Stage entrance

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Movie
German title Stage entrance
Original title Stage door
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1937
length 92 minutes
Rod
Director Gregory La Cava
script Morrie Ryskind ,
Anthony Veiller
production Pandro S. Berman
music Roy Webb
camera Robert De Grasse
cut William Hamilton
occupation

Stage Door (Original title: Stage Door ) is an American feature film with Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers from 1937. As a literary model served the eponymous play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman .

action

Terry Randall, who came from a wealthy family and decided to act against her father's wishes, moves into a New York theater people 's dorm. With her snooty manner, she quickly offends the other young actresses. Terry can't stand her new roommate in particular, the dancer Jean Maitland, from the start. The only one standing by Terry is aging actress Catherine Luther, who wants to try her hand at mentoring. When the influential theater producer Anthony Powell sees Jean dancing, he leaves Linda, his lover. Then he gets Jean an engagement in a nightclub and begins to go out with her. Although Jean had no romantic intentions towards Powell at first, she gradually takes a liking to him.

The ever-popular Kay Hamilton, who was very successful on stage a year earlier and received excellent reviews, has not received a new offer since then and has therefore not been able to earn any money. She is hoping to land the lead role in Powell's latest play. When she is finally allowed to audition in front of Powell, he cancels the appointment at the last minute. Because of her disappointment and as a result of malnutrition, Kay collapses in the entrance hall. When Terry messes with Powell and reproaches him about it, her colleagues begin to see her in a new light.

Terry's father wants to finance Powell's new play - but only on the condition that his daughter gets the lead role. Powell then invites Terry to his penthouse to make her his offer. When Jean suddenly arrives there too, Terry takes the opportunity to open Jean's eyes to the always unfaithful Powell. Terry pretends Powell is trying to seduce her. Her plan works, but it also creates new tension in the dormitory. Jean doesn't want to have anything to do with her again, and Kay is devastated to learn that Terry has gotten the lead role.

However, Terry is so bad during rehearsals that Powell wants to reverse his agreement with her father. Shortly before the premiere, Kay commits suicide out of desperation. Terry, like everyone else, is upset by the news. She doesn't want to perform under any circumstances. However, Catherine says that the show should go on in memory of Kay. Terry finally makes an appearance and delivers an emotional and deeply moving performance. The play turns out to be a hit and Terry and Jean decide to bury their hatchet.

background

The play of the same name premiered on October 22, 1936 at New York's Music Box Theater, where it was played 169 times with Margaret Sullavan in the lead role. For the screen adaptation by the film studio RKO Pictures , which had acquired the film rights for 125,000 dollars, a large part of the plot and the dialogues were rewritten.

Director Gregory La Cava , who had previously achieved great success with My Man Godfrey (1936), had his actors improvise during rehearsals for the stage entrance , which was unusual for 1930s Hollywood. The resulting dialogues were worked into the script by the authors Morrie Ryskind and Anthony Veiller . According to the New York Times , the script was both funnier and more dramatic than the play, but in contrast to the play, it did without satirical swipes against the Hollywood film industry.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was originally also under discussion for the role of Tony Powell, which Adolphe Menjou ultimately received. Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers were the biggest female stars at RKO at the time. Casting her in a film was considered risky, especially since Hepburn and Rogers didn't get along privately. During the filming, tension developed between them on the set, which in turn added to the believability of the plot. Rogers, who was friends with Lucille Ball , convinced producer Pandro S. Berman to give Ball a role in the stage doorway . Ann Miller was 14 years old when the film was made, which is why she had made herself older with a fake birth certificate to be able to play a role in the film. Renowned stage actress Constance Collier , who played Miss Luther in the film, was also part of the real life acting teacher of Katharine Hepburn when she toured in a number of Shakespeare plays in the 1950s .

reception

publication

The Stage Door premiered at New York's Radio City Music Hall on October 7, 1937 , and hit US theaters the following day. Since Katharine Hepburn was considered a box office poison after a series of flops, she had to share the top spot on the movie posters with Ginger Rogers, who was more popular at the time. For her performance in the stage entrance Hepburn received the best reviews in a long time, Rogers in turn was recognized after her years of collaboration with Fred Astaire not only as a dancer, but also as a talented actress, which gave her numerous new role offers apart from film musicals. Lucille Ball was also praised by the critics for her performance, which resulted in a renewal of her RKO contract.

