Morning Glory (1933)

Best movie of this year hands down!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A Masterpiece!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

. . . Melancholia Rump. Her pivotal scene occurs in the second half of MORNING GLORY, when Uncredited film extra Marion Mitchell Morrison plays an anonymous drunken New York City businessman (think 1989 Doonesbury Comic Strip target Donald J. Rump) who shares a tender moment with lingerie model "Eva Lovelace" (Hepburn, as Linda's aunt and mentor) by grabbing her female crevice during a "business luncheon floor show," which bears an extremely eerie resemblance to how Real Life Rump met his illegal immigrant allegedly soft-porn starlet third bride, Melancholia. As Ms. Lovelace plagiarizes Shakespeare's First Lady Juliet at a booze party, clairvoyant viewers are further reminded of Melancholia's "Coming Out" spectacle last summer in Cleveland (which families hope was more of a PG-13 type show than "Last summer at Band Camp," though with Rump you never know for sure). All Pussywillow references aside, Adolph Menjou feels no more guilt about deflowering a MORNING GLORY than a billionaire of our Present Last Days of America would have about grabbing YOUR coed girlfriend, daughter, niece, or granddaughter by her ACCESS H0LLYWOOD lips. I would not be surprised if Meryl Streep votes for Melancholia in next year's Gelded Statuette Oscar Derby.

O.K. This is it. The.Worst.Old."Classic".Black.And.White.Movie.I.Have.Ever.Seen.Film adaptation of a stage play about young,naive actress coming to New York searching for a big break, with pockets full of dreams and hopes about becoming theater legend like her idols. Along the way, she is pitied, abused and laughed at, than suddenly gets a last-minute- chance and turns out to be new discovery. At the end she realizes that success means personal sacrifice and accepts it for the sake of her art.At the paper,it sounds fairly harmless arty warning against sharks in show business, but in reality this must be the worst over acting I have ever seen in my entire life. Usually I love old black & white movies and have no problem if they are a bit dated, but this was laughable, annoying and simply bad. Don't know should we blame the script, director or Katherine Hepburn - we see her first waiting with other hopefuls in front of producer's office, talking and introducing herself to strangers (so far so good,she is obviously not sophisticated and very naive) but during the next five minutes we realize something is wrong with this girl, she talks to much, she is too eager, in fact she never listens anyone and talks constantly about herself without pausing for a breath. Again, maybe this were director's instructions - Hepburn is so annoying that today we would classify her as deluded,deranged and definitely off- balance. All trough the movie her character talks,talks,talks and than talks some more, gestures like she is on a stage, lives on another planet from other people around her and in a final scene when she yells "I'm ready!" it sounds so overbearing that she might as well be ready for a hospitalization. Now, this is all very confusing - I have seen lots of old classics from 1920s,1930s and 1940s and from what I have seen, these old movies reflect atmosphere and public morals of the times,however this is simply bad case of overacting. All the other characters, including obvious comical cameos, have certain human, normal touch to them but Hepburn is simply mad. I mean, I would press "help" button under my table and call for the ambulance to sedate her and get her away. That Hepburn actually won "Oscar" for this movie is absolutely mystifying - just look at the acting of Mary Astor,Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow not to mention Bette Davis,Garbo or any other actress of the 1930s and underneath obvious Hollywood cellophane we can see natural acting or at least attempts to appear human. This was so bad that it spoiled my enjoyment of Hepburn and keep me wonder about point of Academy Award at all.

i'm a big fan of classics and don't mind a movie if it's dated but this movie was just plain bad-even for it's time period. hepburn is good in almost anything but in this she's shrill and annoying. her performance a few years later in "stagedoor" (where she also plays an aspiring Broadway actress who assumes she's better than she is and somehow pulls off a star-making performance at the last moment) is such a better role. in almost ever scene where she's talking to someone she's over-acting and looking past them like she's having a delusional moment-talking to unseen and unknown person out of frame. it's hard to believe she's a good 'broadway' actress, because she's acting the same way ALL the time-even more so when she's off the stage than on. and when she gets drunk at a party and embarrasses herself she starts doing romeo & juliet and everyone gasps like it's so good and it just seems obnoxious. in short, i'd have been happier and like hepburn more if i'd never seen it. AVOID!

Katharine Hepburn is a young actress who comes to New York for fame and fortune in "Morning Glory," also starring Adolphe Menjou, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and C. Aubrey Smith. Eva Lovelace ("my stage name, I can shorten it if you want something else") is eccentric, fast-talking, and has many fantasies about acting and theater. The reality hits hard as at one point, she seems not only starving but homeless. Noting that she is in trouble, an elderly actor, Hedges (Smith) who meets her in producer Louis Easton's (Menjou) office invites her to Easton's opening night party. With no food in her stomach, she gets drunk recites some monologues, and ends up in bed with Easton. She's in love; he never wants to see her again. Meanwhile, Easton's writer Sheridan (Fairbanks) has fallen in love with her.Dated, melodramatic, predictable - "Morning Glory" is all of that but somehow the theatrical repartee and attitudes ring true - some things never change, including competition between actresses. Hepburn is very young, slim and pretty, and she does an excellent job as a young woman embarking on a new life. Why with Fairbanks Jr. staring her in the face she fell for Menjou I'll never know. Fairbanks is incredibly young here but very effective. Menjou is perfect as an elegant, gracious producer who in the end is all business. C. Aubrey Smith gives a dignified and lovely performance as Hedges.The ending does leave one asking, is Eva Lovelace to be a morning glory (i.e., flash in the pan) or not? Somehow whatever happens, the film leaves you with the impression that Eva will make it work in her own eccentric way.