GRACE QUIGLEY

US, 1984, 87 minutes, Colour.
Katherine Hepburn, Nick Nolte, Kit Le Fever, Chip Zien, William Duell, Elizabeth Wilson, Walter Abel.
Directed by Anthony Harvey.

This film is an unusual project for Katherine Hepburn as she aged and suffered from conditions which made her physically shake. It was directed by Anthony Harvey who directed her to an Oscar for The Lion in Winter. However, there was a great deal of interference in producing the final cut.

Katherine Hepburn portrays Grace Quigley, an elderly woman, wanting to kill herself. She witnesses the killing of her landlord and makes a decision to go to a hitman and make a contract with him to kill her.

Material for black comedy, especially for assisted suicide in a bizarre fashion with the hitman. Nick Nolte plays the hitman and there is quite some spark in the interactions between the two unlikely characters. And even more unlikely is their partnership and even blacker comedy about suffering people and their deaths.

A definite curiosity item.

1. The impact of the film? The stars? The themes? Black comedy?

2. The reworking of the film? Deletions, re-editing? The use of the title, The Ultimate Solution of Grace Quigley?

3. The film as a star vehicle for Katherine Hepburn, at her age, mid-70s? Comic touches? Serious themes? Ageing, purpose in life? Death?

4. The credits, Grace, old, the rent, the bird, the landlord? Her anger? His being shot? The mood of the film and Grace’s mood?

5. Grace, her life, age, lack of purpose, her attempts to kill herself? The effect of seeing the killing of the landlord? A change of attitude, going to see Seymour? The discussions, the proposition, the contract?

6. The contract, the deals, her management? Issues of money? The old man and the contract, the discussion, the group? The personalities, Grace’s zest? Advertising, the range of people?

7. Seymour, Nick Nolte, age, character, hitman, soft-hearted, his relationship with his girlfriend, her being a hooker?

8. The tour of New York, the range of all people, institutions – and the need for the killings?

9. The details of the killings? Grace and her being an entrepreneur? The incident of the cab driver stealing her shoe and her reaction?

10. The effect on Seymour? The effect on Grace? And, in her case and for the film itself, the ultimate solution?