Despite the good contemporary reviews, box-office earnings fell short of expectations. The film had cost approximately $ 900,000 to produce. The grossing is said to have been two million dollars, but other sources speak of only 81,000 dollars in profit. In Germany, the film was first shown on television on February 8, 1977. The stage entrance was re-performed in a retrospective in May 2001 at the Cannes International Film Festival .

Reviews

Variety found the film "funny at times, effective at times emotionally, and generally refreshing and entertaining". Frank S. Nugent of the New York Times praised the "twists and turns of history" as understandable. Director Gregory La Cava gave the film "flavor and speed" and also a "photographic eloquence". The acting performances are "incredibly good". Above all, Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers would have played so much better than usual "that, frankly, you hardly recognize them".

According to the Hollywood Reporter , Hepburn "has never been better cast". The role of the daughter from a wealthy family "who tries to be an actress" was played by Hepburn "with great sincerity". The audience also gets to see a “new Ginger Rogers” that the audience would “like”. The Life magazine called Rogers "a talented comedienne," while Hepburn, "as her early films hinted that perhaps the best film actress" was.

For the film critic Pauline Kael , the stage entrance was “one of the most outstanding and entertaining comedies of the 1930s - despite their tragic and touching moments”. Hepburn and Rogers are "a wonderfully lively duo".

"Quite superficial, also formally rather modest film, which, however, has to show excellent performance as an actor," judged the lexicon of international film . The evangelical film observer attested the film "a thematic shallowness uniquely equal", furthermore "the circumvention of any serious problem and the absence of any formal climax". However, this is also due to “the zeitgeist and taste of the time”. The sober conclusion was: "A watery and sad spectacle."

Awards

At the Academy Awards in 1938 , the film was nominated in the four categories of Best Film , Best Director , Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress (Andrea Leeds), but came away empty-handed. Gregory La Cava won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d cf. Rob Nixon on tcm.com
  2. ↑ a b cf. Notes on tcm.com
  3. ↑ Maryann Pasda DiEdwardo: The Legacy of Katharine Hepburn: Fine Art as a Way of Life. A memoir . AuthorHouse, Bloomington 2009, p. 10.
  4. ↑ cf. Misc Notes on tcm.com
  5. ↑ "It is funny in spots, emotionally effective occasionally, and generally brisk and entertaining." See Stage Door . In: Variety , 1937.
  6. ↑ “The twists and turns of the narrative are sensibly motivated, the direction of Gregory La Cava has given it zest and pace and photographic eloquence, and the performances are amazingly good […]. Miss Hepburn and Miss Rogers, in particular, seemed to be acting so far above their usual heads that, frankly, we hardly recognized them. " Frank S. Nugent : 'Stage Door,' Hollywood Edition, Opens at the Music Hall . In: The New York Times , October 8, 1937, cf. tcm.com .
  7. ↑ “Katharine Hepburn has never been better cast […]. As a daughter of wealthy parents, trying acting as a pastime, Miss Hepburn plays with true sincerity. Audiences will see and like a new Ginger Rogers. " See The Hollywood Reporter , September 8, 1937, see tcm.com .
  8. ↑ "It proves that Miss Rogers is a talented comedienne and that Miss Hepburn really is, as her early pictures indicated, potentially the screen's greatest actress." Cf. Life , October 1937, cf. tcm.com .
  9. ↑ "One of the flashiest, most entertaining comedies of the 30s, even with its tremolos and touches of heartbreak. [...] Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers are terrific wisecracking partners. " Pauline Kael : 5001 Nights at the Movies . Henry Holt and Company, 1984, cf. tcm.com .
  10. ↑ stage entrance. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed June 7, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  11. ↑ Protestant film observer . Evangelical Press Association Munich, Review No. 46/1970.