Alice Adams

Released Aug 15, 1935

1 hr. 39 min.

Comedy

Drama

List

94%

17 Reviews

Tomatometer

71%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

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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Shadowman4710

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.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

06/25/23

Full Review

william d

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.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

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.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/08/23

Full Review

steve d

Not a whole lot to it and not a whole lot to like.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

There was about 15 minutes that was actually funny (the dinner scene) and you can tell Hepburn is goin to be a star. The other 1 hr and 45 minutes was dull and stupid. The entire premise from her being embarrassed to come from a nice, middle class family to her father's glue invention was preposterous, unrelatable, and entirely stuck up. Hepburn's character came across as hyperverbal, bratty, and a gold digger rolled into one. If you care about keeping up with the Jones maybe this movie is for you, the rest of us have things like survival to worry about.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

Full Review

Barry M

Staggeringly racist, but if you can ignore that it's a good showcase for Kate.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

06/07/20

Full Review

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George Stevens

Director

Katharine Hepburn

Alice Adams

Fred MacMurray

Arthur Russell

Fred Stone

Virgil Adams

Evelyn Venable

Mildred "Georgette" Palmer

Frank Albertson

Walter Adams

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Variety Staff

Variety

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.

Nov 13, 2007

Full Review

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

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.

Nov 13, 2007

Full Review

Andre Sennwald

New York Times

An oddly exciting blend of tenderness, comedy and realistic despair, it touches life intimately at many points during its account of a lonely girl in a typical American small town.

Rated: 4/5

Mar 25, 2006

Full Review

Meyer Levin (Patterson Murphy)

Esquire Magazine

This all attempts to be folksy comedy, but very often falls into savage satire.

Apr 16, 2020

Full Review

Ann Ross

Maclean's Magazine

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.

Oct 11, 2019

Full Review

Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

Stevens' deadpan-humane approach dilutes the acid of Booth Tarkington's social critique

Apr 17, 2011

Full Review

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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
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

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