their typewriters. The script, too, was changed to permit the bartender to make a quip about reporters working rather than drinking. Reshoots occurred in September and October. Katharine Hepburn returned to Hollywood in early September for retakes, and Pauline Lord was called back in early October. Although James E. Newcom was the film's editor, Cukor had final cut on the film. Lord's scenes were deleted from the picture, and her name did not appear on cast lists. She was replaced by Margaret Wycherley. Release The film was screened for the Office of War Information's Bureau of Motion Pictures on December 2, 1942. The Bureau's chief, Lowell Mellett, was unhappy with the picture and found it heavy-handed. MGM promoted Spencer Tracy for an Academy Award for Best Actor, but he was not nominated. Keeper of the Flame premiered at the Albee Theatre in Cincinnati on January 28, 1943, setting a box-office record for the city. Following a few other limited dates in February, it had a premiere at New York City's Radio City Music Hall on Thursday, March 18, 1943. The premiere served as a fundraiser for the Outdoor Cleanliness Association (a group dedicated to public lighting and enforcement of trash laws). The premiere did not go well: MGM head Louis B. Mayer stormed out, enraged by his having encouraged the making of a film that equated wealth with fascism. It opened in Los Angeles at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Thursday, April 1, 1943. Keeper of the Flame made its Australian premiere at the Metro Theatre in Melbourne in June 1943. It didn't appear on American television until March 1957. Box office Although the film was held over for a fourth week at Radio City Music Hall (most films lasted a week), it did not do well at the box office nationally and is considered the least successful of the Hepburn-Tracy films. It earned $2,190,000 in the United States and Canada and $1,032,000 elsewhere, making an overall profit of $1,040,000. Reception The film generated some political controversy. Republican members of Congress complained about the film's obviously leftist politics and demanded that Will H. Hays, president of the Motion Picture Production Code, establish guidelines regarding propagandization for the motion picture industry. Critical reaction at the time was mixed. While at least one reviewer felt the film was reminiscent of motion pictures like Citizen Kane and Rebecca, Hedda Hopper called it "Citizen Kane