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Sunday, July 29, 2012

Morning Glory by Lowell Sherman, 1933 (NR)



Not to confuse with Morning Glory (2010)

with Katharine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Adolphe Menjou, Mary Duncan, C. Aubrey Smith, Don Alvarado, Fred Santley, Richard Carle, Tyler Brooke, Geneva Mitchell, Helen Ware

Stagestruck but unseasoned actress Eva Lovelace (Katharine Hepburn) heads for Broadway's bright lights, where she eventually gets her break with help from a paternal thespian (C. Aubrey Smith), an ambitious playwright (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) and a womanizing producer (Adolphe Menjou). Hepburn's luminous performance in this showbiz drama resulted in the first of her four Best Actress Oscars and became the launching pad for her stellar film career.

It was an interesting film debut for an actress to start in a movie about young ambitious girl who starts a flourishing career, to fall into what could be called a Morning Glory, or perhaps not. I wonder how close it was to the reality, all I know is that later on, she was never that kind of person, wanting to be glorified (or perhaps a little, deep inside) by the press, the fans, the success didn't seem to change her so much. She was brilliant, perhaps knew it, allowed herself not to format to the conventions of Hollywood, and after some good and back luck, became one of these female heroes of the 20th Century. Impressive. About the movie, I felt they needed to deliver the lines so fast I got a bit stressed out. The character of Eva evolves from the naive opportunist to a talented opponent to the major stars of her time, the evolution being a bit overacted, just as the other actresses of the film, but the casting surrounding her, made of men of the Broadway industry, still stereotypes, are being much more sensitive in their acting, tempering the high energy of the women. I remained a bit clueless to whether I enjoyed the movie or not...

Watch extract:

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