Rating: 
Summary: Welcome to the Footlights Club
Review: Watch this movie, *any way* you can. Seriously, you won't be disappointed. It's a brilliant way to spend a couple of hours: where else would you get an all-star cast that would make your jaw drop today (Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, Ann Miller etc. etc.), and a clever, witty script played to the hilt by the astounding cast? The story is fairly simple: Terry Randall (Hepburn) moves into the Footlights Club to begin her career as an actress. Viewed as an odd cookie by the rest of the girls, her room-mate Jean (Rogers) especially, she starts to win them over until she wins the part belonging to Kaye (Andrea Leeds). Not wins, so much as given. It takes a tragedy to turn Terry into the actress she could be, and the friend she eventually becomes as she remains in the Footlights Club. This film benefits from a truly amazing cast: Hepburn is glorious as Terry, an independent, in-your-face girl from the upper class, unsure why she's not liked by her new friends as she blithely (and unknowingly) talks down to them; but fiercely loyal and protective of them nonetheless. Witness Terry's outburst in Powell's office, or the way she puts Jean, much the worse for wine, to bed. Hepburn is truly great in her emotional scenes, when she is called to perform on stage despite the revelation she's received just beforehand. Hepburn alone doesn't make the movie though (as she eventually does in lesser vehicles with less worthy co-stars). Ginger Rogers as Jean is a breath of fresh air. She's quirky, charming, and just generally appealing in her role, playing Jean with a wonderful confidence that bodes well for the character. You warm to Jean immediately. I love Rogers' drunken scenes with Menjou--ditzy yet sweet. The supporting cast is fantastic as well, Lucille Ball never missing a chance to steal a scene or make a quip, Eve Arden fast on her heels. Andrea Leeds overacts a little, I think, but is generally good in her demanding role as Kaye--she does an excellent job on the staircase towards the end of the movie. Absolutely A+. Everything Hollywood should be, was, and now isn't.
Rating:
Summary: Katherine, the Queen, in Stage Door with an All Star cast
Review: What can I add to all these great reviews but my love and admiration for one of the greats, Katherine Hepburn. Except to star with so many other great ladies of the stage and screen was a stroke of genius on the part of Gregory La Cava!! It just amazes me that they are finally getting around to 'thinking' about releasing this comedic great in DVD. What's the problem here?? Scared your gonna make a few million more??? :-) Katherine has done this one a few times....the girl that wants to be a star and always gets the part but not without a struggle and some very important, humbling lessons. Teamed up with the likes of Ginger Rogers, Lucille Ball, Gail Patrick, Anne Miller, Eve Arden and her acting coach, the fabulous stage and screen great Constance Collier, this movie was all that and more!! Witty and biting and a bit depressing, an all around entertaining feature film. Ms. Hepburn plays the rich, spoiled debutante, who wants to be an actress but wants more, in the beginning, to prove to her father that she can make it on her own. Set in New York. She shows up at a boarding house for aspiring, struggling actresses. Most of the films great lines are acted out in the "living room" where they talk about men and work or lack there of. Of course with Katherine's arrival a few want so bad to dislike her, especially her new room mate Ginger Rogers. Catty blow by blows are exchanged between Rogers and Patrick and Rogers and Hepburn. Who needs cussing and talk openly about sex to get you to blush? Some of the lines are priceless and timeless!! The lessons in the story are about how Katherine is humbled and all of the girls in the story learn valuable lessons about the business and life. It all ends on a good but very sad, bitter-sweet note. But you will just have to watch it to know what I'm talking about. I thought Lucille Ball looked gorgeous and Katherine was quite sophisticated and Ginger was very glamorous and had some of the best witty/catty lines in the story. She and Katherine played very well together, it's a shame they didn't do anything else together (or did they?). It would have been fun to have seen Katherine, Lucille and Ginger do another feature film together. I thought the chemistry between the 3 of them was very good. Ah, pipe dreams. I hope we all are graced with this wonderful film on DVD soon. As I edit this review I wanted to express my sadness at the loss of the great Katherine Hepburn. She is missed but her works live on in the many wonderful films she added her majestic magic too, as well as the many books. I highly recommend her own book that she wrote and had published back in 1991, appropriately named "Me". Ah, The calla lilies are in bloom again....................
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