Katharine Hepburn Collection (Morning Glory / Undercurrent / Sylvia Scarlett / Without Love / Dragon Seed / The Corn Is Green)

Whether one has grown up watching the countless performances from Hollywood's Leading Lady, or is just beginning a journey through Oscar-nominated movies starring Katharine Hepburn, the recent Warner Bros. Home Video release of six of the actress' films gives a fresh perspective on Hepburn's abundance of talent.

Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003) would have celebrated her 100th birthday on May 12th, 2007, and as a commemoration of the date, Warner Bros. has released a collection of six of her films: The Corn is Green, Dragon Seed, Morning Glory, Sylvia Scarlett, Undercurrent, and Without Love. Unlike many collections of Hollywood stars, this box set features more of the rare films for which Hepburn is often forgotten.

When mentioning Katharine Hepburn, people often think of films like The African Queen, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, or The Philadelphia Story, and barely know that she once played a boy opposite Cary Grant or a Chinese woman fighting for her dignity in an adaptation of Pearl Buck's classic novel The Good Earth. Warner Bros. pays a unique tribute to AFI's named #1 female star of all time by announcing that her 100th birthday celebration deserves more than the common touch.

The collection spans 46 years of Hepburn's career, beginning with her 1933 Oscar-winning performance of Morning Glory and concluding with her fortified television performance of The Corn is Green. While the seemingly random choice of Undercurrent (a noir-styled thriller with Robert Mitchum) is thrown into the collection, it does feature a Spencer Tracy flick (Without Love) for those who love watching the dynamic duo on screen together. One does, however, have to wonder why this particular film was chosen to spotlight Hepburn and Tracy's work together (and be seen for the first time on DVD) instead of a picture with more meat to it and a stronger story behind the scenes, such as State of the Union.

Sylvia Scarlett (1936) is one of those Katharine Hepburn films that stands on its own because of the actress's obvious enjoyment in playing a great character for that time. When women were still being judged on their looks--and Hepburn was beginning her climb as the feminist icon she became--the famed tomboy eats up every moment of her screen time playing a young male con artist. Cary Grant is, of course, charming as always, but it's truly Katharine Hepburn's most fun, and often overlooked, performance; it's exciting that the film can finally be enjoyed on DVD.

The Corn is Green has a decided made-for-TV feel to it, and Hepburn's part is a remake of Bette Davis' role, but Hepburn's performance as a Welsh school marm (a character more traditional than what Hepburn was known for) showed critics the acting range that nay-sayers denied she had at her disposal.

I have often wondered why Katharine Hepburn was ever chosen to play a Chinese farmer's wife in Dragon Seed, but in 1944 how many Asian actresses were there to choose from? The movie itself is decently made, but much richer when one has read the Pearl Buck classic it's based on. Still, Warner Bros. makes a great choice in showing off Hepburn's range, skill, and her position in Hollywood at this time. When you think about it, what other actress would have been up to such a challenge?

Morning Glory's place in a 100th anniversary collection seems indisputable, but next to a film like Undercurrent, which rarely gets mentioned because it is so out of character for Hepburn to be playing film noir, it seems misplaced. Still, both are great performances not to be missed, and Warner Bros. gives fans the opportunity to treasure them in one set, which truly is a gift.

While the Warner Bros. collection makes for a strange introduction to Katharine Hepburn's catalogue, it also makes the perfect gift for the fan who already has most of her films, or can see the obvious ones every other week on Turner Classics. This collection feels truly designed for the avid Katharine Hepburn fan. Because none of these films have been released on DVD before, friends and family have no worry in giving this as a gift: you won't be hearing, "I already have this one."