Good story, Not enough for a whole film

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The Adams family is struggling while father is ill. Alice Adams (Katharine Hepburn) is the young daughter and mother sees father as a failure. Older brother Walter is a gambler and an embarrassment for hanging out with blacks. Mother pushes Walter to escort Alice to a big dance given by Henrietta of the wealthy Lambs. Father's employer Mr. Lamb still pays him despite his lengthy illness. Alice meets wealthy Arthur Russell (Fred MacMurray) at the dance who likes her despite her lack of status. Mother pushes father to take the glue formula he developed for Mr. Lamb and start a risky new glue factory. Mr. Lamb is angered by father's leaving. Mother and Alice try to put on airs by throwing a lavish dinner for Russell but it goes all wrong.Katharine Hepburn is a little wrong to be this insecure young thing. Nevertheless, she makes it work and is the best aspect of the movie. The parents' arguing keeps them from being too funny. Fred MacMurray is a bit stiff but Hepburn acts her heart out.

I had the unpleasant experience of seeing this film for the first time. The only tolerable characters in the entire film are the father and brother.I was never a huge Kate Hepburn fan,but here she is basically unwatchable. The ridiculous way she yaks and twitters and tries to impress everybody is only the tip of the iceberg as to why this is so bad.I'm sure this film is the basis of the impressions comedians did of her for years.First,her family is considered so poor,but their house looks pretty middle class to me. Second,if she is so "poor" why do these rich idiots bother to invite her to parties? As shallow as everyone in the film is,one wouldn't think she'd even be on their social radar,much less a party guest. The level of racism in this film is astounding to my modern eyes. Black people are referred to as "darkies",yep,darkies. Was this the Civil War era or what? Also,her brother is looked down on because he actually (gasp!) has black friends he'd rather hang out with than the high class bigots and snobs his sister wants so much to be like. Then there is Hattie McDaniel. Yes,in a few years she would win an Oscar for GWTW,but here she is just as embarrassing as Hepburn(more so,I'm sure to any black people that actually saw this hot mess back then). The fact that Drew Barrymore thinks she is so funny in this opens up some questions in my mind about Miss Barrymore.At any rate,I will try to forget I ever saw this mess .

I think it is her best RKO film, as it shows Ms. Hepburn's depth, her precise characterization, her beauty. It is a film that at times makes you frustrated, and at other times to want you to move closer to the screen. Charming, heart-warming, courageous. Her recognition of her father's simplicity, so finely acted, never diminishes her love for him, and his self awareness makes him awkward in expressing his love for his daughter. I don't think that any direction was needed for their interplay, she was genuine as was he. I think it was her own relationship with her father which inspired her to this great acting.Every scene in this film was treated as a vignette, and perfect in the costume design, and staging, which sets it apart as theater, not appearing low-budget, yet not being high-budget, all the more remarkable.This is a film to hold as beloved, endearing, heart-felt.

Small Town U.S.A. has its society, and desperate to be a part of it, lower middle class girl Katharine Hepburn crashes it every chance she gets. Her mother (Ann Shoemaker), even more social climbing than her, sends Hepburn with her very uninterested brother (Frank Albertson) to an upper class soirée where she meets the handsome Fred MacMurray and begins putting on airs to make herself something she is not. This film, based upon a 1920's Booth Tarkington story set before the depression, was a late depression era look at how one family faced despair (certainly not with much dignity), but it is obviously not Alice's fault, something we learn from watching her with her seemingly lazy papa (Fred Stone in a brilliant performance) who is constantly being browbeaten by his wife. Evelyn Venable and Hedda Hopper represent the upper class versions of Hepburn and Shoemaker who look on them as sort of necessary evils, simply because they've lived around them all of their lives and basically have no choice. Stone reveals his character's true values in a scene with his former boss ("The Wizard of Oz's" Charley Grapewin) that will truly make you empathize with him over being part of such a ridiculous clan.In a long dinner party scene where Shoemaker and Hepburn desperately try to impress MacMurray, the always funny Hattie McDaniel allows herself to play a stereotypical low-class version of her usual black maid as she slowly shuffles back and forth, chewing gum, and dealing with a maid's cap that keeps slipping down her face. McDaniel represents the true pretentiousness of the Adams family as Shoemaker's rash hiring of her (simply because she's black!) leads to possible humiliation. This scene gives the impression that the film is a screwball comedy, but really it is a sad observation about how the lower middle class was trying to rise above being themselves.The stair set of the employment agency she goes to is a memorable visual, listing every profession they are offering inside. The Adams family home too is also quite striking, its front door much grander than the financial situation of the family, as is the set for Stone's non-working glue factory. What could be a rather ordinary story of eccentrics and their phoniness ends up exploring the turn-around of its heroine who finally wakes up when she finds real love and realizes that she doesn't need to be anyone but who she is. At first Hepburn's extremely chatty Alice is really annoying (or "rayley" as she always seemed to pronounce it in her early films) but that slowly dissipates as she meets and falls in love with the wealthy but really down-to-earth MacMurray.