Katharine Hepburn’s Hollywood honeymoon peaked on this backstager, her third film (and first Oscar®), with LITTLE WOMEN as chaser.* The two hits neatly defining her range at the time, yet leading to seven miscast flops (only ALICE ADAMS/’35 broke this disastrous run) and a new rep as box-office poison. Hard to imagine now, but not even three consecutive classics (STAGE DOOR/'37; BRINGING UP BABY/'38; HOLIDAY/'38) could undo the damage. Instead, two years off-screen and a huge B’way hit (THE PHILADELPHIA STORY) needed to reboot the career. All of which seems to have left this charmingly naive piece (from an unproduced Zoe Akins play) more spoken of than seen. A shame, as she’s not only very good in a part that’s tough to pull off (the naïf waif whose uncompromising dreams of stage success and chatterbox mouth set your teeth on edge yet equally make her believably endearing, especially to aged stage pro C. Aubrey Smith, philandering producer Adolphe Menjou, and sophisticated, but remarkably nice, playwright Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), but touch closely on her own hardheadedness, nervy determination, enchanting looks and willingness to be as embarrassing as her character is. (She’s also superbly lit by cinematographer Bert Glennon.) Well directed by dipsomaniac actor Lowell Sherman (who’d beat brother-in-law John Barrymore by drinking himself to death in a year), it feels all of a piece, far better than the 1958 remake STAGE STRUCK/’58 which looks great on paper (Sidney Lumet directing Henry Fonda, Christopher Plummer, Joan Greenwood, Herbert Marshal and, oh dear, Susan Strasberg.), but dies on screen.
DOUBLE-BILL: *The excellence of recent adaptations of LITTLE WOMEN (1994; 2019) has left the awkward beauty of George Cukor’s 1933 film, with Hepburn at her finest, somewhat in the shade. Just avoid the high gloss TechniColored M-G-M version of 1949.
No comments:
Post a Comment