Keeper of the Flame: Tracy & Hepburn Fight Fascism

It's important to understand, while the film is set in 1941; that is, BEFORE the United States entered World War Two, the film was made in 1942, less than a year after the U.S. entered the war. The film takes on American fascism of those days, and while I find some of the story to be beyond the bounds of being believable, I wholeheartedly agree with its notion that fascists need to be exposed and opposed. The story in this picture is from the early 1940s, but it could just as easily be about today, because some Americans let down their guard and allowed themselves to be herded like sheep to the call of overt patriotism, phony religiosity and attempts to make the past sound better than what they could do to make the present and the future the shining example of our ideals.    

Cast:

Steven O'Malley ...........................................Spencer Tracy
Christine Forrest ........................................... Katharine Hepburn
Clive Kerndon .............................................. Richard Whorf
Mrs. Forrest .................................................. Margaret Wycherly
Geoffrey Midford ......................................... Forrest Tucker
Dr. Fielding .................................................. Frank Craven
Freddie Ridges ............................................. (Horace) Stephen McNally*
Orion Peabody (taxi driver) ......................... Percy Kilbride**
Jane Harding ................................................ Audrey Christie
Jeb Rickards ................................................. Darryl Hickman***
Mr. Arbuthnot ............................................... Donald Meek ****
Jason Rickards .............................................. Howard Da Silva
Piggot ............................................................ William Newell

The film opens with a dark stormy night in 1941 and a car plunging off of a partially collapsed wooden bridge. The driver killed in the car was Robert Forrest, a hero from the Allied Argonne Offensive in France in 1918 which had helped end the World War. Forrest is beloved and respected by many. Steven O'Malley, a journalist, has just returned from Europe where he had been covering the war (the film is set before the U.S. entered World War Two), and he plans to write a book about Forrest's life, as he admired Forrest greatly. While O'Malley watches Forrest's funeral procession, he meets a young boy, Jeb Rickards, who is visibly upset about Forrest's death, even telling O'Malley, "If it hadn't been for me, he'd be alive today." Inside the bar and lounge of the hotel, O'Malley tells some friends he wants to talk with Mrs. Forrest about her husband. A tall man at the bar, Geoffrey Midford, hears the comment and comes over to O'Malley and threatens to knock his head off if he bothers Mrs. Forrest. The hotel owner tells O'Malley that Midford is Mrs. Forrest's cousin. Then in comes Clive Kerndon, Mr. Forrest's private secretary, and while he is happy to see Steven O'Malley, he dodges a question by O'Malley about seeing Mrs. Forrest. When O'Malley takes a taxi to Mrs. Forrest's home, he chats with the taxi driver who says, "... there's always good and evil up against each other. A man's gotta take sides sooner or later. You'll know that one of these days, young fella." When O'Malley gets to the Forrest home, the gatekeeper, Jason Rickards, hobbles out and won't admit O'Malley through the gate, but the two men talk briefly, and Rickards says he was Forrest's captain in the war, and that Forrest got a medal for saving him when he was wounded, the reason he hobbles when he walks. Further, he tells O'Malley that he had been with Mr. Forrest ever since.

O'Malley hears crying a short distance away and it turns out to be the boy Jeb again. The boy is still terribly upset over Forrest's death, but O'Malley tells Jeb how he himself has cried about things he has seen in France and in Poland during the present war, and how there are people in Europe who are slaves, and that maybe Americans could be the next target. Jeb asks how that could happen and O'Malley explains that it is a big subject, but that generally, "they try to get us all confused and scared and sore at each other, and before you know it, they clamp the handcuffs on us." Jeb assumes O'Malley means that he could literally have chains put on him, but O'Malley explains he means the chains would be on his mind and tongue. O'Malley tells Jeb how they have to keep Mr. Forrest's memory alive to preserve the freedoms they have, and Jeb offers to help O'Malley get into the grounds and hopefully to see Forrest's wife, Christine. Once inside the enclosed property, O'Malley checks out the collapsed section of the bridge where Forrest plunged to his death inside his car. O'Malley enters the house and meets Mrs. Forrest, but she offers him no help in providing information about her husband's life. Clive Kerndon tells her she should invite O'Malley back; otherwise, he may think she is hiding something. As O'Malley exits the front gate, in comes Geoffrey Midford on a motorcycle. On the way back to the hotel, O'Malley and the taxi driver discuss Midford, with the taxi driver saying that Midford wasn't allowed inside the gates to the Forrest property when Forrest was alive. He also notes that Midford's own house is being repossessed and sold by the bank. Not long after O'Malley gets to the hotel, Christine Forrest comes calling and offers to help provide information about her husband. She and O'Malley agree to meet again the next day at her house. When O'Malley escorts her from the hotel to her waiting car, he finds that Geoffrey Midford is driving the car. Back inside, O'Malley finds out that the auction of Midford's house has been canceled due to the mortgage now having been paid.

