Army guy who’s trying to convert a defecting Russian pilot to the ways of the West. That pilot is played by Katherine Hepburn. I know, that sounds weird all on its own, without the occult connection to Jet Pilot, even. I chose this subject of a Foreign Region DVD Report to salute/supplement “Shadows of Russia,” the fantastic Lou Lumenick/Farran “Self-Styled Siren” Smith Nehme-curated series this month on TCM…as well as tonight’s screening of Mission To Moscow at BAM. Details on that stuff here. Details on Petticoat at The Auteurs’ Notebook, as ever.
We had this one shortlisted! I assume it was difficult to get for some reason. This week includes comedies and it would have fit nicely. I do want to see it. I enjoy Hope on screen, especially in the earlier pictures. This is getting on toward the declining years but Katharine Hepburn! – it must be something.
When Hope and Hepburn died within a month of each other in ’03, I rang up Hope’s longtime press rep to ask him who owned it. He told me that though Hope’s production company was involved, nobody could figure out who controlled U.S. rights and they couldn’t even locate a copy. So I directed the guy to a gray-marketeer in Saskatoon who sells Region 1 dubs of the U.K. release. “Jet Pilot” was on our TCM list, too, I believe. The Siren and I did disgaree over the merits of Edward Ludwig’s fascinating (at least in my estimation) “Big Jim McLaine,” known as “Marihuana” in Europe, where the Duke was chasing drug dealers instead of Commies. Even without that one, we submitted enough titles to allow for a “Shadows of Russia, Part 2.” See you tonight!