Stage Door
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Movie Reviews of Stage Door
Movie Review: Stage Door
Summary: 4 Stars
Katharine Hepburn is the stuck up newcomer, Ginger Rogers the wise-cracking `trouper,' Aldophe Menjou the aging Lothario of a stage producer, and Gail Patrick the rapidly fading former ingenue in STAGE DOOR, a behind-the-scenes looks at the lives of aspiring actresses. Morrie Ryskind and Anthony Veiller adapted the successful stage play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman for this 1937 film. You don't normally name the writers of a movie without mentioning the director (Gregory LaCava, who a year earlier in 1936 directed the delightful My Man Godfrey) but the writing here is pretty remarkable. The barbs are sharp and gleaming, the retorts frosted, while even the minor characters are allowed quips worthy of someone's highlight reel. Hepburn wants to be an actress but may be a little too intellectual for her own good, Rogers is a not-very successful dancer, and Patrick is the only one with a success under her belt, although that occurred a year ago, an eternity for a young actresses trying to establish herself. Enter producer Menjou, who has a hot new property he needs to cast and a well-rehearsed seductive spiel that promises fame and your name is lights this big.
LaCava does what he can with making the pictures move, but STAGE DOOR is still pretty stage bound. Most of the scenes take place in the Footlights Club, the boarding house where the young actresses live. Like I said, the dialogue is snappy and most of it takes place here, with an awful lot of secondary characters making an awful lot of witty noise. Everyone but poor Gail Patrick, that is, who more or less has to carry the tragedy of this story alone until the end of the movie, when Hepburn gets to pick up the ball at the one-yard line and drive in for the touchdown. The Footlights Club's secondary characters are pretty special if you're an old movie fan - they include the very young Eve Arden, Ann Miller, and Lucille Ball.
If I had to make a pretense of objectivity I'd give this one five stars. The source material is simply first-rate, and two strong young actresses - Hepburn and Rogers - play roles that seem custom-cut to snugly hug their strengths and discreetly hide their weaknesses. If you're drawn to strong tragicomedies revolving around the personal lives of young women (I'm not,) can tolerate old movies (love `em,) and have a box kleenex at hand for the final, moving `the callow lilies are in bloom' scene (never without `em,) STAGE DOOR is strongly recommended.
There aren't as many extras on this dvd as there are on some other Warner reprints. Besides a trailer, there's only a 21-minute 1937 short, "Ups and Downs." It a Vitaphone `Broadway Brevity' featuring Hal LeRoy as a tap-dancing elevator operator. "Ups and Downs" is one of those short pieces of fluff that make Warners' dvds some of my favorites. It's a delightfully goofy story about the gangly LeRoy and his sweetheart, newcomer (this is her first film appearance) June Allyson. I don't know much about LeRoy, but the lad could dance. I know a bit more about Allyson, and she couldn't. But her charm is there from the start and this is a fun singin'-and-dancin' short with a young Phil Silvers (in HIS first film appearance) in a small role as Charlie the tailor. The plot's too goofy to go into but it's all good fun, with a bunch of enjoyable production numbers, including June Allyson singing "Get a Rhythm Personality," Toni Lane singing "Let the Rhythm Go to Your Feet," and the Deauville Boys singing, while LeRoy dances to, "The Dancing Financier." (Yeah, success did come that quick in these kind of films.)
Movie Review: a benchmark for ensemble acting
Summary: 4 Stars
Take a talented group of RKO contract actresses and a proven Broadway hit, assign them to a director known for his spontaneity and wit and you have "Stagedoor", a surefire smash at the box office in 1937.
Ginger Rogers, ambitious to broaden her appeal beyond her association with Fred Astaire, and Katharine Hepburn, in need of a hit after a series of mainly pretentious and unpopular roles, are neatly matched in the lead roles of aspiring actresses sharing a room in a boarding house for actresses. If the plot is a bit contrived, who cares. The important thing is the dialogue filled with great one liners. The stars are supported by sarcastic Eve Arden, a teenage Ann Miller and tough Lucille Ball, all of whom are outstanding. Mention too should be made of Andrea Leeds who has a highly emotional role and pulls it off. Adolphe Menjou has the only decent male role as a lecherous producer - perfect casting.
The print is excellent and the extras include a good radio version of the film and an unusual musical short with the talented gangly dancer Hal le Roy and a platinum blonde (yuk) June Allyson in her film debut. She is almost unrecognisable.
The DVD is OK value but better if purchased as part of the Comedy Classics DVD set.
Movie Review: A Pile of Actresses
Summary: 4 Stars
Stage Door is obviously based on a play; it is a very wordy film with very few locations. However, the cast is strong, filled with stars (Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn) and up-and-comers (Lucille Ball, Ann Miller). It focuses on a group of struggling actresses living together in a shabby apartment house, hoping against hope that they will become lucky and land the role of a lifetime. Hepburn is the new girl, truly a socialite disguised as a ingenue with little experience both in life and on the stage. She builds a rivalry with Rogers' character for the affections of a wealthy producer (Adolph Menjou) who gets her into a show, but despite her abilities to win him over, she's awful as an actress. That is, until a tragedy gives her the emotion she needs for the part.
It is the finale that makes the film as moving as it is. It is slightly bland in the beginning, more gossipy than sentimental.
Also included on this DVD is a Lux Radio Theater presentation of the film and a short film called Ups and Downs. This features a platinum blonde June Allyson who later came to fame as the perfect wife. She is slightly dizzy here as a girl who loves to dance with the elevator boy.
Movie Review: BROADWAY BABES OF 1937
Summary: 4 Stars
The most remarkable thing about STAGE DOOR, is the absence of any true leading man. Adolphe Menjou is there, where a dashing romantic male lead may have stood, as a sleezebag Broadway producer, who courts the young starlets, and then drops them off like yesterday's luggage. His quality of character is nearly null, comedic effect really, and in effect, this boosts the young ladies, boarders of a NYC rooming house for young, undiscovered actresses, to center stage as strong, free women, who need not a Fred Astaire to come dashing into the room to sweep them off their feet. Seems almost revolutionary for a 1937 flick. Based on the Edna Ferber and George Kaufmann play, which only ran for 169 performances on Broadway during the 1936 season, the film is a bolder vision with equal parts melodramatic sentiment, and smart, snappy, and risque dialogue, that must have had the 1937 censor board on the edges of their seats. Ginger Rogers is a doll, equal parts sexbomb and smart cookie, and Katherine Hepburn is, well, Katherine Hepburn, immortalized by "the calla lillies in bloom again".Movie Review: The Best Actresses of the day, all in one place!
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie takes place in a theatrical boarding house in New York City and centers around the lives of the tenants and their trials and tribulations trying to break into the theater. All the leading stars of the day are present, including Ginger Rogers and Katherine Hepburn. For movie buffs there is even a very young and dark headed Lucille Ball. Who it turns out is a maternal cousin with Ginger in real life. Most of the dialogue consists of very heavy-handed barbs and insults between the different characters. Which is why I only give the film four stars. I found it very trying after a while to be listening to constant trash talk. However, I was impressed by the true gem of the film. Katherine Hepburn gives a stunning performance in the end when she performs the scene from her play, and really performs it this time around. We've all seen Katherine Hepburn portray brash characters, but in this scene we get a glimpse of true emotion. And a most impressive performance on the part of Katherine. I would give her the oscar just for that one scene.