Alice Adams

Have you ever picked up what you thought was a glass of water, but when you took a long sip you ended up with a mouthful of Sprite? A surprising feeling, but then you have to figure out if it's pleasant or not. I felt similarly about my experience watching "Alice Adams", George Stevens' 1935 film starring Katherine Hepburn as the title character. Expecting a wily romantic comedy, possibly a precursor to Hepburn's screwball comedies, I instead witnessed a beautiful, touching and sad film about rejection and romance in small-town America.

Alice is the daughter of a bookkeeper who is sick, and therefore temporarily out of work. Even before his unemployment, his job did not provide as much money for his family as many of Alice's contemporaries. This causes Alice to not be accepted in society, and makes it harder to find a boyfriend, though she tries to keep cheerful in front of her family. Unfortunately Mrs. Adams doesn't make things easier, by constantly harping on Mr. Adams to quit his job and be more ambitious. When the Palmers have their annual dance, Alice asks her brother Walter to take her, and there she first sees Arthur Russell MacMurray) a wealthy young man who is practically engaged to Mildred Palmer, probably the richest and most socially prominent young woman in the town. He notices Alice, and after a dance together, finds her a couple of days later and they begin a romance, but it becomes obvious that Alice is not going to be able to put up a façade of wealth and social acceptance for long, as their relationship becomes more serious.

There were so many times that I found myself just aching for Alice during this film. Booth Tarkington is so good at capturing the darker side of small town life without being obvious, that it is understandable that this film could be mistaken for a light romantic comedy, though in reality it was anything but. Alice's low self-esteem, mainly due to society's views on her more than her family's lack of money makes her such a fragile character that she becomes immediately sympathetic, and this is mainly due to Hepburn's performance. This was early in her career, and after seeing many of her later films it is easy to forget just how radiant and luminous she once was. She has always been one of my favorite actresses, but it was generally because of the strength she gave the characters she played throughout the years, not her fragility. "Alice Adams" was an extremely pleasant surprise, and I ended up absolutely loving it. A very solid 8/10.

--Shelly

This is an often under-rated film, and nowadays would certainly have been completely forgotten but for Katharine Hepburn's presence. As a satirical view of the 1920s filmed in the mid 1930s it feels somewhat dated. But not Hepburn's performance. This is is among the best of her RKO contract movies. Her innocence, her (modest) social pretension, her search for love, they all ring verosimilar - if not entirely true to life. And the celebrated window scene with tears and rain and sobs being one with Alice's feelings is far more than just 'clever'. Hepburn fans will like it. Others might very well follow along.

I suppose that no one ever gave Alice Adams the sage advice that when one goes on a date with somebody, you should just "be yourself." But in the 1935 film "Alice Adams," Katharine Hepburn's title character is too busy trying to hide her humble background and put on hoity-toity airs, whenever she goes out shopping, to a party and especially when being courted, to EVER really be herself, and this desire to climb that social ladder only leads to embarrassing predicaments. This is actually a very charming film, and Hepburn, 28 here, looks extremely pretty, especially when given any number of beautiful close-ups by director George Stevens. The film boasts two wonderful and heartbreaking scenes: an early sequence at a ritzy dance, where wallflower Alice hugs the sidelines while pretending to no one in particular that everything is fine, and a late scene, in which the well-to-do young courter who has taken a fancy to her (nicely played by Fred MacMurray) suffers through a formal dinner with Alice's family in the middle of a heat wave. Hattie McDaniel (listed here as "McDaniels") almost steals this dinner scene as a slovenly, gum-chewing maid. Alice, despite her tendency to put on airs, is at heart a sweet girl (we see that in her relationships with her parents and brother), and the viewer is grateful that a young man is able to see beyond her B.S. and discern her finer qualities. But will upper-class Fred accept Alice, once he learns of her background? That, my IMDb'er friend, I urge you to find out for yourself...

ALICE ADAMS is the film I'd heard about for years as one of Hepburn's best early films so when I had the chance to watch it recently on TCM I took advantage of it.

