Customer Reviews

Alice Adams [VHS]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Alice Adams" is directed by George Stevens from Booth Tarkington's 1921 Pulitzer Prize winner novel. Katharine Hepburn plays the title character, a lovesick young girl who vainly attempts to attain the same level as her socially superior acquaintances and to impress the young man, played by Fred MacMurray, she meets at a dance. There is also a rather hackneyed sub-plot involving her father's business ventures that distracts from the human drama.

Of course all of Alice's attempts to better her place in the world meet with a continuous string of disasters. Alice is embarrased to be escorted by her brother to the dance, prattles on about her family's nonexistent wealth, and will not let MacMurray into her house until she is finally and fatefully obliged to invite him to dinner. The comic highpoint of the film is the dinner party, where the family has hired a maid (Hattie McDaniel) to help with what becomes a total disaster.

Hepburn carries the emotional heart of the movie, and her strength as a maturing actress is captured in two scenes where she carries the moment with tears rather than words. After the dinner scene she runs to her bedroom and breaks down weeping at the window, finally crushed by all that has happens. When her father (Fred Stone), who has no clue the dinner has been a disaster, comments on how nice her date was, a tear roles down Hepburn's cheek. These two scenes created Hepburn's reputation as the screen's greatest "on cue" weeper.

Hepburn received her second Oscar nomination for this film. Her performance is vastly superior to when she won for "Morning Glory" (but more in keeping with her Jo March in "Little Women" that same year) primarily because this is the first successful film in which she acts against type (as opposed to her unsuccessful effort as a hillbillie gal in "Spitfire"). The Hepburn persona that becomes solidified in "The Philadelphia Story" and "Woman of the Year" is pretty much the opposite of Alice Adams. Instead of the goddess brought off her pedastal, here we have the girl from the wrong side of the tracks trying to get ahead in the world. This is one of the better opportunities to see Hepburn NOT play Hepburn (the other great example is "Long Day's Journey Into Night").

Of course, Hollywood tacked on a happy ending to the film version, and while it is not as jarring as what they did to "The Magnificent Ambersons," it does not make for a smooth conclusion. More importantly, it undoes the poignancy of Hepburn's farewell to MacMurray when she tells him: "You know, I have a strange feeling. I feel as though I'm only going to see you for five minutes more in my whole life."

Overall, Hepburn's performance overcomes the limitations of the script. The role was never going to become a Hepburn staple, but she plays it surprisingly well here. "Alice Adams" holds up better than most of her early RKO films.

In this superbly done George Stevens film, Katharine Hepburn creates one of the greatest American heroines--headstrong yet deeply vulnerable Alice Adams, a fiendishly anxious impoverished young woman just as fiendishly determined to rise into the white, light, airy world of the upper middle class...as exemplified by the great party scene early on in the film...This scene and the very famous dinner party set piece are magnificent, but so are all of the scenes btwn Hepburn and MacMurray, who's tall, charming, and finely modulated in a very subtle way...Even the tacked-on happy ending doesnt remove the sting of genuine pathos from Hepburn and MacMurray's second to last scene...Hattie McDaniel almost transcends her schlocky-racist role with her droll aside and expressions. This is one of the great films of the 30s.

Many, including Bette Davis thought Hepburn's playing of ALICE ADAMS was the best performance of any actress in the year 1935 (Davis won the AA that year for her role in the mawkish DANGEROUS) Alice desires to escape her middle class small town envirnment and she's naive and frustrated in her valiant attempts. Alice tries desperately to fit in higher society and nearly alienates her friends and family as a result. Hepburn's performance is funny and heartbreaking. The sets are dated, but the insight on human behaviour is timeless. Alice gets Fred MacMurray in the end (not in the original Booth Tarkington novel); 1930's audiences relished happy endings.

For those of us who yearned to be part of the "in crowd" in high school but never were, "Alice Adams" is a vivid reminder of that experience (1930's style). As Alice, Katherine Hepburn is the perfect example of the nobody who desperately tries to enter into a world where she clearly doesn't belong. The popular guy played by a very young and handsome Fred MacMurray falls in love with her, but by then Alice is so caught up in her own web of lies about her non-existent wealth that she loses her sense of identity and can't be honest with herself let alone with MacMurray. The story is sweet and romantic, but the main plot surrounds Alice Adams and her experiences as a nobody trying to make it in. You don't need to read the book (by Booth Tarkington) to understand and sympathize with Alice Adams's character, but I highly recommend reading the book first if you really want to appreciate Katherine Hepburn's superb performance. The Alice Adams I envisioned while reading the book was flawlessly brought to life by the very talented Ms. Hepburn.

