“A Delicate Balance” is the story of the self-destruction of an upper class American family. Katharine Hepburn and Paul Scofield play Agnes and Tobias a refined couple worn down by life. Their friends and family add primarily negative angst to their lives. Agnes’ sister Claire (played by Kate Reid) lives with them and drinks to much. Lee Remick play the oft married and oft divorced daughter of Agnes and Tobias who returns home after abandoning her most recent married only to find family friends Harry and Edna staying, uninvited in her old room. The movie is scene after scene of the players airing their fears, revealing their faults, and being generally disagreeable. It’s a familiar Edward Albee story, very reminiscent of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” but much more refined. In a sentence “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” is a delicate balance on steroids. . . . .
. . . Katharine Hepburn is one of my favorite all-time female actors. I love her best when she’s playing opposite Spencer Tracy. She is charming, bright, and clever; when she wants to be. When she doesn’t want to be that way, she isn’t. Hepburn was her own person, did things her way and got away with it even while acting under the old Hollywood contract system that often forced actors to work in roles they didn’t want. I’ve recently started my own miniature Katharine Hepburn film festival at my home lately besides “A Delicate Balance,” my wife and I recently watched for the umpteenth time “Adam’s Rib,” a movie that I always imagined revealed a good deal about the long-term affair between Hepburn and Tracy. “Alice Adams” is on the way. Probably my favorite Hepburn movie is “African Queen” co-starring Humphrey Bogart. The Movie features two of the strongest actors from the 1940s and 1950s excelling in a performance that allows both of them to shine.
