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6.4/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.4/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Morning Glory remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have a soft spot for pre-code era dramatics and Katharine Hepburn just vibrating with sheer, unadulterated ambition, then yeah, dig in. It’s not a perfect movie by any stretch. If you find theatrical acting from the thirties exhausting, or if you need a plot that actually makes sense for the full runtime, you’re gonna have a bad time.
It feels a bit like watching a prototype for movies like A Yankee Princess or even those later, polished backstage musicals. It’s got that jittery, black-and-white energy that just doesn't quit.
Katharine Hepburn is doing so much here. She’s playing Eva Lovelace, and she’s basically running on pure adrenaline and desperation. There’s this one moment where she’s just staring into the mirror, talking to herself, and it’s so raw it almost feels like she’s about to break the screen. It’s not polished acting. It’s more like a nervous breakdown in slow motion.
The rest of the cast is… well, they’re there. Adolphe Menjou is doing that thing where he plays the weary mentor so well you can practically smell the stale coffee and cigarette smoke on his tuxedo. He’s the anchor, but he’s fighting against a tide of melodrama.
Did anyone else catch the way the lighting shifts during the monologue in the second act? One second she’s in a shadow, the next she’s lit up like a Christmas tree. It’s jarring. I think I liked it, though. It added this weird, dreamlike quality to the whole sequence.
Also, the sets. They look like they might fall over if someone sneezed too hard. It’s charming in a 'we have two dollars and a dream' kind of way.
It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in A Fool for Luck, where you’re just waiting for the whole house of cards to collapse. You don’t watch this for a coherent story. You watch it to see if the main character is going to actually snap or if she’s just going to become a star. It’s a tightrope walk without a net.
Honestly, the movie gets a lot better once it stops trying to be a serious drama about the theater and just lets Hepburn be the weird, intense person she clearly is. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s definitely not boring. Sometimes, that’s all you really need on a Tuesday night. 🎭
IMDb —
1925
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