In the film "Babette's Feast," a great woman artist (her art happens to be the art of fine French cooking) speaks of the driving desire of any artist for the chance to do her very best. The film "Stage Door" has such a character, Kay, a young leading actress who had a big hit in the prior year but has since not had a part, and is broke, to the point of not having money for food or rent (she lives in the rooming house here on sufferance and food sneaked to her by others).
But there is a new, un-produced play, "Enchanted April," with a great leading role for her. The right to produce the play is in the hands of the Adolphe Menjou character, the producer of Kay's hit from the prior year, but he is having trouble raising the money to put it on. He also treats actresses like dirt, and has refused to tell Kay that she will get the part if only he can raise the funds.
Enter Katharine Hepburn's character, a wealthy wheat heiress going under an assumed name. She insists on her dream of acting despite her father's opposition. But she isn't any good at acting. She is a good person, however: first she denounces Menjou for his heartlessness to the aspiring actresses, then later she breaks up Menjou's attempted seduction of her friend. And she helps Kay survive.
Hepburn's father, seeking to end her dreams, feels that if she gets a major role she will prove to be so terrible that the play will be a disaster and she will give up acting. So he sends his lawyer to Menjou with a deal. Keeping his name a secret, he offers to fund the play provided that Menjou casts Hepburn in the lead. Menjou agrees, and casts Hepburn, and in rehearsals she is terrible. Menjou is certain the show will be a disaster, and declares he wants to get out of the contract, but Hepburn's father, through the lawyer, insists on the contract. Menjou never says he wants to re-cast Kay in the lead role; he gives her no thought at all.
Kay, meanwhile, is crushed to learn that Hepburn has the great role that Kay had dreamed of getting, of performing. On the day of the opening, Kay visits Hepburn, and shows her how to perform her opening lines. It is clear that Kay would have been perfect for the role. Hepburn leaves for the theater, and Kay, convinced that her last chance of being an actress is gone, goes to the roof, throws herself off, and kills herself. Hepburn hears of this just before going on, and gives a performance of real, heart-felt passion that is a tremendous success. Meanwhile the press sees the Wheat King in the audience, figures out that Hepburn is the Wheat King's daughter, and Menjou figures out that Hepburn's father was the secret backer who insisted that the role go to Hepburn.
And then the story is that Hepburn continues in the role, a great success, for months. And somehow Hepburn's success is supposed to redeem the death of Kay.
But really, it doesn't. What happens here is that Hepburn's father, attempting to ruin Hepburn's dreams, instead ruins Kay's. And then Hepburn uses her own reaction to Kay's suicide as the inspiration for her own success. The result is that the only truly inspired and dedicated artist in the film -- Kay -- is denied the chance to do her art, is destroyed and used. This is not to blame Hepburn -- she is the unwitting beneficiary who would instantly have refused to participate had she known what her father and Menjou had done. But the filmmakers have overlooked what is really an important moral point: two men, the father and Menjou, engaged in a subterfuge to destroy Hepburn's dream, and one of them, Menjou, also knew (or should have known, had he given her the care she deserved in making his last play a hit) that he was destroying Kay's dream. And as a result, Kay kills herself.
Given what we know the moral independence and strength of the character Hepburn plays, this film should have ended very differently. It is clear that later on opening night, due to the excited press reports, Hepburn would have learned that her father was the secret backer of the play. And she would have figured out instantly that he did it in hopes she would fail; and she would realize that Menjou cast her, and not Kay, because of the deal with her father, so that she would fail. And she would realize that this deal led to Kay killing herself. This would have led to a very powerful scene in which Hepburn could have condemned her father and Menjou for their thoughtless heartlessness towards Kay, and to herself, and to aspiring actresses in general, and spoken to the passions that drive great artists, and to the need for producers and backers to operate with integrity and dedication to the art. In other words, an absolutely classic, idealistic Katharine Hepburn speech, delivered as only she could do so well.
And she would refuse to go on for the second or any other night, unless Menjou and her father agreed that all the profits would go to a fund for actresses -- because her performance on opening night was her genuine feelings for Kay, and she was not going to use those feelings night after night to create a hit that would enrich the two men who tried to destroy her career and actually destroyed Kay.
