The film Bringing Up Baby, directed by Howard Hawks and starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, was released in 1938. RKO Radio Pictures distributed it. Katharine Hepburn as a flibbertigibbet heiress with a pet leopard named Baby leads a bookish paleontologist (Cary Grant) on a crazy pursuit from Manhattan to Connecticut.

Hepburn and Grant have such a live-wire, opposites-attract chemistry that it may blow the fuse in your home theater., the film has received acclaim from both critics and audiences. Bringing Up Baby was chosen for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1990 as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,", and it has appeared on a number of best-of lists, including the American Film Institute's 100 greatest American films of all time list, where it is ranked 88th.

Detailed Information:
Directed by: Howard Hawks
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald
Release date: February 16, 1938 (Golden Gate Theatre)
Running time: 102 minutes

The Philadelphia Story is a romantic comedy film directed by George Cukor and released in 1940. The film is based on Philip Barry's 1939 Broadway play of the same name. The film starts when a wealthy woman's ex-husband and a tabloid reporter appear just before her planned remarriage and she learns the truth about herself.

For this iconic daffy love triangle, Hepburn received her third Oscar nomination, placing her like a wishbone between two competitive male suitors played by a fuddy-duddy James Stewart (as enamored reporter Macaulay Connor) and a dashing Cary Grant (as her ex, C.K. Dexter Haven). The Philadelphia Story is a slapstick-filled story of upper-class love and honor that has stood the test of time. If you know someone who isn't a fan of classic black-and-white films, here's a film that will convert them.

Detailed Information:

Directed by: George Cukor

Starring: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey

Release dates: December 26, 1940 (New York City)/January 17, 1941 (US)
Running time: 112 minutes

The African Queen is a 1951 adventure film based on C. S. Forester's 1935 novel of the same name. In this film earning her seventh Oscar nomination, Hepburn portrays a conservative missionary who uncomfortably teams up with a foul-mouthed, gin-drinking boat captain (Humphrey Bogart) to sail downriver one step ahead invading Germans in the Congo.

In 1952, the film grossed an estimated £256,267 in UK theatres, making it the year's 11th most popular film. On review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, The African Queen currently has a 96 percent rating based on 46 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Perfectly cast, smartly written, and beautifully filmed, The African Queen remains thrilling, funny, and effortlessly absorbing even after more than half a century's worth of adventure movies borrowing liberally from its creative DNA."

Detailed Information:

Directed by: John Huston

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley

Release date: December 26, 1951 (Fox Wilshire Theatre)
Running time: 105 minutes

Adam's Rib is a romantic comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor in 1949, based on a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. The film got positive reviews at its initial release and is now regarded as a classic romantic comedy. It received nominations for both the AFI's 100 Movies and Passions lists and was placed #22 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list.

This is the greatest of Hepburn's nine on-screen collaborations with Spencer Tracy, her longstanding off-screen partner. When prosecuting attorney Adam Bonner (Spencer Tracy) squares off against his wife, Amanda (Katharine Hepburn), who happens to be a defense attorney, a courtroom rivalry makes its way into the house. Working on opposing sides of a lawsuit in which a lady (Judy Holliday) has shot her unfaithful husband (Tom Ewell), Adam and Amanda are both passionate about winning the case, and their house becomes the scene of comedic showdowns, with neither spouse wanting to give up.

Long Day's Journey Into Night is a 1962 drama film based on Eugene O'Neill's 1956 play of the same name. The film won Best Actor and Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival and was selected one of the Top Ten Films of 1962 by the National Board of Review.

The plot follows the family of retired actor James Tyrone who struggles with his wife Mary's opiate addiction, their youngest son Edmund's sickness, and their elder son Jamie's alcoholism and debauchery. Guilt, anger, sorrow, and regret threaten to ruin the family from day to night. Hepburn earned her eleventh Oscar nomination for her masterly performance, in which she showed helpless reliance and strangling claustrophobia opposite Ralph Richardson and Jason Robards in a family breaking itself apart.

