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Stage Door
RKO had one of its biggest hits with a sparkling look at the New York theater scene with a 1937 comedy/drama called Stage Door.
This film version of a play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber centers around The Footlights Club, a theatrical boarding house for aspiring young actresses. The primary players in this slightly dated soap opera include Terry Randall (Katharine Hepburn), the fiesty millionaire's daughter who wants to make it on her own as an actress without the aid of daddy's money; Anthony Powell (Adolph Menjou) a slick-talking Broadway producer who's dating two of the girls who live in the club; Jean Maitland (Ginger Rogers) is Terry's cynical roommate and an aspiring dancer who has caught Powell's eye, much to the dismay of Linda Shaw (Gail Patrick), another club resident who has been seeing Powell and there's Kay Hamilton (Andrea Leeds), an actress who had a part on Broadway a year ago but hasn't worked in so long that she can't pay for her meals at the club.
Apparently, screenwriters Morrie Lyskind and Anthony Veillier made a lot of changes to the original play that prompted one critic to say that she should have changed the title to "Screen Door" but the film is still a pretty insightful look into what drives people to achieve success in the theater and what they often give up in said pursuit. Yes, the idea of a theatrical boarding house is definitely dated, but it provides a wonderful canvas to present several interlacing stories about the struggles and disappointments that come along with a show business career. We watch as rich girl Terry struggles to fit in as just one of the girls while Linda and Jean contemplate a shortcut to success through their feminine wiles and poor Kay, a girl who proves that talent is not a guarantee of success. Several show business traditions are touched upon here, in particular "The show must go on" and "It's not what you know, but who you know."
Director Gregory La Cava does an extremely effective job of giving almost a dozen actresses their individual moments in the sun. Hepburn is fire and ice as the spitfire Terry and Menjou is appropriately greasy as Powell. Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, Ann Miller, and Constance Collier score in small roles and Andrea Leeds received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her tragic turn as Kay, but if the truth be told, Ginger Rogers walks off with this movie as the cynical wisecracking Jean, a girl who knows what it takes to succeed but is not always willing to do it. The scene where Menjou attempts to seduce a drunken Rogers might have been my favorite in the whole movie. Despite some dated elements, this classic still holds up and provides solid entertainment.
RKO had one of its biggest hits with a sparkling look at the New York theater scene with a 1937 comedy/drama called Stage Door.
This film version of a play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber centers around The Footlights Club, a theatrical boarding house for aspiring young actresses. The primary players in this slightly dated soap opera include Terry Randall (Katharine Hepburn), the fiesty millionaire's daughter who wants to make it on her own as an actress without the aid of daddy's money; Anthony Powell (Adolph Menjou) a slick-talking Broadway producer who's dating two of the girls who live in the club; Jean Maitland (Ginger Rogers) is Terry's cynical roommate and an aspiring dancer who has caught Powell's eye, much to the dismay of Linda Shaw (Gail Patrick), another club resident who has been seeing Powell and there's Kay Hamilton (Andrea Leeds), an actress who had a part on Broadway a year ago but hasn't worked in so long that she can't pay for her meals at the club.
Apparently, screenwriters Morrie Lyskind and Anthony Veillier made a lot of changes to the original play that prompted one critic to say that she should have changed the title to "Screen Door" but the film is still a pretty insightful look into what drives people to achieve success in the theater and what they often give up in said pursuit. Yes, the idea of a theatrical boarding house is definitely dated, but it provides a wonderful canvas to present several interlacing stories about the struggles and disappointments that come along with a show business career. We watch as rich girl Terry struggles to fit in as just one of the girls while Linda and Jean contemplate a shortcut to success through their feminine wiles and poor Kay, a girl who proves that talent is not a guarantee of success. Several show business traditions are touched upon here, in particular "The show must go on" and "It's not what you know, but who you know."
Director Gregory La Cava does an extremely effective job of giving almost a dozen actresses their individual moments in the sun. Hepburn is fire and ice as the spitfire Terry and Menjou is appropriately greasy as Powell. Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, Ann Miller, and Constance Collier score in small roles and Andrea Leeds received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her tragic turn as Kay, but if the truth be told, Ginger Rogers walks off with this movie as the cynical wisecracking Jean, a girl who knows what it takes to succeed but is not always willing to do it. The scene where Menjou attempts to seduce a drunken Rogers might have been my favorite in the whole movie. Despite some dated elements, this classic still holds up and provides solid entertainment.