Stage Door (1937)

If you like movies about show-business, you’ll love Stage Door. The Footlights Club is a theatrical boarding house in New York City, and when Terry Randall (Katharine Hepburn) moves in, all hell breaks loose. She’s not quite like the other girls: she’s classy, sophisticated, well-dressed, has far greater talent as well as a superior attitude and impeccable manners. Well, aside from her sarcastic remarks (‘It would be a terrific innovation if you could get your mind to stretch a little further than the next wise-crack.’). She doesn’t get along with any of the other girls, especially Jean Maitland (Ginger Rogers), her roommate.

The ups and downs of becoming a successful actress on Broadway are the main element of the film and there are countless sub-plots and emotional roller-coasters to delight and entertain you. Eve Arden, Gail Patrick, Adolph Menjou, Ann Miller, Andrea Leeds, Lucille Ball, Constance Collier and Jack Carson are all in it too. Talk about a great cast!

Stage Door received four Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Director (Gregory LaCava), Best Supporting Actress (Andrea Leeds) and Best Screenplay (Morris Ryskind an Anthony Veiller). It won none but it ended up being a success at the box office and it is still, to this day, one of Katharine Hepburn’s most famous movies.