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Alice Adams

Play trailer Poster for Alice Adams 1935 1h 39m Comedy Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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89% Tomatometer 18 Reviews 71% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Based on the award-winning novel by Booth Tarkington, this comedic drama follows a young working-class woman (Katharine Hepburn) as she attempts, unsuccessfully, to climb the social ladder. When she meets the wealthy Arthur Russell (Fred MacMurray), he is amused by her efforts to maintain an upper-crust facade, and she is thrilled when he agrees to have dinner at her family's home. Things teeter on the brink of disaster as the Adams clan frantically tries to create an evening of fine dining.
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Alice Adams

Critics Reviews

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Otis Ferguson The New Republic 05/07/2024
Quite apart from delicacy of any sort, “Alice Adams” goes about slugging its points home by means of an assortment of devices that are only described with the beautiful economy of one word, which word is hokum. Go to Full Review
Variety Staff Variety 11/13/2007
That George Stevens' direction captures the wistfulness of Katharine Hepburn's superb histrionism, and yet has not sacrificed audience values at the altar of too much drabness and prosaic realism, is an achievement of no small order. Go to Full Review
Dave Kehr Chicago Reader 11/13/2007
Stevens's talent for stepping away from the plotline and creating intimate, casual, and naturalistic moments is given plenty of opportunity here, as it would not be in his later superproductions. Go to Full Review
Meyer Levin (Patterson Murphy) Esquire Magazine 04/16/2020
This all attempts to be folksy comedy, but very often falls into savage satire. Go to Full Review
Ann Ross Maclean's Magazine 10/11/2019
Miss [Katharine] Hepburn's performance is brilliant though uneven; a little overwrought at times, but so penetrating at others that every third woman, perhaps even every second one, in the audience will recognize herself in some aspect of Alice. Go to Full Review
Fernando F. Croce CinePassion 04/17/2011
Stevens' deadpan-humane approach dilutes the acid of Booth Tarkington's social critique Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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ChrisCSH H @RT12343453 2d Catherine Hepburn is brilliant in this melodrama about a young girl that comes from a less than wealthy household. Unfortunately, her acting is probably the biggest highlight for this film. Overall, the plot is not stellar and the film feels like paint by numbers or basic. Even with the films shortcomings, I still would recommend any film fan to watch this film being that it is an academy award nominee.. See more Shadowman4710 @RT96537255 06/25/2023 Katherine Hepburn shines in this melodrama about a girl from the wrong side of the tracks looking to get into "society." While it's a bit dated now, Hepburn's performance carries the film and Fred MacMurray is solid as the man who's interested in her. Definitely a must-see for Hepburn fans. See more william d @acsdoug 12/20/2021 Fans of Katherine Hepburn should like this one. She's very good in it. I just didn't think the story was all that great. See more michael d @RT16138633 12/17/2021 Have you ever picked up what you thought was a glass of water, but when you took a long sip you ended up with a mouthful of Sprite? A surprising feeling, but then you have to figure out if it's pleasant or not. I felt similarly about my experience watching "Alice Adams", George Stevens' 1935 film starring Katherine Hepburn as the title character. Expecting a wily romantic comedy, possibly a precursor to Hepburn's screwball comedies, I instead witnessed a beautiful, touching and sad film about rejection and romance in small-town America. Alice is the daughter of a bookkeeper who is sick, and therefore temporarily out of work. Even before his unemployment, his job did not provide as much money for his family as many of Alice's contemporaries. This causes Alice to not be accepted in society, and makes it harder to find a boyfriend, though she tries to keep cheerful in front of her family. Unfortunately Mrs. Adams doesn't make things easier, by constantly harping on Mr. Adams to quit his job and be more ambitious. When the Palmers have their annual dance, Alice asks her brother Walter to take her, and there she first sees Arthur Russell MacMurray) a wealthy young man who is practically engaged to Mildred Palmer, probably the richest and most socially prominent young woman in the town. He notices Alice, and after a dance together, finds her a couple of days later and they begin a romance, but it becomes obvious that Alice is not going to be able to put up a façade of wealth and social acceptance for long, as their relationship becomes more serious. There were so many times that I found myself just aching for Alice during this film. Booth Tarkington is so good at capturing the darker side of small town life without being obvious, that it is understandable that this film could be mistaken for a light romantic comedy, though in reality it was anything but. Alice's low self-esteem, mainly due to society's views on her more than her family's lack of money makes her such a fragile character that she becomes immediately sympathetic, and this is mainly due to Hepburn's performance. This was early in her career, and after seeing many of her later films it is easy to forget just how radiant and luminous she once was. She has always been one of my favorite actresses, but it was generally because of the strength she gave the characters she played throughout the years, not her fragility. "Alice Adams" was an extremely pleasant surprise, and I ended up absolutely loving it. See more steve d @RT35616104 07/23/2020 Not a whole lot to it and not a whole lot to like. See more Barry M @RT78800723 06/07/2020 Staggeringly racist, but if you can ignore that it's a good showcase for Kate. See more Read all reviews
Alice Adams

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Movie Info

Synopsis Based on the award-winning novel by Booth Tarkington, this comedic drama follows a young working-class woman (Katharine Hepburn) as she attempts, unsuccessfully, to climb the social ladder. When she meets the wealthy Arthur Russell (Fred MacMurray), he is amused by her efforts to maintain an upper-crust facade, and she is thrilled when he agrees to have dinner at her family's home. Things teeter on the brink of disaster as the Adams clan frantically tries to create an evening of fine dining.
Director
George Stevens
Producer
Pandro S. Berman
Screenwriter
Dorothy Yost, Mortimer Offner, Jane Murfin
Distributor
RKO Radio Pictures
Production Co
RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 15, 1935, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 21, 2016
Runtime
1h 39m
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