Quality Street

QUALITY STREET (RKO Radio, 1937) directed by George Stevens, stars Katharine Hepburn in her third costume movie in a row (following 1936 releases of "Mary of Scotland and "A Woman Rebels"), and her first to be classified a comedy. Taken from the old stage play by Sir James M. Barrie, the same author whose work was used for Hepburn's 1934 release of THE LITTLE MINISTER, places the now legendary actress for the first of many times in the role of a spinster, but in this case not entirely throughout its 84 minutes.

The setting: "1805 England. Quality Street where a gentleman passerby is an event." Other than an event, Quality Street is also a location of homes where spinster women peep through their window curtains watching everything that goes on. The story introduces Susan Throssel (Fay Bainter), an old maid, hosting her spinster guests, sisters Mary (Estelle Winwood) and Fanny Willoughby (Helena Grant), and Henrietta Turnball (Florence Lake) as they crochet while one reads a book aloud. Phoebe (Katharine Hepburn), Susan's younger sister, arrives with the news of having met a certain individual dashing young man who's finds her fascinating, and will soon be arriving to tell her some important news. Thinking the young man to be interested in proposing marriage to Phoebe, Susan, once engaged to William, a Naval officer, offers her sister a wedding gown she never used. When Doctor Valentine Brown (Franchot Tone) comes to call, he surprises Phoebe with the news about enlisting in the Napoleonic war, stirring up bitter disappointment for her, especially after watching him marching off with the other enlistments. Ten years later, Phoebe and Susan, now spinster teachers at "The Misses Throssel School for Boys and Girls," find the soldiers returning home from war. Upon his arrival, Valentine becomes disappointed to find the once vibrant and beautiful Phoebe, now 30, looking old and tired. Noticing how the other ensigns (William Bakewell and Roland Varno) are wooing the young and silly Charlotte Parratt (Joan Fontaine), Phoebe abandons her drab existence by applying herself with new clothes and hair style. Phoebe's youthful appearance immediately attracts Valentine attention, who fails to recognize her as the girl he once loved. Passing herself off as her visiting flirtatious niece, Olivia, Phoebe not only becomes in Valentine's eyes, but after escorting her to the ball, attracts the attention of Charlotte's suitors as well. Problems arrive as the snoopy Henrietta and the Willoughby sisters suspect both Phoebe and "Livvy" to be one of the same, forcing Phoebe to wonder how long she'll be able to go on with her masquerade without arousing Valentine's suspicion and possibly losing him in the process.

Though the masquerading idea of woman attempting to fool the man she loves by becoming another identity is nothing new, it always seems to go well, especially wondering what will result for its climax. In spite the fact that QUALITY STREET was used as a basis of a silent 1927 MGM comedy starring Marion Davies, Conrad Nagel and Helen Jerome Eddy in the Hepburn, Tone and Bainter roles, the 1937 remake reportedly didn't do as well as the Davies original possibly due to Hepburn's current theatrical failures that labeled her at the time as "box-office poison." Even though QUALITY STREET somewhat resembles Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (successfully filmed by MGM in 1940) by way of locale, costume setting and spinster characters of the 19th century, the film itself is quite quaint and lavish scale with fine underscoring credited to Roy Webb. Of the supporting players, there's the comic relief of Eric Blore as a recruiting sergeant with a constant blink of an eye towards Patty (Cora Witherspoon); Fay Bainter providing character interest as both sympathetic spinster and mousy schoolteacher afraid of one of her students, a tall bully by the name of William Smith (Sherwood Bailey). It's also interesting spotting Estelle Winwood, a familiar face in many TV shows of the 1960s and 70s very early in her career, along with future Academy Award winner, Joan Fontaine, in two brief scenes, one with Hepburn.

Regardless of its reputation that caused QUALITY STREET to be seldom revived on commercial television back in the 1960s and 70s, the film itself began to surface more frequently later on with revivals on public television, home video (1980s-90s) and later DVD, cable television (American Movie Classics prior to 1998) and Turner Classic Movies. Alternative versions have usually been found through its opening credits: Title card Movietime" used in place of RKO Radio logo commonly shown in sixties and seventies; a brief glimpse insertion from an early RKO title, LET'S TRY AGAIN (1934) before the actual QUALITY STREET title fills the screen, or the restored theatrical opening on TCM. For anyone unfamiliar with both Hepburn and QUALITY STREET, it's worth seeing through once, at least out of curiosity (***)

I was about to go to bed one night and was watching a movie on TCM. The movie I was watching had just ended and Quality Street started to play. I was so charmed by this movie that I had to stay up quite late and finish watching it. I just couldn't make myself push the off button on my remote:) Katharine is quite charming as Phoebe and plays her niece quite well too. I honestly don't think Katharine looks too old, as other reviews have stated. Franchot Tone is very handsome as the gullible soldier. A good supporting cast as well. It is a light, entertaining romantic comedy. Just as long as you think this while the movie plays, it won't disappoint.