The next day O'Malley stops to see Jeb and his father before going to his meeting with Mrs. Forrest. He uses the Rickard's telephone to call for Mrs. Forrest and a woman answers saying she is Mrs. Forrest, but Jeb tells McNally that she is "old Mrs. Forrest;" that is, Robert Forrest's mother, someone seemingly unknown to the public, in spite of her son's celebrity. O'Malley goes to see Christine Forrest, and Geoffrey Midford comes in again. It's easy to get the notion that Mr. Midford isn't Christine's cousin, unless it's a "kissing cousin," and I do mean "kissing cousin." O'Malley returns to his hotel where he sees a group of young people who've come to town to see Mrs. Forrest to express their sympathy for her husband's death. O'Malley hears the group tell another reporter how they came to belong to Mr. Forrest's organization, "Forward American," a movement Forrest subtly promoted during speeches and radio broadcasts by asking young people to write in to him, and then the letters were answered by Forrest's staff people. The next day O'Malley goes to see Christine again, but she has gone out of town; however, Forrest's private secretary, Clive Kerndon, proceeds to give O'Malley standard information about Robert Forrest, and he mentions that the "Forward American" organization has branches in almost every American town and village and that it represents "true Americanism" (hm, does that mean there's an "untrue Americanism?"). After providing photos, letters from young people and an album about Forrest's marriage, Kerndon is startled when O'Malley asks about Forrest's mother and tells him he'd like to speak with her. Kerndon says that would be impossible, because she is old and an invalid. Kerndon leaves the room and O'Malley sits back and thinks over the situation. Not long thereafter, O'Malley talks with the doctor who has been treating Jeb, who hasn't been feeling well. The doctor essentially tells him that Jeb is sick from hero worship of Robert Forrest and then Forrest's death, and that the boy's sister, who is several years older than Jeb, had had a nervous breakdown and was sent to a sanitarium by Mr. Forrest, and that she had been his secretary. When O'Malley asks if the girl was in love with Mr. Forrest, the doctor says, "No, you don't fall in love with a god, you just worship ... wear yourself out."

Later O'Malley sees Christine again and asks her about Robert's mother, but she simply says the same thing Mr. Kerndon had said. As they are being driven to Christine's home, O'Malley asks about an old building with no windows on the property and she says it was built in the 1700s as a fort, but that Robert used it to be alone and that it's called "the Arsenal." O'Malley asks if he can see inside the building and Christine says she'll have to find the key. When they get to the Forrest mansion, Mr. Kerndon privately mentions to Christine, that if she'd given him the key to the Arsenal, "I could have taken care of everything," but she says that she'll tell him when she has decided what to do. This brings Kerndon to say, "You'll tell ME?" (The intonation of his reply suggests that he's in the business of telling, not of being told.) Kerndon goes off to talk with O'Malley and Christine gets into a briefcase and takes out the key to the Arsenal and heads off for the building. She goes inside and begins gathering papers, photos, maps and letters, and she starts a fire with them in the fireplace. Meanwhile, Kerndon has been playing recordings of Robert Forrest's speeches for O'Malley, and he tells O'Malley how persuasive Forrest was with his audiences. He also mentions that his job is now almost finished with the Forrests, and he asks O'Malley if he knows of any job openings for a secretary. O'Malley suggests the name of some company, which brings Herndon to ask what that company does. O'Malley tells him the company is an advertising firm, "They manufacture 'rousing affirmatives;' for instance, if you wanted to create nice feelings in the minds of the public about someone, say Mrs. Forrest for example, (the firm) would plant little articles in the newspaper about what a helpful wife she was and so forth. Before long the public would give her a 'rousing affirmative.' " Herndon replies, "That's rather clever, isn't it?" But O'Malley says, "A little sad too. It's a pity how easily people can be fooled." (Note: The 'rousing affirmative' expression had been used by Herndon to O'Malley in an earlier meeting when Herndon showed him an album of photos and stories about the Forrests' marriage. When O'Malley remarks that the marriage must have been a good one, Herndon says that deserves "a rousing affirmative.") When O'Malley walks by the window, he sees smoke coming from the Arsenal's chimney and he tests Herndon by asking him about what the building is (Herndon cannot see the smoke coming from the chimney), and Herndon lies and says it hasn't been used for years, except as a storehouse. O'Malley excuses himself by saying he's going to take a stroll. This gets Herndon's attention and looks out the window and sees the smoke coming from the Arsenal's chimney. Herndon quickly calls long distance to New York and in a short conversation with a man we cannot see or hear (Herndon calls him 'sir'), he says that everything is being taken care of AND that he knows what has to be done and that NOTHING will stop him from doing his duty. (Damn, I think I smell a Nazi, but he didn't click his heels or say, 'Sieg heil.' Of course, maybe he hadn't seen Dorothy click her heels in the Wizard of Oz, and maybe he didn't shout 'Sieg heil' because he doesn't know German ... that must be it; after all, he's an American Nazi.)

