The plot is simple: obsessively star-struck Eva Lovelace comes to Hollywood, and tries to get a role onstage. She's 'a bit of a character', amusing producer Lewis Easton and charming writer Joseph Sheridan right away. One of the best scenes in the film is when she introduces herself to the two of them: her incessant stream of chatter is a wonder to behold; some of the things she says funny and chilling at the same time. (Eva, for example, has envisioned her own death by her own hand, while onstage, at the 'xenith' of her career.) She is childish in her earnestness, and so romantic and imaginative that she is deeply stricken by the disappointments that pile one on top of another, be it tanking in a role or being unceremoniously 'dumped' by Easton after a one-night stand. The ending of the film is both chilling and puzzling: is Eva a character to be sympathised with, then?
In other words, the film itself is certainly nothing special. It would be forgotten except for the fact that Katharine Hepburn, screen legend, won her first Academy Award for it. Was it deserved? Much as I love Hepburn, I hesitate to say it is--there are roles she has played that are indubitably worthier than that of Eva Lovelace. (Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story comes immediately to mind.) Of course, the Academy never does seem to reward real merit; perhaps this award was as much for Little Women (released in the same year) as it was for Morning Glory.
This is not to say, of course, that Hepburn was bad. Far from it. She does a delightful job of portraying the obsessively earnest Eva, and she's a delight in her inebriated scenes. While drunk, her Eva displays undoubted signs of both the comic genius and the dramatic ability we've come to associate with Hepburn. Her reading of Shakespeare is both dark and evil, and light and lovely. Even the last, ambivalent scene, is a triumph for her.
{Even so, if you want to see Hepburn giving a masterful portrayal of a stagestruck actress, however, may I recommend the infinitely more entertaining (and qualitatively superior) film, STAGE DOOR. She is unreservedly excellent in that.}
For all we know of Eva Lovelace, she might well have been a morning glory--an overnight star, whose fame and fortune disappears almost as quickly as it began. We know far more about the actress who played Eva, of course, and we know for certain that Katharine Hepburn is no morning glory. Her career has lasted six decades; her impact on American film and the role of women therein is immeasurable... and, oddly enough, Morning Glory is how it all started. Perhaps, given Hepburn's unique and unconventional life and career, that is, in the end, most fitting.
In other words, the film itself is certainly nothing special. It would be forgotten except for the fact that Katharine Hepburn, screen legend, won her first Academy Award for it. Was it deserved? Much as I love Hepburn, I hesitate to say it is--there are roles she has played that are indubitably worthier than that of Eva Lovelace. (Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story comes immediately to mind.) Of course, the Academy never does seem to reward real merit; perhaps this award was as much for Little Women (released in the same year) as it was for Morning Glory.
This is not to say, of course, that Hepburn was bad. Far from it. She does a delightful job of portraying the obsessively earnest Eva, and she's a delight in her inebriated scenes. While drunk, her Eva displays undoubted signs of both the comic genius and the dramatic ability we've come to associate with Hepburn. Her reading of Shakespeare is both dark and evil, and light and lovely. Even the last, ambivalent scene, is a triumph for her.
{Even so, if you want to see Hepburn giving a masterful portrayal of a stagestruck actress, however, may I recommend the infinitely more entertaining (and qualitatively superior) film, STAGE DOOR. She is unreservedly excellent in that.}
For all we know of Eva Lovelace, she might well have been a morning glory--an overnight star, whose fame and fortune disappears almost as quickly as it began. We know far more about the actress who played Eva, of course, and we know for certain that Katharine Hepburn is no morning glory. Her career has lasted six decades; her impact on American film and the role of women therein is immeasurable... and, oddly enough, Morning Glory is how it all started. Perhaps, given Hepburn's unique and unconventional life and career, that is, in the end, most fitting.