Stage Struck ** (1958, Henry Fonda, Susan Strasberg, Christopher Plummer, Joan Greenwood, Herbert Marshall) – Classic Movie Review 12,226

Director Sidney Lumet’s 1958 American drama film Stage Struck is a dated Fifties reworking of the old 1933 Katharine Hepburn backstage story film Morning Glory, held back with a shaky performance by Susan Strasberg as determined New England ingenue Eva Lovelace, the girl on her way to theatrical fame and fortune on Broadway’s Great White Way.

However, the stylish acting from the formidable co-stars, the New York atmosphere, the fragrant backstage whiff and Lumet’s painstaking direction (all on New York City locations) all combine to help to keep it interesting. And Christopher Plummer stands out in his film debut as Joe Sheridan, while experienced Joan Greenwood (as temperamental leading lady Rita Vernon) and Herbert Marshall make their screen time count.

But, despite her success on the Broadway stage in The Diary of Anne Frank (1955) and opposite Richard Burton in Jean Anouilh’s Time Remembered (1957), Strasberg shows here that she has not got the magnetic stuff to hold up this kind of big movie star part, though she had already appeared in The Cobweb and Picnic.

Stage Struck also features Henry Fonda, Herbert Marshall, Joan Greenwood, Pat Harrington, Frank Campanella and Jack Weston.

The screenplay, by Augustus and Ruth Goetz, is based on the stage play Morning Glory by Zoë Akins.

It is produced by RKO Radio Pictures and distributed by Walt Disney Productions’ distribution arm Buena Vista Film Distribution, which had just replaced RKO as Disney’s distributor.

Susan Strasberg (1938–1999) was the daughter of Lee Strasberg, acting coach at the famed Actors Studio in New York.

The cast are Henry Fonda as Lewis Easton, Susan Strasberg as Eva Lovelace, Christopher Plummer as Joe Sheridan, Joan Greenwood as Rita Vernon, Herbert Marshall as Robert Harley Hedges, Pat Harrington as Benny, Frank Campanella as Victor, John Fiedler as Adrian, and Jack Weston as Frank.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,226

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