Morning Glory (1933)

Best Quote:

Hepburn:  My! You're gaining weight. 

Duncan:   Yes. I'll soon be your size, my dear

The movie that made Katherine Hepburn a star, and got her an Academy Award nomination.  The plot is simple and now overly-familiar; a naive actress from the sticks, wrongly thinks she'll take Broadway by storm.*  Hepburn is impossibly young (age 26) and charming, and never plays a false note.  The supporting cast is mostly excellent: C. Aubrey Smith,  Mary Duncan, and Adolph Menjou **  Only 74 minutes long - and has some good lines.

Best Scene: A drunken Hepburn shows everyone she's  a good actress. 

Worst Scene:  Fairbanks declares his love.

Summary:  I liked Morning Glory  more than most***. In fact, I prefer it to several Tracy-Hepburn pairings (Desk Set and Pat And Mike) .  But then, I don't get upset at filmed plays, and like Hepburn's comic persona. Rating 3 of 4 

Notes

* =      Stage Door riffs off the same story, but does it better.

** =    But Douglas Fairbanks is very bland. Its hard to believe he was the dashing/devilish Prince Rupert in Prisoner of Zenda. 

*** =  Kael called it a  "a strange, ambivalent study of that lying-cheating kind of determination."  which indicates Kael didn't get the comedy/satire.  Like  Hepburn's planned acting career:

Of course I expect to die at my zenith. My star shall never set, I’ve sworn that too. And when that moment comes, when I feel that I’ve done my best, my very best, I should really die by my own hand some night at the end of the play. On the stage.”