...Well, this film is chock full of boisterous shyness! Look at us we are so shy! And it gets very annoying in short order. It's about a street in England in 1805 - Quality Street - that has nobody but spinsters living there. No explanation of this is ever given. Every time a man appears all of the curtains part, and the residents all stare. In fact, anytime somebody new appears on the street they all stare.

The residents we are introduced to are ridiculously introverted and repressed, yet they are also passive aggressive and spend their time being nosey about others since they have no real lives of their own. The Throssel sisters are two people living on this street, young Phoebe (Kate Hepburn) and her older sister, Susan (Fay Bainter). Phoebe has some hope of being taken away from all of this when she meets a young physician, Valentine Brown (Franchot Tone), who seems interested in her, but when he comes to her house for a big announcement, it is that he has joined the army to fight Napoleon.

Phoebe declares that Brown is the one she loves, she is not interested in entertaining any other suitors, and then she throws herself into the work of running a school with her sister. Ten years pass and although Phoebe is only 30, she looks much older than that. Thus when Val (Valentine) returns from war, he is visibly shaken by her changed and wilted appearance and seems to recoil. After he leaves, Phoebe shakes down her hair, puts on an ornate gown, and begins to prance around as though she is 20 again. In the process, she seems to transform back into her 20 year old self. It's rather ridiculous - kind of like the 60s movie where a secretary takes off her glasses, shakes down her hair and is suddenly a go-go dancer, but I digress.

The problem is that Val returns suddenly and sees her like this and Phoebe is embarrassed by her behavior, so a servant identifies her as Livy, Phoebe's niece. Val is entranced, and now Phoebe is forced to keep up the ruse of being two people. The complicating factor is that the existence of this relative that nobody ever knew existed is noticed by the nosey neighbors, they don't believe that Livy is a real person, and they set out to prove that Livy and Phoebe are one in the same. Complications ensue.

Besides belaboring the issue of the residents of Quality Street being repressed but nosey, there are just no real likeable characters here. Phoebe should have cleared up this matter from the start but she doesn't, and Val is clueless as to what he means to Phoebe and seems to forget what time and age do to people. It does get pretty amusing in the last act, but it's a tough hard slog to get to that last act.

Quality Street is a contrived romance, with a small cast, on a set that looks like a play stage, with few visual impacts and in B&W. So, why did we enjoy it so much? The cast, down to the overplayed smaller parts, all does a great job. The ensemble cast brings spirit to even the small parts, the dialogue is clever, and the asides and glances make it fun. We particularly enjoyed the set and period behaviors as great insights on life in the early 19th century. Hollywood did a great job in establishing this period essence through effective use of hints and props. If you like Hepburn, you will enjoy this moral story, with feminine strength in an unforgiving society. Worth a relook!

On Quality Street, women occupy their time by either witnessing or passing gossip about their friends and neighbors. Whenever there's a gentleman caller, all the neighbors peer out their windows and stare, taking note of how he was dressed, if he brought flowers, and how long he stayed. What else is there to do in 1805?

Katharine Hepburn and her old maid sister Fay Bainter live on Quality Street, and while they primarily socialize with other old maids and gossipers in town, Kate has one particular friend she treasures: the dashing Franchot Tone. She's known Franchot for a year, and when she thinks he's going to propose, the rumor gets spread all over town. It turns out he enlisted in the army instead, and Kate feels humiliated. Ten years later, Franchot comes home from the war. He's a little gray at the temples, and Kate is no longer the blushing beauty he remembers. Can they fall in love again or is it too late?

While it has an intriguing premise, the rest of the film is pretty silly. In order to get him back, Kate throws caution to the wind and acts like a harlot with all the other men in town, and her mischief-making gets a little long in the tooth after a few scenes. It is great fun to see Kate all dolled up, though. She's more beautiful than she's ever looked in her movies, and her flirtations are charming and sweet. I'm fans of both Kate and Franchot, but Fay Bainter was my favorite character in the film. She was unselfish and a wonderful sister, and I wish she'd taken some screen time away from Kate's silliness.