Morning Glory (1933)

Katharine Hepburn won the first of her record four Best Actress Academy Awards playing an actress; one from a small town, with stars in her eyes, that makes her way to New York to be a star.When first we see her, she is wistfully admiring the paintings hung on the walls of a theater lobby of Ethel Barrymore, Sarah Bernhardt etc.. She makes her way to the offices of a successful producer she'd heard of, Louis Easton (Adolphe Menjou). He is conspiring with his writer/friend Joseph Sheridan (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) to get Rita Vernon (Mary Duncan), an actress they work with, to do a mediocre play and ultimately star in one of Sheridan's plays.At the same time, in Easton's office reception area, Eva Lovelace (Hepburn) meets Hedges ( C. Aubrey Smith), a character actor who's also hoping to get a part in the play. Eva's "don't take no for an answer" appeal charms Hedges into "taking her on" as a student, for future payment, and her persistence also enables her to meet Easton and Sheridan.After an indeterminate amount of time has passed, we learn that Eva got a chance to play a small part in an Easton production, did not do well, and is now literally a "starving artist" living in the streets. After a successful opening night of a different Easton play, Hedges finds Eva in a small coffee shop and insists on helping her home. However, since he was on his way to a party at Easton's place, he takes her there instead.There she meets several famous people including another producer and a critic, while getting rather inebriated herself. Her true personality and her persistent outgoing nature lead her to perform a scene from Romeo and Juliet in front of the partygoers, causing Sheridan to fall for her. However, she passes out in Easton's lap and, later, spends the night with him. The next morning, not realizing Sheridan's infatuation with her, Easton tells him what happened and asks him to help him get rid of his one night stand.But, never fear, all will turn out O.K. in the end. A happy Hollywood ending using a "much duplicated since" plot vehicle will bring "us" what we all want.

Morning Glory (1933) starring Katherine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Adolph Menjou, and C. Aubrey Smith is a wonderful movie starring the incredible (4 Best Actress Academy Awards) Katherine Hepburn giving a "star" performance in a "star vehicle" show aimed at dazzling audiences with wonderful acting exhibitions, and succeeding completely.It is a stage play presented unpretentiously in movie form. Seeing Mornging Glory (1933) starring Katherine Hepburn is like going to a stage show, a dramatic Broadway stage show of quality part of the great tradition of Broadway (NYC USA) stage show performances given in huge numbers during the 1920's and early 1930's, during the historic period in USA cultural history when stage plays were the most important and honored form of performing, story telling art, and movies were not yet at all considered a serious art form, but rather were (justifiably) ranked with and compared to circuses and amusement parks (the owner of Loew's Inc., also owner of MGM movie studio during the 1930's and Louie B. Mayer's boss was Nicholas Schenck, who also owned New Jersey amusement parks, his work before he entered the movie business).Morning Glory (1933) starring Katherine Hepburn depends completely on actor performances, and the movie is essentially an exposition of wonderful (incredibly skilled) actor work with only simple movie settings, and no cinema camera, editing, music, special effects, or director "auteur" tricks or emphases.It's a movie carried completely by the actors in the show, and one can see good actor work clearly and for long, sustained periods in this movie in a way almost never seen in other movies.See Morning Glory (1933) starring Katherine Hepburn to see fine, skillful, talented, inspired, disciplined acting at it's best, presented during a cultural period in USA history when such acting was honored and emphasized, and when the subjects and depictions presented by good actors were intelligent, worthy, and culturally impressive and honorable.It's a breathtaking movie made during the early days of movie talkies, and before the oppressive Hays/ Breen "Hollywood Self-Imposed Censorship" Office imposed it's infamous code on cinematic art in 1934.The sound is not always good (mikes were placed back then in flower arrangements and actors sometimes failed to "talk into the flowers" with the result that voices could not be heard clearly), and the only flashy visual parts of the movie are montages showing the Times Square lights and panorama of 1933, and hands clapping superimposed over depictions of actors on stage and audiences reacting to stage performances, and of course the elegant white tie and tails and gowns for the ladies dress part of parties and backstage scenes in the movie.The big thing about Morning Glory (1933) starring Katherine Hepburn is actor performances of astounding quality...the fact that this movie gave great actors a chance to work out and show the audience their stuff.George Lucas and his "Industrial Light And Magic" movie special effects factory were not needed to make Morning Glory (1933) starring Ktherine Hepburn a success and an honored movie....one which should be honored for more than Katherine Hepburn's justifiably praised and awarded leading lady actor performance.--------- Written by Tex Allen, SAG Actor. Visit WWW.IMDb.Com and choose "Tex Allen" "resume" for contact information, movie credits, and biographical information about Tex Allen. He has reviewed more than 42 movies posted on WWW.IMDb.Com (the world's largest movie information database, owned by Amazon.Com) as of January 2011. These include: 1. Alfie (1966) 29 July 2009 2. Alien (1979) 24 July 2009 3. All the Loving Couples (1969) 17 January 2011 4. All the President's Men (1976) 16 November 2010 5. American Graffiti (1973) 22 November 2010 6. Animal House (1978) 16 August 2009 7. Bullitt (1968) 23 July 2009 8. Captain Kidd (1945) 28 July 2009 9. Child Bride (1938) 24 September 2009 10. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) 22 September 2010 11. Destination Moon (1950) 17 January 2011 12. Detour (1945) 19 November 2010 13. Die Hard 2 (1990) 23 December 2010 14. The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1993) 19 November 2010 15. Jack and the Beanstalk (1952) 26 July 2009 16. King Solomon's Mines (1950) 1 December 2010 17. Knute Rockne All American (1940) 2 November 2010 18. Claire's Knee (1970) 15 August 2009 19. Melody Ranch (1940) 10 November 2010 20. Morning Glory (1933) 19 November 2010 21. Mush and Milk (1933) 17 January 2011 22. New Moon (1940) 3 November 2010 23. Pinocchio (1940) 6 November 2010 24. R2PC: Road to Park City (2000) 19 November 2010 25. Salt (2010) 24 August 2010 26. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) 21 January 2011 27. Sunset Blvd. (1950) 1 December 2010 28. The Forgotten Village (1941) 21 January 2011 29. The Great Dictator (1940) 1 November 2010 30. The King's Speech (2010) 19 January 2011 31. The Last Emperor (1987) 20 January 2011 32. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) 9 January 2011 33. The Man in the White Suit (1951) 5 August 2009 Written by Tex Allen, SAG-AFTRA movie actor. Visit WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for more information about Tex Allen. Tex Allen's email address is [email protected] Tes Allen Movie Credits, Biography, and 2012 photos at WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen. See other Tex Allen written movie reviews....almost 100 titles.... at: "http://imdb.com/user/ur15279309/comments" (paste this address into your URL Browser)

