It has recently come to my attention that there is a film featuring Katharine Hepburn as an aviatrix who commits an abortion/suicide by flying into the sun, and I am simply furious with each and every one of you for keeping this from me.
"That...that can't possibly be right," I hear you stammer weakly. OHO, CAN'T IT. I present to you the plot summary of Christopher Strong:
Kate plays Lady Cynthia Darrington, an aviatrix who meets and falls in love with Sir Christopher Strong played by Colin Clive. Sir Strong is married and rather then tell him that she is going to have a baby and since she knows their relationship is doomed she decides to take a challenge to attempt the world speed record. Her plane climbs to 30,000 feet where she takes off her oxygen mask, loses control and dies in the crashing airship.
Can you imagine. I cherish the thought that the original script called not for Cynthia to be an aviatrix but a society woman who dies from a regular, run-of-the-mill botched abortion, and Hepburn herself decided to make things a little more interesting.
"Say, fellas. Love the script. It's terrific stuff, the real Tabasco. But what if the girl's a pilot?"
"A...pilot? But she's a socialite."
"Sure, that's a great gag. But catch this angle: she does the abortion herself by flying into the sun."
"I don't follow."
"'Course you don't, boys, keep up. She wants to beat the world altitude record, see? And to also have an abortion and die."
"You...you really think that's a good idea, Kate?"
[pounds table] "Boys, we'd be crazy not to make her a lady daredevil pilot. I wouldn't do the picture otherwise."
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