Alice Adams (1935)

ALICE ADAMS  (1935)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: George Stevens
    Katharine Hepburn, Fred MacMurray, Evelyn Venable,
    Hattie McDaniel, Charlie Grapewin, Grady Sutton
Katharine Hepburn seems oddly cast in Booth Tarkington's story about a girl from a working-class family who longs to mingle and compete with the upper crust. It's all about money and status and the art of faking it, or trying to, when you don't have either. There's a lot more moonstruck girlishness here than you normally get from Hepburn, and her feistiness is more in reserve. The conclusion feels both rushed and convenient, and neither Hepburn nor director George Stevens liked the girl-gets-boy happy ending. The movie did get Hepburn one of her 12 Oscar nominations, and even playing against type, she's not to be ignored. Hattie McDaniel does a very funny bit as a surly maid hired on for a dinner that goes horribly wrong.