Filmland Follies

            The theme of this CMBA blogathon, Blogathon and the Beast, includes "complex protagonists who challenge social norms" - and what could challenge social norms more than Katharine Hepburn, directed by a woman, playing an Amelia Earhart-inspired character in Christopher Strong ?              Christopher Strong is a misleading title for this movie, because it's really about three women. True, their lives are intertwined through their relationships with Christopher Strong, but the film is constantly showing us that they can do without him. Pre-Code heroines already tend to be independent and self-sufficient - put a woman behind the camera, and suddenly the movie examines what these women can achieve when men aren't holding them back.             Dorothy Arzner began her career as a script writer and editor who became so valuable to Paramount Studios that she threatened to leave for their rival, Columbia, if she wasn't given a film of her own to direct. Her