From a novel by Booth Tarkington, it concerns a young woman anxious to connect socially with the right people who manages to attract the attention of a handsome and well-to-do young man (Fred MacMurray) at a party. Hepburn shines in the title role, looking fresh and attractive, struggling to keep him interested in her--but unfortunately, with all of her trademark mannerisms not always held in check.

She does well in the role but, in my opinion, the real magnet of interest is the under-appreciated Fred MacMurray who does a sincere and effortless job as her suitor in a role that could not have been easy to bring off. Both stars are in their physical prime, but MacMurray's naturalness only makes Hepburn look even more mannered than usual. Fortunately, this works because her character is supposed to be putting on airs. But at times, this is overdone.

The awkwardness of the social situations are exploited--and the highpoint has to be the warm dinner served on a hot evening, complete with maid service (by Hattie McDaniel) in one of the movie's most amusing, if uncomfortable, scenes. Here too, MacMurray displays just the right amount of stability against all odds. Fred Stone provides a number of chuckles as Hepburn's so provincial father.

All of the supporting roles are nicely filled, with special praise for Ann Shoemaker as the concerned mother anxious for her daughter to find the right suitor. But it's Hepburn's showcase under George Stevens' sensitive direction and she is convincing despite the overly mannered performance.

Summing up: Although some of the situations seemed a bit forced and not everyone will appreciate the humor at Hattie McDaniel's expense, it's worth watching for Hepburn and MacMurray alone.

I had literally just completed my reading of Booth Tarkington's novel from which this movie was adapted before settling down to watch Katharine Hepburn star in the title role of this early George Stevens film.

It's a little creaky for sure as you might expect from an old 1935 feature and even if it does tack on a happy ending at variance with the original book, it would take a hard heart to seriously object to the upturn in Alice and her father's fortunes as things turn out.

The story of a sparky, pretty young girl brought up in rather straitened circumstances by her well-meaning but rather down-trodden parents, she is excited to be attending a high society party in the neighbourhood where maybe she can catch the eye of a handsome, wealthy young man who will elevate her from her life of comparative drudgery and give her the good life she craves. However, forced to wear an old dress long out-of-fashion and with no friends with whom to pal about, she's reduced to taking dances from the prize klutz and then playing wall-flower before she by chance meets up with poor little rich boy Arthur Russell played by Fred McMurray, apparently the fiancé of the wealthy deb holding the party but who sees past Alice's outer appearance to the good person within and promptly falls for her.

There are side plots involving Alice's rascally brother who eventually steals money from his employer, while her old dad, played by Fred Stone, employed at the same firm, is egged on by his henpecking wife on the pretext of improving Alice's prospects, to finally get out from his sinecure and set up a glue business in competition with his erstwhile employer, the vaunted big-man-in-town A J Lamb.

It all comes to a head when mum holds a big family dinner to formally meet and greet Arthur in a painfully excruciating scene where everything that can happen to embarrass the bold Alice duly does but just when it seems that poverty and ignominy awaits the family and that Alice may have to shock-horror go out and work for a living, along come two acts separate acts of charity and compassion at the end which transform all their fortunes, especially Alice's.

It's impossible to deny Alice her happy ending, so sympathetically and engagingly does Hepburn play the part. At this early stage in her career, some of her later irritating ticks and mannerisms are largely absent so that you really want things to turn out well for her. Likewise Fred Stone as her put-upon father, who finds his backbone in the end, even if his "Dang me!" protestations in that wheedling voice of his will likely set your nerves on edge. McMurray too is charming as the suave playboy who turns his back on his privileged but mean-spirited social equals for the love of poor but honest Alice.

One thing I didn't enjoy were the stereotypical demeaning parts given to black actors in the film, like seeing Hattie McDaniels as a slatternly hired-help but to be fair they are as written in the book, although if the producer could take the liberty to change the ending, it's just a pity they couldn't have done something similar with the casting of these parts.

Still, this was an enjoyable and entertaining mild-morality tale, made memorable mainly by Hepburn's bright performance in the title role.