Katharine Hepburn made her film debut with 1932’s A Bill Of Divorcement, and she quickly attained major success, as she won her first of four Oscars for her third flick, 1933’s Morning Glory. Between the two, we get Hepburn’s first leading role in 1933’s Christopher Strong.

Sir Christopher Strong (Colin Clive) enjoys a notable public profile as a Member of Parliament. Long married to devoted wife Lady Elaine (Billie Burke), he appears to experience a contented existence, though their independent and headstrong 20-year-old daughter Monica (Helen Chandler) causes some worries.

At a party, Christopher meets well-known aviator Lady Cynthia Darrington (Hepburn). Though their relationship starts out innocently, it soon develops into the romantic realm, an evolution that inevitably causes problems.

Illicit romance offers a much-covered topic in the arts, so the challenge becomes for Strong to find an intriguing approach to the subject. Does the film succeed?

Nope. It consists of little more than the usual genre clichés and fails to find a compelling path of its own.

Even at a mere 78 minutes, Strong tends to drag, primarily because it just can’t find a way to create sparks among its leads. Oh, Hepburn brings her trademark spunk and sass to Cynthia, but she can’t carry the film on her own.

Clive seems woefully dull as Christopher, and we see no chemistry between him and Hepburn. Perhaps Clive boasted charms as a romantic lead in other movies, but he doesn’t come across as compelling here.

An alcoholic four years from his premature death, Clive was only 33 during the shoot, far too young to play the father of the 27-year-old Chandler – or her 20-year-old character. At 49, Burke is the right age, though ironically, she looks younger than the haggard Clive.

Clive’s run-down appearance might make him look older than his age, but it means he seems like a weird choice for a romantic lead. While not an unattractive man, Christopher would seem better suited for a more traditionally dashing actor, not a prematurely weathered – and not especially charismatic – performer.

Even without the drag Clive brings, Strong simply lacks the dramatic development it needs to thrive. Perhaps to compensate, the film adds a secondary plot in which Monica struggles in a relationship with married Harry Rawlinson (Ralph Forbes).

This simply contributes more dreary melodrama to the proceedings and also takes away from space that could better develop our leads. Instead, we get an unnecessary detour that fails to add to the proceedings.

We also get more age-related oddness here, as the movie indicates Harry and Christopher should be nearly the same age. In reality, they were, as Forbes was only four years younger than Clive.

However, that still makes both too close to Chandler’s/Monica’s age, and Forbes looks just as young as his 29 years of age implies. He and Clive might actually have been similar in age, but they didn’t look it, and Forbes appears far too youthful to play the “older man” the role implies.

All of this adds up to a wholly dull tale of a doomed affair. Despite the novelty of a young Katharine Hepburn, the movie flails.

Christopher Strong appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a pleasing presentation.

For the most part, sharpness seemed fine. Some wider shots tended to be a little soft, but those never created substantial concerns and I felt the film usually exhibited very good delineation.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I noticed no edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to turn into an issue.

Blacks appeared quite nice. Those tones showed solid depth, and shadows also exhibited positive clarity. Contrast gave the movie a nice silver sheen. Overall, this was a perfectly satisfactory image.

I felt the DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack of Strong largely matched age-related expectations. Speech tended to sound somewhat metallic and sibilant, but only occasional edginess appeared, and the lines remained perfectly intelligible.

Music came without a lot of range, but the score also seemed reasonably concise. Effects veered toward the bright side of the street, but they also remained fine given their age. Given its age, this became a more than satisfactory track.

In terms of extras, we get three circa 1933 theatrical shorts. We encounter the live-action Plane Nuts (19:42) and Tomalio (21:37) along with the animated Buddy’s Beer Garden (7:11).

Nuts essentially offers a filmed stage show, though it takes some cinematic liberties when it shoots a multitude of female dancers in two separate production numbers. Of primary interest comes an early movie appearance from the Three Stooges.

Ted Healy acts as the main focus, and the short actually bills the Stooges as “Howard, Fine and Howard”. I never much cared for the Stooges, but they actually amuse me here, mainly because they rely more on cleverness and less on the usual slapstick.

The rest of Nuts seems forgettable. Still, the view of the Stooges in their early stages as film performers makes the reel worth a look.

Tomalio offers another comedic short, though it comes at the end of a noted career – albeit one with more tragedy involved. Star Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s career went on the skids in the mid-1920s due to scandals and his attempt at a 1930s revival ended prematurely due to his death in 1933.

Indeed, Tomalio represents Arbuckle’s last production. It came out five months after his passing.

I wish I could claim Arbuckle went out on top, but that doesn’t become the case. Wilbur (Arbuckle) visits the fictional Latin American country of Tomalio and butts comedic heads with a dimwitted dictator (Charles Judels). None of this adds up to much comedic value.

Finally, Buddy’s Beer Garden brings an early Looney Tunes tale, but not one with Bugs or Porky or Daffy or any notable characters. Instead, we find the titular “Buddy”, a role that starred in a couple dozen shorts from 1933 to 1935 and then promptly became forgotten to all but animation buffs.

I can’t claim Buddy didn’t deserve obscurity, as he offers a bland personality. Beer Garden itself lacks much charm, as it comes across as a cut-rate Disney ripoff. Looney Tunes would eventually offer brilliant cartoons, but Beer Garden shows they had a long way to go.

As a piece of Hollywood history, Christopher Strong seems noteworthy since it offers the first lead film appearance by Katharine Hepburn. Unfortunately, nothing else about this slow and bland romance stands out from the genre crowd. The Blu-ray brings positive picture and audio as well as a trio of period short films. Strong becomes a lackluster dud.