Stage Door
Director: Gregory La Cava
Year Released: 1937
Rating: 3.0
Like All About Eve, it's one of those grand old tales of bitchiness, with women living in the same 'artists tenement' competing with each other for fame (or, more simply, work) and the attention of managers like Adolphe Menjou (with all seven of his tailors in tow). The Menjou part wasn't in the Kaufman-Ferber play and with good reason - he's just your stereotypically lecherous jackal - and the mental illness of the one girl doesn't play that well today. As with a lot of these plays-turned-films from the 1930's, the dialogue just crackles and the performances (particularly upper-class Katharine Hepburn learning to 'slum it') are fantastic.