With an ending like that I think this could have been a really great film.
But there is a new, un-produced play, "Enchanted April," with a great leading role for her. The right to produce the play is in the hands of the Adolphe Menjou character, the producer of Kay's hit from the prior year, but he is having trouble raising the money to put it on. He also treats actresses like dirt, and has refused to tell Kay that she will get the part if only he can raise the funds.
Enter Katharine Hepburn's character, a wealthy wheat heiress going under an assumed name. She insists on her dream of acting despite her father's opposition. But she isn't any good at acting. She is a good person, however: first she denounces Menjou for his heartlessness to the aspiring actresses, then later she breaks up Menjou's attempted seduction of her friend. And she helps Kay survive.
Hepburn's father, seeking to end her dreams, feels that if she gets a major role she will prove to be so terrible that the play will be a disaster and she will give up acting. So he sends his lawyer to Menjou with a deal. Keeping his name a secret, he offers to fund the play provided that Menjou casts Hepburn in the lead. Menjou agrees, and casts Hepburn, and in rehearsals she is terrible. Menjou is certain the show will be a disaster, and declares he wants to get out of the contract, but Hepburn's father, through the lawyer, insists on the contract. Menjou never says he wants to re-cast Kay in the lead role; he gives her no thought at all.
Kay, meanwhile, is crushed to learn that Hepburn has the great role that Kay had dreamed of getting, of performing. On the day of the opening, Kay visits Hepburn, and shows her how to perform her opening lines. It is clear that Kay would have been perfect for the role. Hepburn leaves for the theater, and Kay, convinced that her last chance of being an actress is gone, goes to the roof, throws herself off, and kills herself. Hepburn hears of this just before going on, and gives a performance of real, heart-felt passion that is a tremendous success. Meanwhile the press sees the Wheat King in the audience, figures out that Hepburn is the Wheat King's daughter, and Menjou figures out that Hepburn's father was the secret backer who insisted that the role go to Hepburn.
And then the story is that Hepburn continues in the role, a great success, for months. And somehow Hepburn's success is supposed to redeem the death of Kay.
But really, it doesn't. What happens here is that Hepburn's father, attempting to ruin Hepburn's dreams, instead ruins Kay's. And then Hepburn uses her own reaction to Kay's suicide as the inspiration for her own success. The result is that the only truly inspired and dedicated artist in the film -- Kay -- is denied the chance to do her art, is destroyed and used. This is not to blame Hepburn -- she is the unwitting beneficiary who would instantly have refused to participate had she known what her father and Menjou had done. But the filmmakers have overlooked what is really an important moral point: two men, the father and Menjou, engaged in a subterfuge to destroy Hepburn's dream, and one of them, Menjou, also knew (or should have known, had he given her the care she deserved in making his last play a hit) that he was destroying Kay's dream. And as a result, Kay kills herself.
Given what we know the moral independence and strength of the character Hepburn plays, this film should have ended very differently. It is clear that later on opening night, due to the excited press reports, Hepburn would have learned that her father was the secret backer of the play. And she would have figured out instantly that he did it in hopes she would fail; and she would realize that Menjou cast her, and not Kay, because of the deal with her father, so that she would fail. And she would realize that this deal led to Kay killing herself. This would have led to a very powerful scene in which Hepburn could have condemned her father and Menjou for their thoughtless heartlessness towards Kay, and to herself, and to aspiring actresses in general, and spoken to the passions that drive great artists, and to the need for producers and backers to operate with integrity and dedication to the art. In other words, an absolutely classic, idealistic Katharine Hepburn speech, delivered as only she could do so well.
And she would refuse to go on for the second or any other night, unless Menjou and her father agreed that all the profits would go to a fund for actresses -- because her performance on opening night was her genuine feelings for Kay, and she was not going to use those feelings night after night to create a hit that would enrich the two men who tried to destroy her career and actually destroyed Kay.
With an ending like that I think this could have been a really great film.