Morning Glory – Katharine Hepburn 100th Anniversary Collection
RKO – 1933
Released on Warner Home Video May 29 2007
Katharine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. , Adolphe Menjou, C. Aubrey Smith
Even when it was released in 1933 the story of Morning Glory was already dated and predictable – that doesn’t make this a bad movie in fact it is a good movie. Morning Glory is a flower which typically blooms in the early morning and dies before the end of the day. In the context of the movie Morning Glory refers to the tendency for starlets to have brief but shining careers – the earlier version of the contemporary “it” girl.
Katharine Hepburn plays Eva Lovelace (her stage name changed from Ada Love her real name) a small town girl from Vermont who has come to the great white way to find her fame and fortune. Eva is thoroughly endearing and disarming in her flat out honesty about herself and her ambitions. Eva is ridiculously idealistic and while the story is sometime over the top and overly dramatic it suits the storyline and the three act structure of the movie.
Hepburn is of course delicious in her first Academy Award winning performance in Morning Glory: The movie is a reminder of why so many found her so enthralling at such an early age. Other standouts in Morning Glory though are the three main male characters Joseph Sheridan played by Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Lewis Easton played by the always superb Adophe Menjou, and the absolutely stellar British character actor C. Aubrey Smith as R.H. Hedges Eva’s best friend and acting coach.
Katharine Hepburn fans will love this beautiful black and white classic. The sound is crisp the picture is clear and wonderfully hopeful.
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