Review of Stage Door (1937) by Darrie G — 12 Dec 2011

This film was a surprise, expecting the usual Hollywood smaltz, showbiz 1930's cliches, I put it on to snooze off to as background, but was woken up by its strange modernity, although made in 1937, set in a 'theatrical boarding house' for young ladies who come to NY to make it in theatre.

It is packed full of fast talking 'wise cracks' nearly all of which are really sometimes LOL funny and again oddly modern. The girls struggle in a recession to eat, go on dates with unsuitable men in order to get dinner bought, nick each others clothes, do the audition rounds, and somehow hold on till they get a break.

The material has a timeless quality whilst being innocent and dated but also seems relevant to the current recession. There is a chic flick element to it, in showing how they, despite competition and feuds, support one another and maintain friendships.

It does lurch into into melodrama at one point but mostly retains a witty realism. Ginger Rogers is sparkling and funny really in her element before becoming known as Astaire's sidekick, there is a very young Lucille Ball, ditto Ann Miller.

Andrea Leeds personifies the agony of an actress who can no longer get work and who has a role she has been chasing 'stolen' from her. I'm not a great Hepburn fan, but can see how she was a feminist prototype and excels at haughty.

A film like this with this many strong and funny and glamorous female roles would not be made today. The universal spirit of the theatre is conveyed in a goose-bump raising speechette where Catherine Collier (ex-actress) talks the new actress (Katherine Hepburn) into carrying on to her opening night despite a tragic death of a friend by reminding her 'there are 50 living people dependent on you, the ushers, the property men, the old women who clean out the theatre, each one of them has a right to demand that you give the best performance that you can, that's the tradition of the theatre".