Alice Adams **** (1935, Katharine Hepburn, Fred MacMurray, Evelyn Venable, Fred Stone) – Classic Movie Review 3419

Director George Stevens’s 1935 romantic drama offers the young Hepburn grabs one of her best opportunities as Alice Adams, a pushy, snobbish, spikey, upwardly mobile young woman who catches the eye of eligible society bachelor Arthur Russell (Fred MacMurray) at a society ball. Though he is engaged to débutante Mildred Palmer (Evelyn Venable), he courts Alice, who hides her working class background and wants to marry him.

Stevens’s version of the once famous Booth (Magnificent Ambersons) Tarkington novel is commendably plush and slickly handled. Stevens meticulously evokes the stifling small-town atmosphere, and the famous meal scene where MacMurray is served at dinner by the slovenly, mutinous maid-cook Hattie McDaniel is particularly delicious.

But the movie is mainly a triumph for Hepburn, who credited Stevens in helping her portray more warmth and vulnerability. She plays the star role as if to the manner born and secured an Oscar nomination. But she was beaten by Bette Davis for Dangerous (1935), who later generously said Hepburn deserved the award that year. The movie was also Oscar nominated – as Best Picture.

Also in the cast are Frank Albertson, Fred Stone, Ann Shoemaker, Charles Grapewin, Grady Sutton, Hedda Hopper, Jonathan Hale, Janet McLeod, Virginia Howell, Zeffie Tilbury, Ella McKenzie, Brooks Benedict, Harry Bowen, Monte Carter, Kid Herman, Virginia Howell, Janet Mcleod, Margaret Morris, Larry Steers, Frank Ward, George Warrington and Frank Yaconelli. But Walter Brennan’s scenes were cut from the movie.

The novel was previously made as a silent film in 1923 with Florence Vidor.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3419

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/