When asked in 1970 to recall his participation in RKO Radio's
Spitfire, Ralph Bellamy prefaced his comments with a terse "Why don't we just forget about it?" Based on a play by Lula Vollmer, the film stars Katharine Hepburn, phony Ozark accent and all, as Trigger Hicks, an illiterate hillbilly faith healer. A very curious young lady, Trigger prays for the souls of all those around her, but this doesn't stop her from flinging rocks at them when she's upset (which is often!). Romance unexpectedly enters Trigger's life in the form of engineer Stafford (
Robert Young) and construction boss Fleetwood (Ralph Bellamy), both of whom are instrumental in saving her from a superstitious lynch mob after she kidnaps an ailing baby "for its own good." Outside of
Sylvia Scarlett,
Spitfire is Katharine Hepburn's strangest film -- and, sad to say, one of her worst.
