Oct 22, 2021
For RKO 1937, Katharine Hepburn runs the gamut of emotions from effervescent-but-repressed to robot-with-a-heart-of-gold in the last entry in her latest series of box office bombs, the J. M. Barrie dual-identity farce Quality Street (directed by George Stevens), and her brief return to critical and commercial viability, Stage Door (directed by Gregory La Cava), with Ginger Rogers. Two films that have little in common besides their star but do both invert the typical Hollywood movie gender ratio. We discuss whether Quality Street lives up to Hepburn's reunion with either her Alice Adams director or her Little Minister source author, and dig into the class analysis of Stage Door, one of the best American comedies of the late '30s.
Time Codes:
0h 01m 00s: RKO Data
0h 03m 55s: QUALITY STREET [dir. George Stevens]
0h 24m 15s: STAGE DOOR [dir. Gregory La Cava]
Studio Film Capsules provided by The RKO Story by Richard B. Jewell & Vernon Harbin
Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler
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* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s
* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)
* Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating.
* Check out Dave’s new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!
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