Hitchcoc Here's another title that has passed my way numerous times, but I have never seen it. Till now. This is an excellent example of a bunch of real pros doing an ensemble that clicks along a hundred miles per hour. The sad thing is that it depicts an array of actresses showing us what an often fruitless profession this can be. Katherine Hepburne and Ginger Rogers are adversaries who set off sparks when they are on the screen. The rest, a who's who of the top actresses of their time, wait for the day when a producer will condescend to even give them the time of day. One is the prototypical fragile being that has all she can bear when it comes to the perpetual disappointment. The men in the show are either rock hard or buffoons, but many have the ultimate power to set the bars so high that few are able to achieve. Is this good? I don't know. But it continues today as only a minuscule number of people become truly successful. I was hesitant to spend time with this film, but just watching Hepburne on the screen in her younger days makes it all worthwhile.

mark.waltz There were plenty of egos abound in this film version of the Edna Ferber/George S. Kaufman stage play surrounding the lives of the women who live in a boarding house for actresses. The women range from pretentious Katherine Hepburn, a society girl determined to make it on her own away from the influence of her wealthy family to wise-cracking tough girl Ginger Rogers to cat-wearing Eve Arden. There's also tap-dancing Ann Miller (who wore flats so she wouldn't be too tall to dance with her idol, Ginger), husband seeking Lucille Ball, sensitive Andrea Leeds (nominated for an Oscar for her tragic part), bitchy social climber Gail Patrick and eccentric Constance Collier, the hammy character actress in the group.Unlike the later women ensemble film ("The Women", also based upon a popular play), men are involved in the plot, the major male character being Adolph Menjou's David Belasco type theater producer who takes individual interest in several of the girls he sets out to make stars. Leeds, it turns out, was once the most promising new actress in the theater, but hasn't had a job since her first big break. Hepburn storms into Menjou's office to tell him off for not giving Leeds a pivotal role she'd be perfect for, and before you know it, Menjou is escorting her around town and has cast her in the lead. The other residents of the boarding house are horrified by her getting the role Leeds pined for, and after realizing how horrible she is, Kate takes on aid from the unselfish young girl whose emotional distress just gets worse and worse, resulting in tragedy. This just might be the spark to make Kate shine, and Kate shows it utilizing a line from her infamous Broadway flop, "The Lake", where she says "The Calalilies are in bloom again", a line burlesqued many times since she first said it.In their only film appearance together, Hepburn and Rogers exchange wisecracks from the moment they meet, especially when Hepburn becomes Rogers' new roommate. The scene between them discussing Hepburn's audacious trunk has become a comedy classic. While their bitchy rapport is biting, it isn't as caustic as that between Rogers and Patrick who has a nasty comment for every statement Rogers makes. While "The Women" has gone on to become more of a cult favorite, "Stage Door" is equally as classic for its look at how women often bring out the worst in each other rather than the best. Of course, every archetype is here, and you can see a little bit of each character from each play when you compare the two. While "The Women" has been revived several times on Broadway, "Stage Door" has been strangely overlooked even though the movie is considered a classic.

secondtake Stage Door (1937)What an amazing movie! Gregory La Cava had a mixed career, but between this and "My Man Godfrey" he has made two of the very best screwball comedies. Best.The first thing you have to confront is a tidal wave of fast, overlapping, group dialogs. The Footlight Club is a flop house for young woman who want to make it on the stage. One zinger after another by these actresses, all without jobs but avoiding dejection by sheer humor and sarcasm. It's a dizzy fun beginning, and it never lets up. Never. Which is great. We get young Eve Arden, even younger Lucille Ball, Ginger Rogers in her famous prime (she dances briefly), and Katherine Hepburn, the rising star who is cast perfectly here as someone who doesn't fit in. (They even make fun of her accent, which the audience can laugh along with knowingly.)And then there is plot, as several of the actresses get involved in either work or men or both. And some competition, and just a little tragedy (but very moving and tragic, a surprise of tears after all these laughs). Men don't fare well here, reminding me of "The Women" where they don't appear at all. La Cava is as good as they get when the going gets fast and complicated. He reminds me of Michael Curtiz in this way, with rooms full of people going every which way and all if it making sense, foreground and background, music and dialog. You could watch "Stage Door" twice in a row and still want more. It's a screwball, and a fabulous one.

n_r_koch They should have called this one "Upstaged Door", since what I saw was Ginger Rogers, one of the overlooked comediennes of the 1930s (see "Gold Diggers of 1933"), more or less blowing Katherine Hepburn out of the movie. Calla lilies? She did so despite the fact that the script is written around the "Hepburn" character and gives her the big speech at the end, and that the plebeian "Rogers" is the more cruelly satirized of the two, especially in Act I. Hepburn plays herself, as she did in every role after Alice Adams. Rogers, a teetotaler in real life, plays a mean drunk scene, among other things. She mocks a posh accent. She wears great-looking gowns like she was born in them. She plays the ukulele! La Cava wisely nips the ukulele business in the bud. He doesn't let her sing or dance much, either. (Hepburn doesn't sing or dance at all, even though she's living with two dozen chorines.) The haste with which the film was adapted from the play is obvious in the many "staged" entrances and exits. Everyone gets some snappy lines, but some of the support only get a few things to say. Constance Collier, as the washed-up old actress who carries her notices around in her purse, is the best of them. They are all but uniformly great except for Andrea Leeds. Leeds was a pretty, sensitive girl who didn't like Hollywood much. She was also a mediocre actress. This is evident the instant she has to trade lines with anyone. And she was given an Academy Award nomination for this role! That says something about both Hollywood self-loathing and Hollywood self-congratulation. The subplot built around her character, who is barely introduced, feels jury-rigged and maudlin and just doesn't work at all. The idea appeared to be to add "depth" to a plot that was doing fine without any. This mistake knocks the movie down from a 9 to, say an 8. It's still 10 times funnier than most of what's playing now. Don't miss it!