Christine Forrest sees O'Malley coming towards the Arsenal, so she quickly goes outside and locks the door. She explains to O'Malley that she remembered there were some love letters from Robert to her that she wanted to destroy. As they walk off, we see Herndon hiding a can of gasoline nearby. Christine and O'Malley go to the stable where the doctor, who doubles as a veterinarian, has been treating Christine's horse, which had injured its hoof and leg when a horseshoe came off during the storm the night Mr. Forrest died. The two go out riding together and O'Malley throws out the possibility that the bridge may have been tampered with by someone to aid in its collapse, thus leading to her husband's death by a person who wanted him dead. Thunder rumbles and the two ride on near Robert's mother's house. O'Malley wants Christine to take him to meet her, but she won't do it, and she rides off. O'Malley goes to the house, where the butler tries to discourage him from trying to see Mrs. Forrest, but the old Mrs. Forrest calls to O'Malley to come to her room when the butler momentarily seeks out the housekeeper. The old lady tells O'Malley her son was murdered and that she wants O'Malley to write a play about him and that she'll help him. In comes Christine and Robert's mother says that her son said, "You are a very good actress," and she tells O'Malley that they should get Christine to act in their play. The old lady states her contempt for Christine and she begins to slide into a different world of rambling talk, and talking as if Robert were there. In the midst of this, she tells of Christine having been at the house the night Robert was killed, and that Christine had been told in a telephone call by someone to warn Robert about the bridge being out, but that she hadn't done so. Christine says the old woman is confused and that such a thing hadn't happened. Christine and O'Malley go outside and she hopes he won't report about Robert's mother's hatred for her and about his mother's mental condition. (Note: She doesn't say anything about the fact that Robert's mother has been held as a virtual prisoner in her home, rarely being able to see anyone.) O'Malley tells Christine he has an obligation to report the truth and that his readers are owed that. He says he is giving up doing the biography because he can't get at the truth and that she (Christine) has misled him all along the way. Christine gets on her horse and rides off alone. O'Malley rides to the bridge again and he finds the missing horseshoe from Christine's horse (she had earlier denied being near the bridge and thus having knowledge of the bridge being damaged).

O'Malley goes to the Forrest mansion, but before he gets there, Christine and Herndon have words about Herndon wanting the key to Forrest's filing cabinet in the Arsenal. He tells her she may not have burned all of the important papers. Now O'Malley arrives and Herndon leaves the room. O'Malley puts the horseshoe on the table in front of Christine and he tells her she killed her husband. She tells him Herndon was not involved, and when O'Malley includes Geoffrey Midford, she says he knew nothing of it. He asks her why she did it, but she sits silently, even when O'Malley says he'll have to write the truth, although she quickly says nothing will reflect on Robert Forrest's status as a hero and an inspiration to many. O'Malley walks out and Herndon returns to Christine's presence. He wants to go to the Arsenal and destroy any remaining papers, but she refuses and he tells Christine to go do it herself.

