Sylvia Scarlett marks the first time that Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant worked together and it's amazing that the three succeeding films they did all became classics. This one just became a curiosity.
Edmund Gwenn is her father and he's been doing a little embezzling on the side in France. Before the law catches up with him the thing to do is flee across the English Channel. So to disguise themselves, Kate cuts off her long tresses and puts on men's clothes.
No need to go into the rest of the story, but it was daring enough in 1935 just as The Code was taking affect in Hollywood. The situations Hepburn gets herself involved in are just like those that you've seen in Tootsie, Victor/Victoria, and any number of other films. But the censors clamped heavily down in those days.
She's got two men interested in him/her, Cary Grant and Brian Aherne. Grant is a cockney con artist and his role is actually closer to the real Archie Leach that became Cary Grant. Just being Cary Grant was probably the biggest stretch of his talent. Brian Aherne is debonair and charming as Brian Aherne always is.
Sylvia Scarlett, when viewed with Bringing Up Baby, Holiday, and The Philadelphia Story just doesn't measure up to those three. Still it's interesting to watch.