A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

. . . Melancholia Rump. Her pivotal scene occurs in the second half of MORNING GLORY, when Uncredited film extra Marion Mitchell Morrison plays an anonymous drunken New York City businessman (think 1989 Doonesbury Comic Strip target Donald J. Rump) who shares a tender moment with lingerie model "Eva Lovelace" (Hepburn, as Linda's aunt and mentor) by grabbing her female crevice during a "business luncheon floor show," which bears an extremely eerie resemblance to how Real Life Rump met his illegal immigrant allegedly soft-porn starlet third bride, Melancholia. As Ms. Lovelace plagiarizes Shakespeare's First Lady Juliet at a booze party, clairvoyant viewers are further reminded of Melancholia's "Coming Out" spectacle last summer in Cleveland (which families hope was more of a PG-13 type show than "Last summer at Band Camp," though with Rump you never know for sure). All Pussywillow references aside, Adolph Menjou feels no more guilt about deflowering a MORNING GLORY than a billionaire of our Present Last Days of America would have about grabbing YOUR coed girlfriend, daughter, niece, or granddaughter by her ACCESS H0LLYWOOD lips. I would not be surprised if Meryl Streep votes for Melancholia in next year's Gelded Statuette Oscar Derby.

When Katharine Hepburn first appeared on cinema screens, she was deemed a great new star, even winning an Oscar – for the film under review – almost instantly; however, before long, audiences had grown tired of her particular brand of histrionics and the actress was quickly declared "box-office poison"! She then wisely changed pace to screwball comedy with Howard Hawks' BRINGING UP BABY (1938), was subsequently handed a once-in-a-lifetime part on a silver platter (by playwright and personal friend Philip Barry, no less!) with "The Philadelphia Story" (superbly filmed by George Cukor in 1940), eventually became an institution when she teamed up (for 9 films and in real life) with Spencer Tracy, and ultimately grew into the "First Lady of Acting" – going on to win 3 more golden statuettes, a record, several years after her first! But, for what it is worth, it all started here...Truth be told, I have never been much of a fan of Hepburn's – though I concede that she has appeared in many a fine film throughout her lengthy career. Anyway, the role she plays here fits her like a glove i.e. that of an ambitious young actress rising to the top out of pure chance and sacrificing stardom for love (indeed, the title is a trade phrase for such meteoric members of the profession). Actually, the narrative is not quite as maudlin as it appears from this plot line – and, yet, the brief 74-minute running-time does not give it much of a chance either: we are told that Hepburn seeks acting lessons from aged luminary C. Aubrey Smith (but we never see them at it) and, crucially, her crowning achievement on the stage is only represented by the enthusiastic applause of the audience and the bows she takes at the curtain call!! That said, her thespian skills are displayed in a drunken party sequence at the home of her producer (Adolphe Menjou, with whom Hepburn would be reunited for another classic about the artistic vocation i.e. STAGE DOOR {1937}), where she dutifully quotes a couple of Shakespearean perennials ("Hamlet", "Romeo And Juliet")! For the record, director Sherman had himself been a prominent actor (his most notable appearance perhaps being that of the washed-up film director in Cukor's WHAT PRICE Hollywood? {1932}) who briefly made the switch behind the camera before his untimely death in 1934.The afore-mentioned STAGE DOOR was characterized by the bitchiness among the myriad female performers, here represented by the original temperamental (and blackmailing!) star of the production which ultimately gives understudy Hepburn her one shot at glory. The heroine (which, at a low ebb in her striving to make it on her own, is reduced to appearing in vaudeville!) is infatuated with the much older Menjou (who quashes her romantic illusions by stating that she now belongs to no man but to Broadway alone, a line which has since become a cliché in this type of film!); consequently, she overlooks the attentions of love-struck young author Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (playing a character named Joseph Sheridan!). In the film's closing moments, after finally confessing his feelings to her but ready to back down so as not to be in the way of her success, she is persuaded to make the right choice for herself (obviously, happiness) by the company's elderly personal assistant – herself a former leading light of the so-called "Great White Way" but whose single-minded pursuit of fame had rendered lonely and bitter! It must be pointed out that MORNING GLORY would be remade 25 years later by Sidney Lumet: renamed STAGE STRUCK, it was still good but inferior overall, and starred Susan Strasberg, Henry Fonda, Christopher Plummer and Herbert Marshall.

Yes Katherine Hepburn did a great job and got an Oscar for her role as Linda Lovelace in this 1933 film. It was good to see her in her youth and her first great performance.I was also impressed with the role performed by Mary Duncan, the gorgeous blond actress. I had never seen her before and it looks like Morning Glory may have been her last performance in movies. I am going to see if I can download some of the other movies she was in to see what character she played. Mary's bio states that she lived until 1995 and was 97 when she passed away - I see in this role the satin and lace bombshell that predates, Harlow, Monroe and Madonna.

"Morning Glory" released in 1933, in Hepburn's early career at RKO Pictures, tells the story of stage struck Eva Lovelace. He character is from a small town in Vermont - we hear her tell it a few times. At the beginning of the film, I did not find Hepburn's character likable. In fact, I thought she was downright touched. As the film progresses, we come to understand that her art (acting) is seemingly everything to her and she is obsessed with it, yet she is not very successful. At a party, Hepburn gets tipsy and gets to show her stuff, performing "Romeo and Juliet" in front of the guests (at a cocktail party, no less!). Hepburn falls for Adolphe Menjou, playing a typical stage producer, who sees only the bottom dollar. Exactly why she falls for the aging Menjou over the young and handsome playwright (played nicely by Dougls Fairbanks Jr.) who is kind to her - well, that is indeed a mystery that also strains credibility. This movie has glitches and flaws that don't quite make complete sense, and the film seems to be little more than RKO showing off Hepburn as its newest star. Fortunately for her, better roles lay ahead. Hepburn won an Oscar for this film - not her best by any means, but the Academy Awards were new then and maybe not as picky. Not that Hepburn isn't good here - she's always good - just not great.