I enjoyed Adolph Menjou's performance in this film, and there's quite a bit of enjoyable, witty dialogue. But I found Hepburn's performance annoying. A certain amount of the affectedness in her performance is appropriate--she's playing a girl enamored with the "idea" of being a great star. But Hepburn is so over the top. And her awful screechy voice. The "drunk" scene when she does bits of Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet and so impresses the audience -- well, she's laughable. I'm amazed that she won Best Actress for this. Amazed.As contrast to Hepburn's exaggerated performance, Fairbanks seems strangely subdued. And a subdued Fairbanks is just a fairly attractive face and not much else to him.Adolph Menjou is sexy, worldly-wise, and off-handedly kind in this film. Unlike other reviewers here on IMDb.com, I can see why Hepburn's character falls for him. I would have, too. When you're feeling vulnerable, an attractive daddy figure can sweep you off your feet.C. Aubrey Smith, as always, is charming. I also enjoy seeing his name in the credits. He did a million films, played the same role in almost all of them, and never turned in a bad performance.

Maybe it's the force of KATHARINE HEPBURN's eagerness to please that makes MORNING GLORY stay fresh, at least for the first part of the film where she plays a naively ambitious stage actress who charms ADOLPHE MENJOU and DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR. into giving her her first big break on stage, as Eva Lovelace.But the film itself is as dated in its pacing and rather abrupt ending as anything you might expect from the 1933 era of film-making. Hepburn's character arrives at a certain point in her development and then suddenly the curtain falls and we don't know whether she indeed was just a "morning glory" who faded after quick success.Hepburn is attractively photographed and does well in a role that was tailor-made for her talent, and Menjou and Fairbanks, Jr. are similarly well cast opposite her--but I much prefer the Hepburn of STAGE DOOR to the character she creates here.Summing up: Has the look and feel of a stage play all the way through. Did Hepburn deserve an Oscar for this? I don't think so.