With Katherine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers firmly in place at the acting helm, and the combination of Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman as its writers, 'Stage Door' could be described as already having a lot going for it. However, the biggest coup for the makers of 'Stage Door' was in its superb casting of young female talent, the ones who make up the bulk of 'The Footlights Club'. Sure, many of the women who star in this film were no strangers in front of the camera by the time they made 'Stage Door', but it should be stated that it was with 'Stage Door' that many of the young players took their first real big step up the ladder of film success (Hepburn, Rogers and Menjou excluded, of course).
Lucille Ball had already been in 30 films before landing the role of Judy Canfield, the wannabe actress who eventually gives up acting in order to get married. In her 30 films prior to 'Stage Door', Lucille Ball was often just an extra, sometimes not even worthy of an ending credit. After this movie she would stand toe-to-toe with the Marx Brothers in 'Room Service' (not in a Margaret Dumont kind of way, either) and later as a passenger on an ill-fated flight in 'Five Came Back'. Of course she would ultimately shatter her movie-acting career with a career in television on a show that would bear her name. Lucille Ball would become an American icon, the first lady of television and perhaps it's most famous personality. You could say that it all really started with her break in getting a part in 'Stage Door'.
Eve Arden would remain a B-actor throughout her career, but just like Lucille Ball, she too would star in her own television program during the later part of the 1950's. Seeing her in the role of 'Eve', it would be easy to say that she was perfectly typecast for 'Stage Door' as herself.
But the biggest surprise of young talent in 'Stage Door' comes from Ann Miller. It's hard to believe she was only 14 years old when she made this. Miller would become famous in films such as 'Kiss Me Kate' and 'On the Town' before retiring from making movies in the mid fifties.
But about the movie .
The dialog in 'Stage Door' sprays the screen in a rapid fire, mainly through the cheeky insults traded back and forth from the films' principal stars: Hepburn and Rogers. Hepburn plays Terry Randall, the spoiled rich girl who relishes an uphill battle, whether it's from embarking upon a new profession with no prior skills in that profession, like acting, or in alienating the poor and desperate women at the Footlights Club by her posh appearance. It's through these attributes that another girl, Jean Maitland (Ginger Rogers) finds her as an archenemy. Naturally Terry and Jean become roommates as this arrangement provides the film with many of its humorous situations.
The cynical barbs are not always aimed at each other however. A lot of the time the women appear to be harboring a lot of self-loathing, either for themselves or for their career decisions. The film features a lot of cutaway close ups of these one-liners, perhaps in an attempt to make the movie not appear too much as a stage play. The close ups also provide many comic visuals such as a lot of eye rolling and shoulder slumping. It's to the film director's credit (George La Cava) that these actions never really come across as tiresome. When the film frame is widened out from close ups, the dialog sometimes overlaps, visual jokes whiz by and many different characters run in and out of frame. This is a movie you will have to watch more than once just to hear and see the all of the jokes crammed into its 90 minutes. I'm sure that Howard Hawks watched this film more than once before making 'His Girl Friday'.
It's not often one gets to see so many women wearing cynicism as a protective blanket against rejection, failure and their own arrested development. This film should be treasured.
Oh yeah, Ginger Rogers playing a ukulele is adorable.
9/10. Clark Richards
Lucille Ball had already been in 30 films before landing the role of Judy Canfield, the wannabe actress who eventually gives up acting in order to get married. In her 30 films prior to 'Stage Door', Lucille Ball was often just an extra, sometimes not even worthy of an ending credit. After this movie she would stand toe-to-toe with the Marx Brothers in 'Room Service' (not in a Margaret Dumont kind of way, either) and later as a passenger on an ill-fated flight in 'Five Came Back'. Of course she would ultimately shatter her movie-acting career with a career in television on a show that would bear her name. Lucille Ball would become an American icon, the first lady of television and perhaps it's most famous personality. You could say that it all really started with her break in getting a part in 'Stage Door'.
Eve Arden would remain a B-actor throughout her career, but just like Lucille Ball, she too would star in her own television program during the later part of the 1950's. Seeing her in the role of 'Eve', it would be easy to say that she was perfectly typecast for 'Stage Door' as herself.
But the biggest surprise of young talent in 'Stage Door' comes from Ann Miller. It's hard to believe she was only 14 years old when she made this. Miller would become famous in films such as 'Kiss Me Kate' and 'On the Town' before retiring from making movies in the mid fifties.
But about the movie .
The dialog in 'Stage Door' sprays the screen in a rapid fire, mainly through the cheeky insults traded back and forth from the films' principal stars: Hepburn and Rogers. Hepburn plays Terry Randall, the spoiled rich girl who relishes an uphill battle, whether it's from embarking upon a new profession with no prior skills in that profession, like acting, or in alienating the poor and desperate women at the Footlights Club by her posh appearance. It's through these attributes that another girl, Jean Maitland (Ginger Rogers) finds her as an archenemy. Naturally Terry and Jean become roommates as this arrangement provides the film with many of its humorous situations.
The cynical barbs are not always aimed at each other however. A lot of the time the women appear to be harboring a lot of self-loathing, either for themselves or for their career decisions. The film features a lot of cutaway close ups of these one-liners, perhaps in an attempt to make the movie not appear too much as a stage play. The close ups also provide many comic visuals such as a lot of eye rolling and shoulder slumping. It's to the film director's credit (George La Cava) that these actions never really come across as tiresome. When the film frame is widened out from close ups, the dialog sometimes overlaps, visual jokes whiz by and many different characters run in and out of frame. This is a movie you will have to watch more than once just to hear and see the all of the jokes crammed into its 90 minutes. I'm sure that Howard Hawks watched this film more than once before making 'His Girl Friday'.
It's not often one gets to see so many women wearing cynicism as a protective blanket against rejection, failure and their own arrested development. This film should be treasured.
Oh yeah, Ginger Rogers playing a ukulele is adorable.
9/10. Clark Richards