Travels with My Aunt is a 1972 American comedy film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Jay Presson Allen and Hugh Wheeler is based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Graham Greene.
George Cukor initially gave Katharine Hepburn a copy of the Graham Greene novel and told her he wanted to cast her as Augusta. Upon first reading the book, basically a collection of anecdotes, she felt it couldn't be adapted into a viable screenplay, but after reading it several more times she agreed to make the film.
She ultimately was unhappy with the completed script, and Jay Presson Allen finally suggested she rewrite the screenplay herself. After working on it for months, Hepburn submitted it to MGM, but studio head James T. Aubrey, Jr. felt it was missing the charm of the book. Additionally, he wanted Augusta to be seen as a younger woman in flashbacks, and he felt Hepburn was too old to do so convincingly. In a phone call to the actress, he told her the project was being postponed, but the next day her agent was advised she was being given notice for refusing to report to work. Hepburn was outraged and considered suing MGM for payment for her contributions to the screenplay, but finally decided against taking legal action.
Allen later claimed only one speech of hers remained in the completed film, but Hepburn was denied screen credit because she wasn't a member of the Screen Writers Guild.
Costume designer Anthony Powell became a close friend of Maggie Smith and dressed her for her later films Death on the Nile, Evil Under the Sun, and Hook, as well as the plays Private Lives and Lettice and Lovage.
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