Well do you really want to LAUGH -- not chuckle - But actually laugh from the bottom of your heart? Well this is your movie - my brother and I watched this movie this evening and were killing ourselves laughing - in pain holding our stomachs laughing so hard that we were practically falling off of the couch - they don't make them like this anymore. Clever, clever, clever. PLEASE buy this movie and TRUST us -- you won't be sorry - it will cheer you up on a rainy day or cheer someone else up! We are going to buy it from amazon.com ourselves for our own library. It is a real treasure.

Katherine Hepburn shines in a heartrending (and hanky-twisting) role, as Alice Adams, a romantically minded teenage girl whose social prospects are continually dimmed by her lower-middleclass status in a small, gossip-laden town. She is painfully aware of her position and tries to overcompensate by putting on airs and latching onto the haughty local debutantes, who look down their noses at the poor girl who tries too hard to fit in. Enter into this miserable scenario good ole Fred Macmurray, a handsome young rich guy who's got a decent heart, and who falls for the voluble, nervous young Miss Adams. Adapted from a novel by Booth Tarkington, this film gives a glimpse into the old-fashioned mores and courtship rituals of smalltown America in the early 20th Century, and also provides Hepburn with one of her first choice roles. Her fast-talking, palpably forlorn Adams is a character who evokes both irritation and sympathy, perfectly capturing the awkward desperation of teenage longings. Quite a performance!

I count "Alice Adams" as one of my favorite movies. Katharine Hepburn steals the show as the title character, in this poor girl/rich boy plot. This is Hepburn's movie all the way, and the rest of the cast is just along for the ride. Hattie McDaniels' talents are wasted again in another role as a maid. This movie makes you feel good and won't disappoint.

Katherine Hepburn plays the ever upward-groping main character in this movie based on Booth Tarkington's novel, and she is excellent. From the wrong side of the tracks, Alice is in a constant pursuit to make it over to the right side. A wealthy man (Frd MacMurray) enters her life, and she tries to hide her real background from him; the results, of course, are disastrous (yet funny). The picture is a very faithful rendition of the book, and in both (though more so in the movie) we wait for Alice's great (and deserved) fall, but it doesn't come. There is also a subplot with her father and overbearing mother, when the father gets in trouble when he strikes out for himself in business - all a bit schmaltzy. In fact, the last 15 minutes are just that because Hollywood insisted on a happy ending rather than having MacMurray making his getaway, as is expected and happens in the book. That's a real shame. But definitely worth a watch.

Dont miss it! Superbly cast and sensitively directed, this moving adaptation of the Booth Tarkington novel of the same name is splendid. It is unfortunate that the director and star were forced by studio heads to tack on the "happy ending" in the film. We don't quite know what happens to our heroine at the end of the book, which is in keeping with how she needfully undergoes change and realizes her character flaws. Surely, Miss Hepburn must have loved making this one. It is a human odyssey that is heart-breaking and honest. Hats off to Mr. Tarkington for a marvelous story. Do not miss it. It is early film-making at its best.

I don't think Katharine Hepburn ever looked cuter and was more appealing than in this film. One often forgets the fresh face and beauty she had when she was young.

This film starts off wonderfully for 20 minutes, then bogs down a bit for an hour and then rallies brilliantly in the last 20 minutes. That last part is so good that made the film not only worthwhile to view but one to keep and watch every few years.

It bogs down when Hepburn starts her deceiving scheme and nervously yaks and yaks and yaks trying to impress her boyfriend (Fred MacMurray). The deceit involves her trying to hide her social status, something that must have meant a lot more back in the early '30s than it does today.

Critics comment about how the dinner scene is a "classic" and the highlight of the film, but I didn't think it was all that great, although Hattie McDaniel is funny. It's what happened afterward that made it a memorable film to me.

Although Hepburn and Fred MacMurray are the stars of this romance-comedy, Fred Stone almost steals the show. Playing Hepburn's dad in the film, he was both hilarious at times and very sad....and always interesting. He gives an unbelievably powerful speech to his boss near the end of this film.

Another plus for "Alice Adams" is the direction. This is early George Stevens, but just about any film that man directed is top-notch, including this one.

Without giving away what happens in the story, the film does present a nice message of forgiveness and reconciliation and sports one of the stronger feel-good endings I've ever seen on film. Hepburn's last words in the movie are "Gee Whiz!!" That bygone innocent reaction to MacMurray's comment that he loved her says a lot about how movies and times have changed.