Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

shaunpaulaudiotek Acting 10, direction 10, writing 10, story 10, 10 10 10 10! American cinema at its best. Say no more.

jc-osms I enjoyed this vintage Hollywood tragi-comedy the more it went on. Not knowing the story in advance, I thought I was in for ninety minutes of fast-talking, wise-cracking comedy especially with Ginger Rogers and Katherine Hepburn in the lead parts and introductory scenes of young, good-looking women living cheek-by-jowl in a dingy, overcrowded boarding house for actresses, all with the same dream of either snagging a millionaire nice-guy for a husband or getting discovered for a big part by the manager of a talent agency. It's only as the movie progresses that you realise that some of the girls are close to starving or suffering psychologically the latter culminating in a shocking incident which becomes the fulcrum of the film and inspires its main message as to just how hard it is to get on in acting, especially if you're a woman.Rogers and Hepburn get exactly the parts you'd expect them to, the former as the street-smart, cynical girl prepared to go along for the ride even if it means welcoming the dubious charms of the playboy manager who'll wine and dine her and get her a starring part in a new play, the latter as the undercover, terribly posh rich girl, slumming it to achieve her twin-dreams of independence from her super-rich daddy and stardom on the stage. They're both just as good as you'd expect them to be, but I enjoyed just as much the performances of their supporting cast, some of whom, like a very young Ann Miller and Lucille Ball who went onto real-life stardom and others who obviously didn't. The rapid-fire repartee between them all in the early scenes, apparently much of it improvised, is as amusing as it's authentic-sounding. There's barely a male in sight and those that are, are mainly men-on-the-make or dumb klutzes. However it's the introduction of the tragic heroine, Andrea Leeds as the desperate, beaten-down Kaye which gives the film its bathos and changes its tone completely. Despite her fellow-boarders best efforts we see her edge closer to her shocking demise in a memorable scene which anticipates "Sunset Boulevard" by over 10 years.On the debit side, Adolphe Menjou seems miscast as the lecherous casting-couch manager and scenes where Hepburn's character is told she is only good for washing dishes and the only black actor we see is a young shoeshine boy betray some of the social norms of the day. Nevertheless, this was an excellent behind-the-scenes portrayal of just what it takes for women to get on in a man's world, especially in the glass-ceiling world of theatre.

atlasmb It would be easy to condemn the Theater Arts in practice because of casting couches, backbiting competition, or the perfidy of the stage. "Stage Door" details all of those attributes, yet, above all else, it is a loving tribute to the theater.Blessed with a wonderful script, the film portrays the lives of young actresses who live together in a boardinghouse. The women form a family of sorts, behaving like sisters in arms. They bicker, they encourage, they compete. In the end, they are bound by their love for the theater and for each other.A delightful cast gets to read that wonderful script. So many young talents sharing scenes! It's a film buff's dream to pick them out of the remarkable ensemble. And Ginger Rogers shining as always!Franklin Pangborn does what he does as an obsequious manservant. It would be easy to overlook his comic genius. But he nearly steals every scene he appears in.This is a wonderful comedy/drama that delivers some clever cracks and some tender tears.

moonspinner55 Terrific cast in middling comedy-drama adapted from the play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman concerning would-be actresses living in a New York boarding house, each vying for parts on the Great White Way. Katharine Hepburn's solid performance as a socialite trying to make it on her own merits is the acting highlight here, and her bits alongside roommate Ginger Rogers are sharp and funny. Andrea Leeds received a Supporting Oscar nomination for her effective work as a troubled young woman who can't seem to find a job, but Adolphe Menjou keeps popping up as if he were the only show-producer in the city. On the whole, only marginal, but certainly worth a look for that female ensemble, which includes Lucille Ball, Ann Miller and the incomparable Eve Arden, who might have benefited from more scenes. *** from ****