Good 30s Films: Stage Door

1937 Comedy Drama
From RKO 
Directed by Gregory LaCava

Starring
Katharine Hepburn
Ginger Rogers
Adolphe Menjou
Andrea Leeds
Gail Patrick
Constance Collier
Lucille Ball
Ann Miller
Eve Arden
Jack Carson
Samuel S. Hinds
Franklin Pangborn
Grady Sutton

For those who like to see a gaggle of actresses being bitchy, this is the film for you.  Some might say that The Women, released two years later, eclipsed it in this regard but I'm not so sure.

Based on a play (cowritten with George S, Kaufman) by Edna Ferber, whose novels (Show Boat, So Big, Giant, among them) dealt with characters who age considerably, but she abandoned that platform here.  This concerns a brief period of time involving aspiring Broadway actresses who reside at the Footlights Club, a theatrical boardinghouse in New York.  We have glimpses into the hopes and dreams, setbacks and tragedies of most of them but clearly the film belongs to just two... Rogers and Hepburn.

There is a formulaic feel to the entire affair but these actresses raise the stakes a bit.  We are introduced to everyone in snippets, most of them highlighting insults and sarcasm, when Hepburn arrives in all her imperiousness.  She accuses the crowd of all trying to be comics, which just about nails it.

It's been said that the writers got the snarky dialogue by listening to various actresses rehearse.  It's also alleged that director LaCava encouraged his troop to improvise as much as they wanted.  RKO produced the film and most of this crowd was under contract to the studio at the time and without question slipped their own personalities into the dialogue.  

Hepburn's character, Terry, is high-minded, stubborn, determined, bossy and brainy.  Gee, how do you suppose she came up with all that in her improvising?  Likewise, Rogers' character, Jean, is insolent, brittle and unyielding... traits that spilled out when she was encouraged to be herself.  This line of thinking could be applied to all the rest as well.  Ball is embittered without humor, while Arden is embittered with humor (and a cat hanging constantly around her neck... nice touch and her idea) and Miller took her usual gal-pal, background position.  Gorgeous Patrick brings her usual conceited, snooty manner to the proceedings while Leeds, always a gentle soul in her brief career, stands apart from all the rest.

Hepburn and Rogers room together and just annoy the hell out of one another.  No one likes Terry (a name that doesn't fit Hepburn) but no one dislikes her more than Jean.  The vitality that seems to be a part of this film is chiefly seen in the caustic nature in the relationships among all the women, but Hepburn and Rogers really ignite it.  Frankly, so do Rogers and Patrick.  

Wary of one another in character and out

Terry is a rich girl who hopes to have some success slumming with mere mortals at the boardinghouse.  She is focused on becoming a respected actress and doesn't know the starring role in the play she's auditioning out for has been bought for her by her father, who disapproves of her career choice and hopes she fails and gives up the silly notion of acting.

Her producer, Menjou, always a little over the top with his unctuous, dapper men of authority, dislikes Terry and, he, too, hopes she fails.  In the meantime, he is leading on Jean, a dancer (duh)... that is, until she catches on.  It's such a hoot to listen to how both Terry and Jean lambast authority figures.  We are talking a comedy.

The story, however, takes a decidedly dramatic turn when Kay (Leeds), another boardinghouse member, desperately wants the part that Terry is going to inherit.  Soft-spoken and seemingly a bit too reticent to become an actress, she once had a good part in Menjou's last production, but hasn't worked since and is running out of money.  She'd die if she had to return to her hometown.  That is, in fact, what happens.  She throws herself off an upper balcony.  Leeds would nab a supporting Oscar nomination for her touching performance.

You may recall Hepburn's the calla lilies are in bloom again speech at the end of the film... well, she lifted it from a play, The Lake, that she had appeared in previously.  It's one more example of how this film took so much from these actresses' own lives.  I'm not saying it's a bad thing, mind you, it just is... and it works.  Actually, aside from the characters' names, not much remains from the play.

The strife between Hepburn's and Rogers' characters was aided by the fact that they didn't particularly care for one another.  In Rogers' favor, not too many cared for Hepburn personally.  Hepburn regarded Rogers as being beneath her... after all, she was just a dancer.  Character traits matched each actress' traits... one a snooty rich girl and one a snooty poor girl.

Each believed the other's part was enlarged, causing a certain jealousy.  At the same time, each came to Stage Door with insecurities.  Hepburn needed a hit... she just done three dogs... and was in danger of her star status losing some luster.  Rogers wanted desperately to do something dramatic, to prove that she could stand on her own two feet without Fred Astaire's assistance.  Both would have their wishes come true.

This is very early work for three who were not yet the stars they would become... Ball, Arden and Miller.  Arden was my favorite here.  Miller, as it turns out, was only 14 but lied about her age to secure the role.  She was motivated because she knew she would have a brief dancing scene with her idol, Rogers.

Franklin Pangborn

It was also fun to see two of what Hollywood like to call those fey  character actors.  There were several of them in the 1930s and all were great fun to watch.  Here we have Franklin Pangborn for the thousandth time playing a butler.  The numerous, hysterical bits of business he's given again show that Hollywood is giving its approving wink.  The same could be said for Grady Sutton, who once again plays a doofus boyfriend who will get tossed over.  The wink comes with the character's name... Butch.

Grady Sutton with Lucille Ball

Gregory LaCava, though largely unknown today, was a great director of comedies.  The women of this film purportedly loved working for him.  He treated them all as goddesses.

The film did well on its initial release, fulfilling everyone's hopes and dreams at RKO.  Here, have a look at something that has nothing to do with Stage Door.  But we have discussed three of the actresses.

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