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| STAGE DOOR (1937) |
An RKO Radio Picture
B&W, 92 minutes
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CAST
Terry Randall: Katharine Hepburn
Jean Maitland: Ginger Rogers
Anthony Powell: Adolphe Menjou
Linda Shaw: Gail Patrick
Catherine Luther: Constance Collier
Kaye Hamilton: Andrea Leeds
Henry Sims: Samuel S. Hinds
Judy Canfield: Lucille Ball
Richard Carmichael: Pierre Watkin
Harcourt: Franklin Pangborn
Mrs. Orcutt: Elizabeth Dunne
Hattie: Phyllis Kennedy
Butcher: Grady Sutton
Milbank: Jack Carson
Dukenfield: Fred Santley
Bill: William Corson
Stage Director: Frank Reicher
Eve: Eve Arden
Annie: Ann Miller
Ann Braddock: Jane Rhodes
Mary: Margaret Early
Dizzy: Jean Rouverol
Olga Brent: Norma Drury
Susan: Peggy O'Donnell
Madeline: Harriett Brandon
Cast of Play: Katherine Alexander, Ralph Forbes, Mary Forbes, Huntley Gordon
Aide: Lynton Brent
Elsworth: Theodore Von Eltz
Playwright: Jack Rice
Chauffeur: Harry Strang
Baggageman: Bob Perry
Theatre Patron: Larry Steers
Actresses: Mary Bovard, Frances Gifford
Eve's Cat: Whitey the Cat
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CREDITS
Director: Gregory La Cava
Producer: Pandro S. Berman
Scenarists: Morrie Ryskind, Anthony Veiller
Based on the Play by: Edna Ferber, George S. Kaufman
Photographer: Robert De Grasse
Art Director: Van Nest Polglase
Associate Art Director: Carroll Clark
Set Decorator: Darrell Silvera
Editor: William Hamilton
Sound Recorder: John L. Cass
Musical Score: Roy Webb
Costumer: Muriel King
Makeup Artist: Mel Burns
Assistant Director: James Anderson
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SYNOPSIS
The Footlights Club houses a sincere group of poverty-stricken girls bent on show-business careers. Terry Randall, a smug, self-confident debutante, moves into the club for atmosphere and almost immediately her meticulous diction and extensive wardrobe far from endear her to the other girls. The antagonists include her acid-tongued roommate, Jean Maitland, a soft-hearted dancer with a gift for biting wisecracks. Before long, Broadway producer Anthony Powell, a libertine who tires quickly of his girls, showers his attentions on the girls - first on Jean, then upon Terry.
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CRITIQUES
"It is the type of role in which Miss Hepburn excels. Where most actresses in dealing with the part of a stage-struck girl might be tempted to over-act, Miss Hepburn realizes the need for restraint, evidenced by her brilliant work several years ago in Morning Glory, and in this current picture she is equally effective. Her Terry is a vivacious, honest, intelligent girl."
- Mordaunt Hall, The New York Times, 1937
"One of the flashiest, most entertaining comedies of the 30s, even with its tremolos and touches of heartbreak. As roommates in a New York boarding house for girls aspiring to a stage career, Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers are terrific wisecracking partners. (Rogers, at her liveliest, holds her own with apparent ease.) The other girls waiting for their lucky breaks include Eve Arden (who wears a cat around her neck like a tippet), Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Andrea Leeds, and Gail Patrick. The cast includes the supremely regal (and supremely funny) Constance Collier as an aged actress who does coaching, [and] Adolphe Menjou as a producer with a roving eye."
- Pauline Kael, The New Yorker
"RKO remade this Edna Ferber-George S. Kaufman play into a vehicle for Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, and while it sometimes lapses into pure corn, it nevertheless manages to capture the manic-depressive dormitory atmosphere of young actresses trying to make it in New York (circa 1937). The lines are witty and the Rogers-Hepburn pairing (Rogers, pseudotough and on the offensive; Hepburn, starry-eyed rebel, always parrying) is appealing and funny. Gregory La Cava, master of the off-the-cuff style of 30s comedy, directed and won the New York Film Critics Circle prize for his effort."
- Don Druker, Chicago Reader
"Alongside The Women and Dance, Girl, Dance, one of the great sassy-women comedy-dramas of the '30s. Taken from the stage success by Kaufman and Ferber, it's a bitchy, pacy slice of sociology that throws together a bunch of aspiring actresses in a theatrical boarding house, and watches them interact with lecherous producers (Menjou, marvellous), boyfriends, and most of all each other. The casting is perfect: Hepburn as the Bryn Mawr upper crust type determinedly slumming it, Rogers (in her first bid as a serious actress) as the no-nonsense girl-next-door, and Leeds as the frail, hypersensitive thesp with real talent who introduces a touch of melodrama into the proceedings. Individuals and darker moments apart, however, it's the crackling ensemble pieces that remain in the memory, expertly timed by La Cava's civilised, generous direction, and located in lovingly authentic sets beautifully shot by Robert de Grasse."
- Geoff Andrew, Time Out
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COMMENTARY TRACK
"My career was at a low ebb, and as we started to shoot Stage Door I began to observe that I was sort of listening in on scenes instead of dominating them. After about two weeks of this I went to Pandro Berman and said, 'Gosh, Pandro, don't you think - ' He answered, 'Listen, Kate, you'd be lucky to be playing the sixth part in a successful picture.' I decided to say something to La Cava: 'This character, Gregory, I don't know who I am. Who am I, Gregory?' 'You're the human question mark.' 'What's that supposed to mean?' He looked at me seriously: 'I'm damned if I know, Kate.' I listened. I said, 'Thank you.' And I departed. I gave up. And I shut up. I knew that it would be hopeless to say anything more to anyone. I knew that there was nothing as boring as an actor on the skids who is sorry for herself. Shutting up and being jolly was the cleverest thing I ever did. La Cava got sorry for me playing the rich girl and handed me the whole last part of the movie."
- Katharine Hepburn, Me, 1991
"[Hepburn] is completely the intellectual actress. She has to understand the why of everything before she can feel. Then, when the meaning has soaked in, emotion comes, and superb work."
- Gregory La Cava
"Katharine put most of us in a panic. The very way that she talked was just a little terrifying for me, I just didn't know quite what she was saying. And she didn't talk directly to me at any time, so it really didn't matter. I was riveted to her whenever she was around - so was everyone else. She looked wonderful - she was very, very beautiful, very slim, very chic. And not at all standoffish with us - she just ignored the whole set!"
- Lucille Ball, 1980s
"We all wanted to be Katharine. Even Ginger. No, especially Ginger."
- Lucille Ball
"At the end of a sequence, she [Hepburn, standing on the sidelines] would applaud loudly and cry out 'Beautiful!' It was a marvelous encouragement to all of us."
- Andrea Leeds
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HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY
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Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Ginger Rogers
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Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers
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Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn
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Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers
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Katharine Hepburn, Constance Collier
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Katharine Hepburn
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Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn
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On the set: Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers
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