Tracy had been through a dark patch personally, culminating with a stay in hospital, and Katharine Hepburn felt that a play would help restore his focus.

The play was The Rugged Path by Robert E. Sherwood, which first previewed in Providence, Rhode Island, on September 28, to a sold-out crowd and tepid response.

[4] The Rugged Path was a difficult production, with Kanin later writing, "In the ten days prior to the New York opening, all the important relationships had deteriorated.

His other directing credits include Bachelor Mother (1939), The Great Man Votes (1939), My Favorite Wife (1940), They Knew What They Wanted (1940), and Tom, Dick, and Harry (1941).

During this time, Kanin and Carol Reed co-directed General Dwight D. Eisenhower's official record of the Allied invasion, the Academy Award-winning documentary The True Glory (1945).

These included the Spencer Tracy - Katharine Hepburn film comedies Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952), as well as A Double Life (1947), starring Ronald Colman.

In 1941, Hepburn and he worked with his brother Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner, Jr., on the early drafts of what became Woman of the Year right before Garson enlisted in the army.

His most famous quote, from his hit play Born Yesterday, is on a New York City Public Library plaque on a 41st Street sidewalk: "I want everyone to be smart.

The Academy Film Archive preserved Ring of Steel and Salut a La France (French-language version) by Garson Kanin.