Director Gregory LaCava used overlapping and improvised dialogue to keep this feature moving. The play, by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, was adapted for the screen by Morrie Ryskind and Anthoney Veiller. Most takes place as scenes among young women seeking work and residing in The Footlights Club, a boarding house run by an ex-actress, filled with young women talking,complaining, arguing, receiving callers and messages. Ginger Rogers and Gail Patrick as Jean and Linda do not get along. They agree to part. Running through the involved narrative are 4 strands: Andrea Leeds' attempts to get work; arrival of a wealthy newcomer (Katharine Hepburn) who becomes Linda's roommate; Adolph Menjou's wooing of Patrick and others; and everyone's extreme difficulty getting even an interview. The play dates to the Depression; but its message is what happens in any era when there are no categorizing definitions, no justice system. The part Leeds wants is in "Enchanted April". The girls differ; a few respect classical speech drama; others are misplaced chorus girl sorts. The girls need money, they accept blind dates with visiting businessmen; Terry tries to get them to be more serious; they are tired, bitter. They find the men boring; but they have to eat. Jean returns home and tells Terry she wants to go on arguing; Terry agrees. She is new to everything, the hopelessness, the blinking neon lights, garbage trucks that will wake them.Next day producer Powell (Menjou) spots Jean (Rogers) at a dance studio. Jean tells her companion Annie (Ann Miller), "He wasn't looking for an act. He was putting one on." At home, Linda comes in with a mink. A phone call interrupts--Powell has gotten the two girls employment. Terry complains the girls don't like her. Kaye says they're just depressed. Terry wants a success on her own. She argues on the phone with her rich father, who does not want to support her in her career. The two girls make their debut and discover they were hired because Powell owns a half-interest in the club. Backstage, he hints Jean could replace Linda in his affections; they make a date. Eve (Eve Arden)and Judy (Lucille Ball) wait in Powell's outer office with Kaye. Starving Kaye is told Powell will be out till Monday. Terry sees her faint. She barges into the office to blame Powell. She speaks for the rightless girls dependent on his whims. "They'd be so much better off at home raising families," he replies. Flowers arrive for Rogers; Linda is "out". Terry has secretly sent for a doctor, to care for Kaye. Linda tells Jean what to expect; they trade insults. Terry lends Jean an ermine wrap; she arrives at Powell's penthouse. He shows off the view and tells her his wife will not grant a divorce, promising to put her name up in lights--big ones. He tries the Pygmalion routine. She puts him off. He tries his routine on Terry next; her break is that her father has arranged to be his show's backer. Powell tells her the story of the play, then tries to get romantic; Terry mentions. She claims not to be emotional; he says she was when she made her speech in his office. Jean is sent there, Terry's way of getting her to forget any ideas about Powell. When Jean has left, she exposes the photo of wife and son as a fraud. Powell takes the exposure in stride and continues his exposition of the part. At the Footlights Club, the girls stage a birthday party for Kaye. Then news comes: the part is going to Terry. Kaye says it's all right. Rehearsals for the play begin. Terry is wooden, amateurish. Jean is reluctant to contribute to flowers for her room-mate. Terry practices (and forgets) her lines, with Catherine, her acting coach. A very ill Kaye takes time to give her a ring for luck. News of Kaye's suicide soon is brought to Terry. Powell expects the worst. Jean comes and blames Terry for Kaye's death, in a strongly written scene. Catherine asks if she is going to let everyone down or give the performance she ought to give. The "calla lilies' speech", famous in the film, goes very well, owing to her genuine grief. Her curtain call is an affecting speech in a spotlight, about Kaye. Her father, Sims, is there, a famous millionaire, who doesn't know whether to be glad or not. Catherine tells her you have to suffer first. Jean embraces her; they plan to go to Kaye. Her name in lights, Terry continues to live at the Footlights' Club, the press notes with some wonder. Life goes on at the boarding house. Judy goes, to marry. Jean asks how she could be sad to leave such a dreary place. Terry says, "We're probably a different race of people." And a new hopeful arrives, to begin the cycle again. Cinematography for the film was supplied by Robert De Grasse, art direction by Carroll Clark and Van Nest Poleglase; costumes were created by Muriel King. Darrell Silvera did the set decorations. In the cast, Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers are quite different and above average. Eve Arden, Lucille Ball and Ann Miller have too few lines but are well cast. Adolph Mejou and Andrea Leeds might have been stronger but get a good bit out of their roles. Samuel S. Hinds and Constance Collier are very good as Terry's father and Catherine while many smaller parts are seamlessly introduced into the sprightly dialogue-rich narrative.
Review of Stage Door
