Sometimes I get irritated at how narcissistic Hollywood is, even on the subject matter of its films: there's an obvious Hollywood bias in favor of stories about show business, especially show business people. It seems as if, even if the main story isn't about show business, there's inevitably a girlfriend who's a nightclub singer or someone's putting on a skit or having a talent show. However, there are some exceptions to this tiresome self-promotion. The Gaynor and Garland versions of "A Star is Born," "What Price Hollywood," "Stage Door" and "Sunset Boulevard" come to mind. Here's another film about becoming a star that I love. "Morning Glory" is about a stage-struck young girl who makes it to the top. Sound familiar? Yes, but there's a charming little variant here - she achieves her stardom with her naiveté intact. This proposition would seem hard to swallow if it weren't for the fact that the young ingenue happens to be a very young Katherine Hepburn. You don't need gauze over the lens with Hepburn before the camera. She seems to generate her own nimbus. It also helps that Adolphe Menjou is present as the worldly wise, cynical, yet in the end kind impresario.
But for me, the biggest treat is that Hepburn was directed in "Morning Glory" to her first Oscar by the great Lowell Sherman, whose untimely death deprived movie lovers of a great talent, both behind and in front of the camera. What is so eerie about Sherman is his almost autobiographical end-life in film. In "Morning Glory" he was directing a brand new star playing a brand new star. And in "What Price Hollywood," the prototype of "A Star is Born," Sherman actually played a director who discovers and develops a new star, a director who's at the end of his rope - as Sherman actually was! "What Price Hollywood" was Sherman's penultimate film - he died, worn out, two years later.
Sure, "Morning Glory" is dated to modern audiences, but even if you're unable to get over yourself and make allowances for passé cinematic styles, which are inevitable in films not far removed from the pantomime of silents, let yourself get a kick out of watching this story behind the story.
But for me, the biggest treat is that Hepburn was directed in "Morning Glory" to her first Oscar by the great Lowell Sherman, whose untimely death deprived movie lovers of a great talent, both behind and in front of the camera. What is so eerie about Sherman is his almost autobiographical end-life in film. In "Morning Glory" he was directing a brand new star playing a brand new star. And in "What Price Hollywood," the prototype of "A Star is Born," Sherman actually played a director who discovers and develops a new star, a director who's at the end of his rope - as Sherman actually was! "What Price Hollywood" was Sherman's penultimate film - he died, worn out, two years later.
Sure, "Morning Glory" is dated to modern audiences, but even if you're unable to get over yourself and make allowances for passé cinematic styles, which are inevitable in films not far removed from the pantomime of silents, let yourself get a kick out of watching this story behind the story.