Entre bastidores

A very well acted classic drama with great characters that interact realistically when together, it is also supported by some fine acting. Katharine Hepburn is very strong and natural, and Ginger Rogers matches her, playing a witty and almost cynical character very well. Gail Patrick is great too, yet Andrea Leeds was the only cast member to go on to receive an Academy Award nomination, however she is the best of the bunch, giving life to a frail and emotionally unstable aspiring actress. It is a bit overly talkative, and it has at least one too many subplots going on, however the film presents such an interesting insight into the lives of wannabee actresses that these points hardly matter. It is indeed a little difficult to distinguish each of the supporting characters as individuals, and perhaps they could done with further development, but yet this factor is very much like how all the aspiring actresses in the world are: indistinguishable, until you get to know them - and how actresses get ahead in the world is a lot of what this film is about. The final few minutes of the film could have been chopped out; otherwise this is good viewing all the way through.

With a fine cast and an interesting, worthwhile story, "Stage Door" is one of the best films of the late 1930's. It provides good comedy - at least if you can keep up with the fast-paced, many-sided dialogues - and some interesting drama in the lives of its characters. The characters are well-developed, even the minor ones, and this makes the dramatic developments that much more meaningful. The atmosphere is a convincing and very interesting look at life in the theater, neither overly glamourized nor overly sordid.

There is a great deal of talent in the cast, led by Katherine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, whose characters clash in interesting ways. Adolphe Menjou is an ideal choice to play this kind of genial cad. Gail Patrick also is perfect as an elegant but venomous young performer. Constance Collier is amusing as the would-be mentor for the younger actresses. Andrea Leeds is very sympathetic in her role. Most of the other characters in the boarding house get only small stretches of screen time, but they all make good use of it. It's also enjoyable just to see the likes of Ann Miller, Lucille Ball, and Eve Arden in some of their earlier roles.

The cast is the most obvious of its strengths, but the writing is also quite good, and Gregory La Cava's direction is very good, maintaining a good pace without rushing anything, and keeping a good balance between the amusing and the serious sides of the story. Everything works very well, making for an enjoyable and thoughtful picture.

In fact this film version of a stage play by Edna Ferber and George S Kaufman, directed by Gregory La Cava is 70 years old and although it may show a wrinkle here or there - like having Adolph Menjou as the romantic lead - the youthful energy in the acting and dialog has surfed the waves of time unscathed. The bunch of girls populating the Footlights lodgings is a smashing crowd. Katharine Hepburn, brisk and Hepburnish already to the hilt. Ginger Rogers drinks, scratches and dances a duet with Ann Miller. Eve Arden, as usual, delivers the best one liners and Lucille Ball seems ready for a startling career. Andrea Leeds got an Oscar nomination and Constance Collier plays an over the hill actress that becomes Hepburn's minder, just like in real life. The film moves at an incredible speed and I defy you not to tear up when Hepburn makes her entrance with the Calla Lillies in bloom.

Director Gregory LaCava apparently liked to hit the bottle and so had a spotty career, but Stage Door is his masterpiece. Not in some personal, auteurist way, but in having achieved an almost ideal example of Depression-era movie entertainment. Its venue is the Footlights Club, a theatrical boarding house near Broadway, where lamb stew and broken dreams are the nightly staples. Among the gals with stiletto tongues but hearts of gold are Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, Ann Miller, Gail Patrick and formidable Constance Collier ("Could you see an older woman in the part?"). But the movie centers on the rivalry between roommates Katherine Hepburn, as a spoiled rich kid who tries acting as a lark, and Ginger Rogers, as a plucky thespian waiting for her break. Believe it or no, those diametrical opposites (aristocratic, ethereal Kate and tough, pragmatic Ginger) work like a dream together. The script negotiates a delicate path between pathos and bathos, and somehow keeps its balance, even when one of the troupers loses her grip on reality and...Well, enough said. Best of all: this is the movie in which Hepburn gets to elocute: "The calla lilies are in bloom again...." Sheerest heaven.

Katharine Hepburn takes up residence in a theatrical rooming house in "Stage Door," one of the great examples of ensemble acting in film.

Besides Hepburn, the film features Adolph Menjou, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Ginger Rogers, Andrea Leeds, Eve Arden, Constance Collier, and Gail Patrick.

Hepburn is a the daughter of a wealthy man who comes to New York to try her hand at acting. She talks a good game, but as we soon learn, she has no emotional understanding or connection to acting at all, approaching everything intellectually.

All of the women are pursuing careers in theater, some with more success than others, and Patrick has a sugar daddy (Menjou). Leeds is the tragic character, a star from the previous season who can't find work but is desperate for the lead in "Enchanted April."

The atmosphere created by director Gregory Lacava perfectly evokes the lively atmosphere of young women living together, sitting in the parlor complaining about food, men, and work or lack of it, as they sing, joke, play piano, strum the ukulele, and talk on the phone - all at once.

The acting is uniformly excellent, with each actress creating a unique character. Lucille Ball gives evidence of the comic timing that would make her one of the greatest TV stars of all time, and there are plenty of ironic one-liners to be had from Eve Arden, and Ginger Rogers matches her in sarcasm.

Ann Miller was supposedly 14 when she made this film; it doesn't seem possible but that was her story and she stuck to it. We do get to see a little bit of her tapping.

Andrea Leeds, bearing such a strong resemblance to Olivia DeHavilland, gives a touching performance as the doomed Kay, who does not have the emotional stability to withstand what can be a devastating career.

It's an extremely melodramatic role and rather than have her play against this, LaCava had her play to it, thus dating what could have stood as a compelling performance even today.

The climactic scenes toward the end are pure '30s, stripping the film of previous lightness and going into tragedy but are effective and real tear-jerkers. By the film's end, though, we've come full circle.

The film is based on the play of the same name which is actually quite different. The whole idea was probably based on the Studio Club in New York City. "Stage Door" is wonderful and the script, acting and direction make it a deeply satisfying experience.