Désirs secrets

I had heard of the famous Tarkington novel (but not read it) and had known that Katherine Hepburn won the Best Actress Oscar for this. So, I rented it.

It's just so moving. What I think some of the negative reviewers forget is just how much a girl's prospects in a small town in the 1920s are determined by whom she marries. For the intelligent, lively, vibrant, charming, warm-hearted Alice Adams - with a pitifully weak (but very sympathetic) and rather poor father, Alice's chance to "make anything" of her life is determined socially.

My heart ached with the snubs Alice receives - the routine unthinking cuts she receives at the hands of those from "better" families. Wearing a two year old dress with a corsage of violets illegally picked from the park, her loutish brother in his old beaten-up borrowed car as her date, she tries SO HARD to fit in - and doesn't because no one will let her. It's the most opaque of glass ceilings.

If you've ever felt (at a job, a party, a family gathering) that there was nothing you could do - no matter how hard you tried - to fit in - yet it was important that you did, you'll feel so much for this charming girl.

I do agree with others that the Arthur Russell part is underwritten.

But the movie boring? Not on your life. The painful moments are more difficult to watch than most war movies in which the protagonist is killed - because it is so well-done -

-- the pains of humiliation borne within, the disability one cannot hide, the old dress, the rude and outrageous relation, the thwarted eagerness - these are far more likely to be the painful moments in one's life (that one does not wish to remember) than any actual bullet wounds.

I love how the movie does not show a saintly Alice - she would love to snub others (e.g., the chubby boy at the dance), would love to parade before others in finery. yet her warmth toward her family - her essential sweetness, her strong frustrated yearning - are completely captivating.

We love this girl - and because of that, we love the movie.

ALICE ADAMS is the film I'd heard about for years as one of Hepburn's best early films so when I had the chance to watch it recently on TCM I took advantage of it.

From a novel by Booth Tarkington, it concerns a young woman anxious to connect socially with the right people who manages to attract the attention of a handsome and well-to-do young man (Fred MacMurray) at a party. Hepburn shines in the title role, looking fresh and attractive, struggling to keep him interested in her--but unfortunately, with all of her trademark mannerisms not always held in check.

She does well in the role but, in my opinion, the real magnet of interest is the under-appreciated Fred MacMurray who does a sincere and effortless job as her suitor in a role that could not have been easy to bring off. Both stars are in their physical prime, but MacMurray's naturalness only makes Hepburn look even more mannered than usual. Fortunately, this works because her character is supposed to be putting on airs. But at times, this is overdone.

The awkwardness of the social situations are exploited--and the highpoint has to be the warm dinner served on a hot evening, complete with maid service (by Hattie McDaniel) in one of the movie's most amusing, if uncomfortable, scenes. Here too, MacMurray displays just the right amount of stability against all odds. Fred Stone provides a number of chuckles as Hepburn's so provincial father.

All of the supporting roles are nicely filled, with special praise for Ann Shoemaker as the concerned mother anxious for her daughter to find the right suitor. But it's Hepburn's showcase under George Stevens' sensitive direction and she is convincing despite the overly mannered performance.

Summing up: Although some of the situations seemed a bit forced and not everyone will appreciate the humor at Hattie McDaniel's expense, it's worth watching for Hepburn and MacMurray alone.

I suppose that no one ever gave Alice Adams the sage advice that when one goes on a date with somebody, you should just "be yourself." But in the 1935 film "Alice Adams," Katharine Hepburn's title character is too busy trying to hide her humble background and put on hoity-toity airs, whenever she goes out shopping, to a party and especially when being courted, to EVER really be herself, and this desire to climb that social ladder only leads to embarrassing predicaments. This is actually a very charming film, and Hepburn, 28 here, looks extremely pretty, especially when given any number of beautiful close-ups by director George Stevens. The film boasts two wonderful and heartbreaking scenes: an early sequence at a ritzy dance, where wallflower Alice hugs the sidelines while pretending to no one in particular that everything is fine, and a late scene, in which the well-to-do young courter who has taken a fancy to her (nicely played by Fred MacMurray) suffers through a formal dinner with Alice's family in the middle of a heat wave. Hattie McDaniel (listed here as "McDaniels") almost steals this dinner scene as a slovenly, gum-chewing maid. Alice, despite her tendency to put on airs, is at heart a sweet girl (we see that in her relationships with her parents and brother), and the viewer is grateful that a young man is able to see beyond her B.S. and discern her finer qualities. But will upper-class Fred accept Alice, once he learns of her background? That, my IMDb'er friend, I urge you to find out for yourself...

