rain was the best thing that could happen to Robert Forrest." O'Malley convinces her to help him write a book detailing Forrest's scheme. Kerndon eavesdrops, then locks the arsenal's door, sets the building ablaze, and shoots into it through an embrasure. Christine, fatally injured, urges O'Malley to write his book. A man rushes to the burning building carrying an axe, but Kerndon comes up behind him and knocks him out by hitting the man in the head with a gun. Then an automobile driven by Midford rushes to the scene and Kerndon stands in the middle of the road and shoots at the passengers, he is run down and killed. Midford leaves the car picks up the axe, rushes to the building, breaks through the door, and they rescue O'Malley. O'Malley ultimately writes a book titled Christine Forrest: Her Life, which exposes the plot. Cast Spencer Tracy as Steven O'Malley Katharine Hepburn as Christine Forrest Richard Whorf as Clive Kerndon Margaret Wycherly as Mrs. Forrest Forrest Tucker as Geoffrey Midford Frank Craven as Doctor Fielding, one of the few critical of Forrest Stephen McNally as Freddie Ridges (billed as "Horace McNally") Percy Kilbride as Orion Peabody, O'Malley's taxi driver Audrey Christie as Jane Harding Darryl Hickman as Jeb Rickards Donald Meek as Mr. Arbuthnot Howard Da Silva as Jason Rickards William Newell as Piggot Production Script and casting The script was based on an unpublished book by I. A. R. Wylie. RKO Pictures bought the book in outline form in April 1941 but encountered casting difficulties and sold the rights to MGM in December 1941 for $50,000. A day or two after they had obtained the rights, MGM Vice-President Eddie Mannix realized the source material was political in nature and tried to abandon the project. However, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mannix relented and the production went forward. Once the film went into production at MGM, the book was published by Random House in April 1942. MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer assigned the script to Donald Ogden Stewart—one of his favorite screenwriters. Mayer's choice seemed unusual, because up to that time Stewart had written only light romantic comedies featuring wealthy East Coast socialites, but Mayer felt Stewart's strongly leftist political leanings would enable him to chalk out a better screenplay. Stewart approached the project with gusto, remarking that he "wrote an adaptation from a novel that tells about