Alice Adams (1935)
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Alice Adams Movie Review
Alice Adams is a 1935 romantic drama film directed by George Stevens and starring Katharine Hepburn and Fred MacMurray. It’s a strong, very emotional movie.
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“I’ve lived long enough to know that
circumstances can beat the best of us“
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It is about a young woman in a financially struggling family, and her pretentious attempts to appear upper-class and wed a wealthy man while concealing her poverty. It’s a relevant for its era story, and it’s particularly strong at examining class relations and how poverty can affect the children in particular.
Katharine Hepburn plays the protagonist, and she is absolutely terrific here. She has rarely been better in fact, and I absolutely agree with Bette Davis’ own assessment that her win for ‘Dangerous’ over Hepburn’s performance in this movie was undeserved. She was excellent, but Hepburn was better.
Her performance here is so much better than the ones she had in ‘Morning Glory’ and ‘Little Women’ because she doesn’t just play a caricature here, but a genuinely relatable, complex character. Her emotional scenes in the end are so powerful, and in particular the character’s growth was wonderful to witness.
Fred MacMurray is also good here and very charming, but he needed bigger screen time nonetheless. I loved the two parents as well, and their scenes are some of the most emotional ones here. And the less said about Hattie McDaniel, the better as blacks were very stereotypically portrayed here.
The main problem I’ve had with Alice Adams is its pacing. The second half is truly terrific and I loved those dramatic moments, but the ending itself is incredibly clichéd, unrealistic and such a stupid happy ending that was obviously forced upon the studio for bigger potential profits. As for the first half, it has its strong moments, but it’s overall too slow of a build-up and uneventful.
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The technical aspects themselves aren’t all that impressive, but the acting is great. George Stevens’ direction could have been better given his caliber, but the dialogue is the standout aspect here as many conversations in it are very touching and dramatic. The nominations for Best Picture and Best Actress were both deserved, and Hepburn herself should have won.
Alice Adams definitely has a less memorable first half and the happy ending is very forced, but the dialogue is terrific, there are some quite moving sequences later on and the protagonist is superbly developed, very complex and beautifully performed by Katharine Hepburn in a powerhouse performance that should have brought her an Oscar.
