Alice Adams (1935)

Such a frustrating disappointment

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The first must-see film of the year.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Katharine Hepburn gives a sensational performance in this screen adaptation of Booth Tarkington's novel.Hepburn plays the titular Alice, a young social climber who's embarrassed by her humble origins and working class family and dreams of inclusion among the upper crust of society. One said member, played by Fred MacMurray, falls for her against all odds, and a large bulk of the film details a disastrous dinner party she throws for him in her home, a cringe-worthy dinner if ever there was one, during which she pretends the entire time to be something she's not and which ends with a prolonged monologue that by its end has her convincing him that he doesn't really want her because she's so flustered and mortified by how badly everything went. It's an amazing little bit of acting on the part of Hepburn in a film that earned her her second of twelve career Academy Award nominations for Best Actress.I've not read the book the film is based on, but I'm guessing that it doesn't end anywhere nearly as patly or tidily as the movie. I guess I could be wrong.In addition to Hepburn's nomination, "Alice Adams" was also nominated for Best Picture in a year that saw twelve nominees.Grade: A

Alice Adam's' you may see connection between one scene to another, the lover end up at the garden and show their love by exchanging flowers, that means love has been dominated by flowers. For example "Alice Adam's" Alice went garden to pick flower and there was index said, "don't pick the flower" but it was the only flower and she picked up.For example Alice Adams you may see one of index shot that says do not touch it, the camera doll in to Alice then quickly pan to extreme of index sign.However, Alice Adam's edited by Jane Loring in this movie several connected with transition and most transition was "wipe" to connect from one scene to another or one shot to another shots. In conclusion, Drama films are serious presentation or stories with setting or life situation that are portray realistic characters in conflict with individual character or both. This movie contain very famous actress Katherine Hepburn she did nice and wonderful touch to audience.

This movie is a Place in the Sun turned around with a female instead of a male hoping for happiness by means of marrying up. It has always been nicer to be rich than poor, but even more so 90 years ago when being poor meant leading a life of unrelenting drudgery. Young women of today may criticize Alice since they do not understand the context of the time she lived in. Poor people did not have washing machines or vacuum cleaners and could not afford maids; birth control was largely ineffective and often legally and morally condemned; divorce was frowned upon; and employment opportunities for the average woman were limited to dull, low paying jobs. A married woman did not work. That would really have marked the family as low class. Most women would have accepted marrying a $30 a week clerk, living in a shabby rented apartment and cooking and cleaning and raising five children and living hand to mouth. If your husband got drunk and slapped you around, that was just too bad. If you wanted to escape your small town and make it big in the city, you'd more likely have to settle for being a waitress or seamstress, unless you had looks good enough to sell as a taxi dancer or night club chorus girl. However, if you were a respectable poor girl of spirit but unremarkable talents, your best hope was to mingle with the rich folk and be accepted by them. Enter Alice Adams. The rich folk were snobbish about people of Alice's class; so Alice was snobbish to her own family. The rich did not associate with servants and sneered at those who did. Ditto Alice. Alice's mother wanted to spare her daughter the squalid life she had had to endure. Alice had to be pretentious. Unfortunately, pretentious people are not attractive to those in the class they are trying to rise above, or to those in the class they are trying to reach. The window of opportunity is very short. A woman not married by age 26 was an old maid who had to settle for less than she could have gotten six years earlier. The somewhat frantic tone of Alice reflects her awareness that if she's to succeed, it had better be soon. Before judging her character, imagine yourself in her position.

"Alice Adams" (1935) Is Another Booth Tarkington Soap Opera Movie With Kate Hepburn Miscast, Sadly.Hepburn won the Best Actress Academy Award for Morning Glory (1933) playing an upwardly mobile wanna-be newly arrived to NYC stage actress who comes out a winner in the end.Before that, we saw Hepburn in the 1932 version of A Bill Of Divorcement (1932), a movie which, like Alice Adams (1935) had been both a stage play and a silent movie more than a decade before the belated Hepburn versions of the 1930's. In "Divorcement," Hepburn plays a snappy, perky, attractive socialite young woman (a débutante type) with a handsome fiancé boyfriend who looks terrific in the tuxedo he always wears to the English mansion where Kate lives with her family.The goofy Bill Of Divorcement (1932) story forces Hepburn to depart from the ways of a smart girl, and start thinking and doing dumb things.....just pay attention to Hepburn as presented at the start of the story....and ignore the unfolding story which the Hepburn character gets swept into...not her fault!Soooooooooo....in "Divorcement" (1932), Kate's first movie, she plays a rich girl who is smart, attractive, and interesting. She got third billing after main star John Barrymore and lead female star, Billie Burke...we see Kate Hepburn as a newcomer actress (age 25 in 1932)rising dazzlingly.Then comes Morning Glory (1933) where she is also a star rising dazzlingly, but not living in a mansion and part of the gentry as she makes her way into our hearts. Poor little rich girl who makes it.Then comes Alice Adams (1935) which casts Kate (to alliterate a bit!) as a loser poor girl with slob family members who increase her problems. Kate keeps smiling all the while, but sheds a tear from time to time, recognizing as she does she's a loser.Well.........Kate Hepburn is no loser and never was. She was miscast in the Alice Adams (1935) soap opera, and thankfully this was the last time.After Alice Adams (1935), the real Kate Hepburn emerges and triumphs every time in Sylvia Scarlett (1935), Stage Door (1937), Holiday (1938), and her crowning glory stage play turned very good movie, The Philadelphia Story (1940), the last two scripts written by the brilliant Philip Barry.Young, less than 35 years old Katherine Hepburn's best movies started with A Bill Of Divorcement (1932) and continued without interruption with Sylvia Scarlett (1935) through The Philadelphia Story (1940), with Morning Glory (1933) an interesting exception which doesn't fit with the other movies, but is an OK movie.Alice Adams (1935) doesn't make it.Sob sister Booth Tarkington didn't provide a good story, as he also didn't for poor friendless (in 1942) Orson Welles who had trouble with Tarkington's soap opera dysfunctional rich family story, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942).--------------- Written by Tex Allen, SAG movie actor. See WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for more about Tex. Email Tex at [email protected]