Morning Glory (1933)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Lowell Sherman

Writers:

Zoe Akins (play)
Howard J. Green (writer)

Release Date:

18 August 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

She'll give you the heart thrill of your life !

Plot:

When a naively innocent, aspiring actress arrives on the Broadway scene, she is taken under the wing of several theater veterans who mentor her to ultimate success.

Plot Keywords:

New York | Theater | Playwright | Mentor | Aspiring Actress

Awards:

Won Oscar.

Cast

Katharine Hepburn	...	Eva Lovelace
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.	...	Joseph Sheridan
Adolphe Menjou	...	Louis (Lewis) Easton
Mary Duncan	...	Rita Vernon, blonde star
C. Aubrey Smith	...	Robert Harley 'Bob' Hedges
Don Alvarado	...	Pepi Velez
Fred Santley	...	Will Seymour, Easton's bespectacled asst. (as Fredric Santly)
Richard Carle	...	Henry Lawrence, elderly critic
Tyler Brooke	...	Charley Van Duesen, alcoholic writer
Geneva Mitchell	...	Gwendoline Hall, brunette actress
Helen Ware	...	Nellie Navarre, Lovelace's dresser

Runtime:

74 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Argentina:13

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

Katharine Hepburn is the only movie star to win four Academy Awards (2009) for her leading roles in Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968), and On Golden Pond (1981).

Quotes:

Robert Harley Hedges: Youth has its hour of glory... but too often it's only a morning glory, the flower that fades before the sun is very high.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Carnivàle: Day of the Dead (#1.11)" (2003)

Kate Went On To Be Great

Was there ever a brighter more eager theatrical hopeful than Katharine Hepburn in Morning Glory? She set the standard for playing them in this her third film and first Oscar winning performance.

Young Eva Lovelace comes into the office of producer Adolphe Menjou looking for her first big break. She charms everyone with both her innocence and determination. Menjou, playwright Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and old time actor C. Aubrey Smith all seem to be completely charmed by her.

Morning Glory is a short film and I'm sure there's a director's cut out there somewhere. Note after Hepburn meets all the three mentioned above in Menjou's office, they cut next to where she's going to a party at Menjou's and there's reference to some out of town play she did on tour in which she must have flopped badly. It's eluded that Fairbanks was the one who cast her. I'm wondering if audiences in 1933 saw more than the 74 minutes that are on my VHS copy.

One of these days TCM should run Morning Glory back to back with All About Eve. Essentially it's the same story with a protagonist who's wicked and manipulative instead of innocent.

Hepburn got her Oscar for the way she did the classics after having a little too much champagne. She does Hamlet's 'to be or not to be' and then she really electrifies the guests and Menjou's party and I'm sure the movie goers with her recitation of Juliet's soliloquy from the balcony scene. When you got Will Shakespeare doing your dialog did the other contenders for the Oscar have a prayer?

Morning Glory, a chance to see the young Kate go on to be great.