When I first watched this film, despite the fact that George Steven's excellent direction makes a rather mundane plot into a very involving film, I was a bit thrown off by the actor who plays Katherine Hepburn's ailing father. About midway through the film I thought: "this guy's not much of an actor...".

However, by the time the film was over, I was completely captivated by the man, mostly due to his big confrontation scene with his boss near the end--in fact, I think I re-played that scene five times to really appreciate it's emotional power. And it is because of Mr. Fred Stone's performance in that scene that "Alice Adams" remains one of my very favorite films.

And who was the man? Well, anyone viewing "Alice Adams" is watching a rare document of American theatrical history. Fred Stone was born in 1873, actually traveled west with his family in a covered wagon, became a circus performer, acrobat, dancer, clown and expert "eccentric dancer." He knew Will Rogers and Annie Oakley, and became a MAJOR musical theater star in the early 20th-century. His most famous role was that of the ORIGINAL SCARECROW in the very first (1902) stage version of the WIZARD of OZ. As a young man Ray Bolger saw the production in Boston, and began to pursue his own "eccentric dancing" career, becoming immortalized himself as the Scarecrow in the 1939 MGM film.

In "Alice Adams", Fred Stone gives a remarkably sympathetic and honest performance, a simple, rather shy and utterly unpretentious Everyman, who, though convalescing from some undisclosed illness, must constantly endure the brow-beatings and guilt trips laid upon him by his nagging wife. By the end of the film, having become entangled in a business venture for which he seems totally unqualified and outraged by his son's thievery, he confronts his own boss in his living room for his big emotional scene. I remember reading in Mr. Stone's autobiography that George Stevens and Katherine Hepburn were so impressed by his performance in this scene that they actually EXPANDED his part in it to give him more screen time.

After Katherine Hepburn steps in to smooth things over with the boss, she has a final tender scene with Mr. Stone, one of those achingly beautiful scenes (with a lovely background score) that brings tears to the eye because of its sincerity and simplicity. You won't find anything like it in any film of the last 40 years--many imitations, yes---but not the REAL thing.

Oh yes, there's Katherine Hepburn too, in a role that requires her to act flighty and charming in an annoyingly overwrought way---a little of it goes a VERY long way. Still, she's lovely. Other stand-outs include Alice's smart-aleck brother, played by Frank Albertson, an appealing light comedy/musical theater guy BEST KNOWN for 2 roles: as Sam "hee-haw" Wainwright in "It's a Wonderful Life" and as the lecherous businessman who gives Janet Leigh the $40,000 in the second scene of "Psycho" (he really had aged a lot by 1959). Also, Charley Grapewin, best-known as Uncle Henry in the 1939 "Wizard of OZ" has a chance to shine as Mr. Stone's slightly cantankerous but generous and warm-hearted boss, Mr. Lamb.

"Alice Adams" is not for everyone; it's a low-key, genteel film about the problems of small-town people who are moving up in the social world and the one family that gets left behind. But thanks to George Steven's sensitive and compelling direction, the film transcends it very earthbound plot and becomes, at least for some of us, a very involving cinematic treasure.

This is an often under-rated film, and nowadays would certainly have been completely forgotten but for Katharine Hepburn's presence. As a satirical view of the 1920s filmed in the mid 1930s it feels somewhat dated. But not Hepburn's performance. This is is among the best of her RKO contract movies. Her innocence, her (modest) social pretension, her search for love, they all ring verosimilar - if not entirely true to life. And the celebrated window scene with tears and rain and sobs being one with Alice's feelings is far more than just 'clever'. Hepburn fans will like it. Others might very well follow along.