Detailed Information:
Directed by: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards, Dean Stockwell
Release dates; May 1962 (Cannes Film Festival)/October 10, 1962 (New York City)
Running time: 174 minutes170 minutes(TCM Print)

Little Women is a pre-Code drama film directed by George Cukor and released in 1933. This is the book's third cinematic adaptation. When this, the official rendition of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel about the March sisters, was released, Hepburn was just 26 years old. However, the ingenue demonstrated that she was already a serious talent.

The film's vignettes, which follow the March girls' fleeting seasonal sorrows and joys, are rooted and propelled by Hepburn's extraordinary performance, which is continually longing for more yet unwilling to let go of the past. Anyone who has watched the film knows that Hepburn deserved to be nominated for an Oscar, yet she was not. Instead, she was nominated for an Academy Award that year for the backstage Broadway drama Morning Glory, which she went on to win.

On Golden Pond is a 1981 American family drama film directed by Mark Rydell and based on Ernest Thompson's script of the same name, which he adapted from his 1979 play. Norman is a grumpy old guy who is alienated from his daughter Chelsea. He and his wife agree to care for Billy, Chelsea's new boyfriend's son, at Golden Pond, and a most unexpected relationship blossoms.

On December 4, 1981, On Golden Pond was released in theaters to critical and commercial success. Reviewers lauded Rydell's directing, Thompson's script, and the cast's performances and the film grossed $119.3 million in North America, making it the second highest-grossing film of 1981. At the 54th Academy Awards, it got ten nominations, including Best Picture, and won three: Best Actor (Henry Fonda), Best Actress (Hepburn), and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Detailed Information:
Directed by: Mark Rydell
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Doug McKeon
Release dates: December 4, 1981 (Original Release)/June 27, 2003 (Re-Release)
Running time: 109 minutes

If Adam's Rib wins the gold medal for Hepburn's on-screen collaborations with Spencer Tracy, George Stevens's Woman of the Year comes in second. Hepburn portrays Tess Harding, a globe-trotting foreign journalist for the New York Chronicle, and receives her fourth Oscar nomination for this scalpel-sharp romantic comedy.

The plot revolves around Tess Harding, an international affairs journalist named "Woman of the Year," and Sam Craig, a sportswriter, who meet, marry, and have troubles as a result of her unwavering dedication to her job. During its first release, the film grossed $1,935,000 in the United States and Canada and $773,000 internationally, netting MGM a profit of $753,000. Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr. won Best Original Screenplay at the 15th Academy Awards, and Katharine Hepburn was nominated for Best Actress.

Detailed Information:

Directed by: George Stevens

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Fay Bainter, Reginald Owen

Release date: February 19, 1942
Running time: 114 minutes

Gregory La Cava directed Stage Door, a 1937 RKO film. Morrie Ryskind and Anthony Veiller adapted the film from the play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, although the storyline and character names were nearly entirely modified for the film, to the point that Kaufman joked that the movie should be called "Screen Door."

Terry Randall, a wealthy socialite, has chosen to try if can break into the Broadway theater scene without the help of her family. She moves into a theatrical boarding home and finds herself enmeshed in the lives of the other inmates, as well as the constant disappointment that theater dreamers face. Jean, her sassy roommate, is contacted by a powerful producer for more than apart. Terry's father has chosen to give her career a boost by endorsing a production in which she would undoubtedly fail. But Terry isn't the only one who suffers as a result of his schemes.

Detailed Information:

Directed by: Gregory La Cava

Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou

Release dates: October 8, 1937 (US)/December 31, 1937 (UK)
Running time: 92 minutes

Holiday is a remake of the 1930 film of the same name directed by George Cukor and released in 1938. Johnny Case, a free thinker, is engaged to the daughter of a wealthy. When her family, with the exception of black-sheep Linda and drunken Ned, wants Johnny to go into big business, he rebels, preferring to spend his early years on "vacation". With the support of his pals Nick and Susan Potter, he decides which path is better, and which companion is better.

Even though the film was not a commercial success, reviewers praised it. Hepburn had gained a reputation as box office poison at the time, which led to her departure from RKO Pictures. Holiday was dubbed "one of Cukor's greatest films" by Time Out London. On Rotten Tomatoes, it scored a perfect score of 100 percent based on 23 expert reviews.

Detailed Information:
Directed by: George Cukor
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant
Release date: June 15, 1938 (United States)
Running time: 95 minutes