Entre bastidores

New York City. The Footlights Club is a theatrical boarding house where young women wait for the chance to make it big on Broadway. To deal with the disappointment & bitterness that can set in, they engage in wisecracks & gossip. Fiercely loyal to their friends, they can be wickedly spiteful to those that cross them. Always before them is their dream - to capture elusive success at the STAGE DOOR.

A wonderful film, fresh & sparkling, with great dialogue infusing its wit & drama. The rapid-fire cross talk is still a real treat for viewers - as is the chance to see several fine young actresses early in their careers.

The entire cast is excellent. Brash Katharine Hepburn is the new girl who quickly meets the `regulars': feisty Ginger Rogers, cynical Lucille Ball, wisecracker Eve Arden, lively Ann Miller, snobbish Gail Patrick & sweet Andrea Leeds. While the young ladies certainly get most of the attention, be sure not to overlook Constance Collier, terrific as Miss Luther the has-been actress. Growing old on bittersweet memories, she is a constant reminder to the others what, even with success, they still might become.

Adolphe Menjou gives his usual vivid performance as an immoral producer, while Samuel S. Hinds is good as Hepburn's father. Film mavens will enjoy spotting several familiar faces in uncredited roles: Jack Carson as a Seattle lumberman; Grady Sutton as a butcher's helper; Frank Reicher as a stage director; Franklin Pangborn, hilarious as a butler; and Ralph Forbes in the role of Hepburn's stage spouse.

Director Gregory LaCava apparently liked to hit the bottle and so had a spotty career, but Stage Door is his masterpiece. Not in some personal, auteurist way, but in having achieved an almost ideal example of Depression-era movie entertainment. Its venue is the Footlights Club, a theatrical boarding house near Broadway, where lamb stew and broken dreams are the nightly staples. Among the gals with stiletto tongues but hearts of gold are Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, Ann Miller, Gail Patrick and formidable Constance Collier ("Could you see an older woman in the part?"). But the movie centers on the rivalry between roommates Katherine Hepburn, as a spoiled rich kid who tries acting as a lark, and Ginger Rogers, as a plucky thespian waiting for her break. Believe it or no, those diametrical opposites (aristocratic, ethereal Kate and tough, pragmatic Ginger) work like a dream together. The script negotiates a delicate path between pathos and bathos, and somehow keeps its balance, even when one of the troupers loses her grip on reality and...Well, enough said. Best of all: this is the movie in which Hepburn gets to elocute: "The calla lilies are in bloom again...." Sheerest heaven.

A very well acted classic drama with great characters that interact realistically when together, it is also supported by some fine acting. Katharine Hepburn is very strong and natural, and Ginger Rogers matches her, playing a witty and almost cynical character very well. Gail Patrick is great too, yet Andrea Leeds was the only cast member to go on to receive an Academy Award nomination, however she is the best of the bunch, giving life to a frail and emotionally unstable aspiring actress. It is a bit overly talkative, and it has at least one too many subplots going on, however the film presents such an interesting insight into the lives of wannabee actresses that these points hardly matter. It is indeed a little difficult to distinguish each of the supporting characters as individuals, and perhaps they could done with further development, but yet this factor is very much like how all the aspiring actresses in the world are: indistinguishable, until you get to know them - and how actresses get ahead in the world is a lot of what this film is about. The final few minutes of the film could have been chopped out; otherwise this is good viewing all the way through.

Thanks to the BBC this finally appears as a long-overdue TV showing in tribute to Kate Hepburn. A stunning cast includes Ginger Rogers, Eve Arden, Lucille Ball and Ann Miller (both looking impossibly young!), Constance Collier (one of the great old troupers), Andrea Leeds, Adolphe Menjou, and in the cast but not credited an hilarious performance from Franklin Pangborn as Menjou's butler, plus appearances from Jack Carson, Grady Sutton, Ralph Forbes. It is a classic film fan's joy even if the plot does creak along on a variation of the 'heiress who wants to act' theme.

Hepburn looks fabulous and that brittle voice was rarely used better than to deliver the sparkling script required. Great role for Ginger too (time off from dancing with Fred, this being around the middle of their legendary partnership). Love it. One to treasure.

Something very sinister happened to movies between 1937 and the 1950s that made this kind of film impossible to make. It's a terrific example of ensemble acting, with no one taking a back seat to anyone else. Ginger Rogers is absolutely amazing, especially after seeing some of the fluffy stuff she did with Astaire. It's hard to believe this is the same actress.

The dialogue zips along with lighting speed including some great laugh-out-loud one-liners. What a wonderful script! Very much like "Grand Hotel" in its structure and shockingly adult themes.

The relationships between all the women are so complex it's hard to believe it was actually made when it was. It makes men look very bad - at best we're imbeciles, at worst, Svengalis. And it has the same kind of uneasiness and disillusionment with the theater that "Sunset Boulevard" had with the movies. I wish there were more like it.