Morning Glory

Released Aug 18, 1933

1h 14m

Drama

List

64%

Tomatometer

11 Reviews

45%

Audience Score

500+ Ratings

In a provincial town, an actress harbors aspirations of greatness. Dying to be Broadway's next big thing, Eva Lovelace (Katharine Hepburn) finds her path to critical acclaim blocked by performers who've spent more time on the stage. But her career seems to be picking up steam when she catches the eye of theater mogul Joseph Sheridan (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), and when another starlet's sudden absence threatens his production, Joseph looks to Eva to save his play.

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David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...fares especially poorly in its sluggish and rather uneventful opening stretch...

Rated: 2/4

Jun 19, 2023

Full Review

Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

Even as the story reveals shortcomings, Hepburn remains enthralling; she clearly has the potential for fame, even in a commonplace project.

Rated: 4/10

Jul 27, 2020

Full Review

Tim Brayton

Antagony & Ecstasy

Undistinguished in its general shape and actively flimsy in its particulars.

Rated: 6/10

May 14, 2014

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

I was more taken down by the, at best, second-rate serviceable story than I was uplifted with Hepburn's bravo performance.

Rated: C+

Oct 8, 2008

Full Review

Diana Saenger

Classic Movie Guide

Morning Glory is a great story with Hollywood glamour and exceptional performances.

Rated: 4/5

Aug 24, 2007

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Hepburn won the first of her four Oscars for playing a brash, aspiring actress from Vermont determined to succeed at all costs, just like she was in real life at the time.

Rated: B-

May 12, 2007

Full Review

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Audience Member

Historical accounts of the 1932-33 Academy Awards claim that there was only polite applause when the Best Actor and Best Actress awards were presented. Charles Laughton won Best Actor for his performance in "The Private Life of Henry VIII," and the guests at the awards ceremony were not pleased that the Academy chose a (gasp!) non-American. Katharine Hepburn won the Best Actress prize for her performance in "Morning Glory," and the tepid response to her win was due to the fact that the actress had already made herself unliked among Hollywood circles. Hepburn of course would go on to have perhaps the single most illustrious career ever for a movie star, and whether or not she was ever truly liked, she became one of the most revered and respected actresses in the business. But based on her performance in "Morning Glory," it's easy to see why she turned people off. She's just weird. That weirdness was likely interpreted as unique, and she certainly delivers lines in the film in a way that no actress had delivered lines before her. I have to believe it's this uniqueness that won her the Oscar. But as a performance, it's pretty dreadful, though the movie around her is such an afterthought that I don't know that anyone could have done much with it. Hepburn plays Eva Lovelace, a naive, stagestruck kid who comes to New York with ambitions to be a serious actress and annoys everyone so much that they just give in and give her her big break even if there's no logical reason for doing so. (I'm sure that's how the show business world really works). I don't know whether to blame the writing, directing, or Hepburn herself, but Eva comes across as mentally unhinged rather than innocent, and the film gives us no conceivable reason that a theater impresario (Adolphe Menjou) and a renowned playwright (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) would be so infatuated with her, let alone allow her to just sit around their offices and homes all the time while they go about their business. Despite being innocent and haughty and above it all, she falls into bed easily with Menjou and then becomes obsessed with him, until the end when, on a dime, she pivots and realizes that she's a woman scorned. Nothing in this movie makes narrative sense, and you want to see Hepburn punched in the face more than you want to see her character make it on Broadway. I had the most fun with Mary Duncan, an actress I'd never heard of, who plays a Broadway diva, and I was struck with how much sex appeal Douglas Fairbanks had. Why on earth Hepburn's character didn't fall for him instead of Menjou is just one of the nonsensical plot developments this film wants us to swallow.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/08/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Katherine Hepburn won her first Oscar for this wonderful film about the theatre.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

06/21/21

Full Review

steve d

Nothing about it really works anymore.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

An early curiosity for Katharine Hepburn. She shows early promise in this flawed and familiar story about succeeding in the cold, tough world of the New York Theatre. Hepburn is supposed to be naive, but it's a bit much here. We never get a chance to see her brilliance as an actress, so we don't understand if her struggle is justified or not.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

Full Review

Audience Member

By 1933 standards, this was a gem. Remarkably, it holds up well almost a hundred years later. Though there's not much of a plot, your interest is still invested in watching. There is a clear moral to this story, though, and that is that of the morning glory, here of Katharine Hepburn herself.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

Full Review

david l

Morning Glory is just a big showcase for Katharine Hepburn who won her first Oscar for basically playing herself here - a very charismatic, confident, aspiring young actress. She sometimes struggled, but for the most part she stole the show. Other players are also pretty good, but the movie is, apart from the strong acting performances, a rather slim, tired and forgettable Hollywood tale lacking in cinematic qualities and concluded with a particularly forced message finale.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Lowell Sherman

Director

Katharine Hepburn

Eva Lovelace

Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Joseph Sheridan

Adolphe Menjou

Louis Easton

C. Aubrey Smith

Robert Harley "Bob" Hedges

Mary Duncan

Rita Vernon

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Synopsis

In a provincial town, an actress harbors aspirations of greatness. Dying to be Broadway's next big thing, Eva Lovelace (Katharine Hepburn) finds her path to critical acclaim blocked by performers who've spent more time on the stage. But her career seems to be picking up steam when she catches the eye of theater mogul Joseph Sheridan (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), and when another starlet's sudden absence threatens his production, Joseph looks to Eva to save his play.

Director: Lowell Sherman
Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures
Production Co: RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 18, 1933, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2009
Runtime: 1h 14m

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