Stage Door (1937)
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Stage Door Movie Review
Stage Door is a 1937 drama film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers and Andrea Leeds. It’s such a good, always relevant flick.
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“We started off on the wrong foot.
Let’s stay that way“
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It follows a bunch of actresses who try to break through in Hollywood. It portrays very realistically just how difficult it is to enter into this business in particular, it showcases the importance of connections and, maybe most importantly, it depicts just how harmful the competitive nature between women can be, and how important it is for them to stick together and fight the good fight in unison.
I personally found the movie too short for such a ripe subject matter. It should have been at least half an hour longer, especially having in mind that it deals with way too many characters, and thus most are left underutilized. The movie is too quickly paced and it lacks focus throughout.
But still, most of the characters are excellent, and the performances are uniformly stellar. Katharine Hepburn plays Terry Randall per usual remarkably well, and I do not agree with her assessment that her character is pointless whatsoever. She serves her purpose, and in particular the scene where she fought for these actresses with the producer was the most powerful, most wonderful scene in the flick.
Ginger Rogers is also excellent as Jean and the competitive relationship between the two is toxic, but fun. The movie can definitely be too hateful, but realistically so, and certainly many of its lines of dialogue are very amusing. It succeeds as a dramedy of sorts for sure.
Everyone else is excellent, including the men with Adolphe Menjou being especially terrific and memorable as very realistic Anthony Powell. Every character here is exceptionally grounded in reality. But Andrea Leeds played Kay Hamilton so well, in fact, that she should have won an Oscar for the supporting performance.
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Certainly her tragic faith was touching and that ending was so moving. She is a genuinely excellent character, but Stage Door should have been more serious to pull off better that tragic tone of the third act. But still, this is a very fun, still important film as it so honestly depicts the would-be actresses and the behind-the-scenes of Hollywood’s clockwork machinery.
Stage Door is tonally uneven and too short, but it offers an always relevant look into the Hollywood industry and just how difficult it is to become an actor. It also depicts the toxic rivalry between women brutally honestly. It’s a fun film bolstered by terrific dialogue and tremendous performances from its stellar cast with Andrea Leeds being particularly phenomenal in such a powerful role.