The scene shifts to the gatekeeper Rickards' house, where Geoffrey Midford and a woman arrive in a car. The woman turns out to be Rickards' daughter who had suffered a nervous breakdown. She and Midford are to be married, so one mystery, or I guess that's two mysteries, are solved (Midford is not romantically involved with Christine and we now know Rickards' daughter is alive and out of the sanitarium). The girl's father tells O'Malley he hated Robert Forrest because of the way his daughter and son (Jeb) became hero worshipers of Forrest. He also says it was actually Christine who got his daughter the treatment she needed and further, that is where Christine had disappeared to when she was suddenly gone for a few days (so I guess that's mystery number three solved). With this info, O'Malley takes Midford's car and heads back to find Christine (with no romantic involvement with Midford, that was then not her motive for letting her husband die). He sees Herndon along the road by the Arsenal and he tells O'Malley Christine is inside. O'Malley enters to find her burning more papers, and he asks her who she is shielding. He tells her he'll tear Robert Forrest down to find out the truth. This causes Christine to again leap to Robert's protection, but then O'Malley discloses in a roundabout way that he has affections for Christine and she admits that she's in trouble and needs him. She tells O'Malley he will be hurt by what she knows, because it will destroy his belief in someone. To put it quite bluntly, Christine explains that powerful moneyed interests had cultivated a glorious image of Robert Forrest, an image that many people, including herself, had been unable to resist, but she had come to realize there was a terrible purpose in the time taken to build Robert's public image, and she knew she had to destroy the person, but to preserve the image. O'Malley asks what the terrible purpose was and Christine continues that Robert began to change and that he despised and looked down on the people who worshiped him. She says, "I saw the face of fascism in my own home: hatred, arrogance, cruelty. I saw what German women were facing ..." She explains further that she stole Robert's key to his file cabinet at the Arsenal that contained documents about Forrest's American Forward organization, which she calls a "fascist organization," which naturally wasn't called "fascist," as they "painted it red, white and blue and called it Americanism." The cabinet also has funds contributed by wealthy people interested in political power, "who knew they could never get it (power) by democratic means." The files contain a list of these people's names. Christine pulls out a binder which she says contains "the essence of their plan," a series of articles to be released "to stir up all the little hatreds of the whole nation against each other." She reads off the targeted groups with attacks on Jews, Catholics, labor unions, city dwellers, Negroes (the 'proper' word in those times), plus "a subtle appeal to the Ku Klux Klan," and a list of people "who were designated to be America's first storm troopers." She says Robert "envied the dictators." Christine tells O'Malley that when she read these papers, she knew "Robert Forrest was a traitor to his country." She explains further that Robert was on his way to give instructions to saboteurs and that she knew he would use the bridge and she also knew the bridge was out and that he would die. O'Malley asks Christine to help him tell people about the real Robert Forrest. Her first reaction is, "And destroy people's belief in their hero?" O'Malley replies, "He wasn't their hero, he was their enemy, and they must know it. Christine protests further, "It will destroy them," but O'Malley says, "Christine, people aren't children. Sometimes they may act that way when they get scared and confused ... but they want the truth..." Christine tells O'Malley to do what he thinks is right. Suddenly smoke begins to cloud the Arsenal and we see Herndon locking the door from the oustide. This door is the only way out of the relatively small building. Herndon fires through the only small opening in the building with a pistol and hits Christine, who falls. Herndon flees, fearful that the shots will bring others to the building. O'Malley cradles Christine as she's dying and she says, "Write the story. Tell the truth." Meanwhile, Herndon uses his gun to knock out a man running with an ax toward the Arsenal, but also coming along the road in a car is Midford, the doctor, the gatekeeper Rickards and his daughter. Herndon stands and fires as the car approaches and the car strikes and kills him. The group takes the ax and gets the door open and carries O'Malley from the burning building to safety.

We next see O'Malley sitting at a typewriter writing his story, "The Truth About Robert Forrest," but we then see the accompanying story entitled, "She Died For Her Country," about Christine Forrest and then a picture of O'Malley's book about Christine's life. The film ends with barely visible American troops and the American flag going off to continue the fight against fascism.

* Horace McNally was his real name and it was used in the credits of this film, but he later used "Stephen McNally" as his stage name.

** A few years later, Percy Kilbride would become well known to many as "Pa" in the "Ma & Pa Kettle" films in the post-World War Two era.

*** Darryl Hickman and his brother Dwayne Hickman were pretty well known actors when I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s.  

**** Donald Meek was a well known face from many movies, but not necessarily as well known by name. Even if you are a somewhat younger person, if you've watched films from made in the 1930s and the 1940s, you've likely seen Donald Meek.

Photo is of 2011 Warner Home Video DVD

WORD HISTORY:
Monitor-This word is related to a number of words, including, through Indo European, to "mind," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "mental," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English, and to "mentor," a Greek-derived word borrowed by English. "Monitor" goes back to Indo European "men," with the notion of "to think, to develop an idea or ideas," which produced the extended Indo European form "moneie," meaning, "to remind, to make or to cause to think of or about ( from: "The Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages," by Michiel de Vaan). This gave Italic "moneje," meaning, "to remind," and by extension, "to warn," which passed to Latin as "monere," meaning, "to warn, to remind, to advise (thus also, to teach)," and this produced the Latin noun "monitor," meaning "one who advises and warns." This was borrowed into English in the mid 1500s, initially meaning, "a student charged with overseeing other students," several additional meanings have developed since those times, including: "a device used to keep track of certain statistics," and that device, "may inform (warn) if a certain level increases or decreases beyond a desired point;" further, the name of the screen displaying such information, later also used for the device that displays computer information in graphic form for viewing; the name for a type of lizard (first half of the 1800s), "perhaps" because of its behavior when dangerous creatures were nearby, thus "warning" humans; the name for a type of ironclad naval vessel, "seemingly" because it was very low level with no masts and could 'monitor' or approach areas of harbors or rivers without being easily seen. The verb form "seems" to have first gained use in the early 1800s in the sense, "to advise, to guide," with "keep track of" added in the 1900s, initially about radio signal transmission, but then expanded to mean all sorts of things, including health related information: "monitor blood pressure," "monitor glucose," "monitor heart rate."