In the aptly titled Stage Door, Katharine Hepburn plays a society girl with dreams of being a theatrical actress. She shuns financial support from her father and runs away from home, joining a boarding house full of other hopeful actresses and dancers. Determined to make it on her own, she learns the ins and outs of the theater. Ginger Rogers plays the most prominent roommate, and she and Kate have some interesting and influential dealings with producer Adolphe Menjou.
While Kate gives some speeches that show her strength and willingness to help out her friends, she's not the most accessible character in the film. She's wealthy and can easily go back home to her parents if the going gets tough. The other girls are poor and struggling, so when less-than-honorable propositions are made, they don't feel they have the liberty to refuse. Ginger Rogers is given more one-liners than is realistic, so once again the audience doesn't really feel they can relate to her. Doesn't she have any characteristic besides cynicism?
Ironically, my worst part of the film was the script. It felt like most of the exchanges between the roommates were ad-libbed, but that was actually director Gregory La Cava's intention! He told his actresses to ad-lib for two weeks, and wrote down much of what they said to add to the screenplay so that the dialogue would sound natural. If you don't mind an improvised script, you might enjoy Stage Door more than I did.
There is one very famous line from this film. Katharine is onstage and remarks that the "calla lilies are in bloom". If you want to save yourself ninety minutes, you can just watch the famous clip and call it a day.
While Kate gives some speeches that show her strength and willingness to help out her friends, she's not the most accessible character in the film. She's wealthy and can easily go back home to her parents if the going gets tough. The other girls are poor and struggling, so when less-than-honorable propositions are made, they don't feel they have the liberty to refuse. Ginger Rogers is given more one-liners than is realistic, so once again the audience doesn't really feel they can relate to her. Doesn't she have any characteristic besides cynicism?
Ironically, my worst part of the film was the script. It felt like most of the exchanges between the roommates were ad-libbed, but that was actually director Gregory La Cava's intention! He told his actresses to ad-lib for two weeks, and wrote down much of what they said to add to the screenplay so that the dialogue would sound natural. If you don't mind an improvised script, you might enjoy Stage Door more than I did.
There is one very famous line from this film. Katharine is onstage and remarks that the "calla lilies are in bloom". If you want to save yourself ninety minutes, you can just watch the famous clip and call it a day.