Quality Street (1937)

Not as Good as the Silent, But...
Quality Street concerns the relationship between Phoebe and Dr. Valentine Brown. The two are often seen together and are in love. Dr. Brown tells Phoebe he must speak with her about an important matter. She believes he will propose. Instead, he tells her he is off to the war. When he leaves, Phoebe pines for him over a span of ten years. Over that time, her femininity hides away and deteriorates. Dr. Brown returns to an old maid and is disappointed by what time has done to his love. Phoebe is devastated and decides to prove to herself that she still is who she was ten years ago by dressing and behaving the same way under and alias. She masquerades as her own niece, Miss Livvy.

Katharine Hepburn is excellent in the role. The plot is just the sort of comedy she is suited for. She can play sadness through tears and she can play a scheming woman in the same film. She does it well.

Franchot Tone is mischievous and suave at the same time. He is very likable in his role.

This version varies from the silent version starring Marion Davies in many ways. First, it is much shorter. The silent is more thorough concerning the relationship between Phoebe and Dr. Brown previous to the war. Second, Dr. Brown is played as a straight forward character, less mischievous. This makes Phoebe's antics stand out more and fit more of a screwball style. It also aids the audience and makes one believe Phoebe and Dr. Brown would make a fine couple. Also, the transition from the beautiful, flirtatious Phoebe is contrasted much more greatly from the dull, drab old maid version. This is perhaps the major flaw with the talkie.

Katharine Hepburn masquerades to win the man she loves
The 1937 film "Quality Street," based on a minor turn of the century play by Sir James M. Barrie, was part of a string of period costume dramas Katharine Hepburn made in the 1930s such as "Mary of Scotland" and "A Woman Rebels." Having played a Barrie heroine a few years earlier in "The Little Minister," Hepburn again has to play a woman who adopts a disguise to win a man. Hepburn plays Phoebe Throssell, who has been courted for several years by Dr. Valentine Brown (Franchot Tone), who never gets around to actually proposing. When the Napoleonic wars begin he goes off to join the army and is gone for ten years, during which time Phoebe and her sister Susan (Fay Bainter) are forced to turn their home into a school. In 1805 Captain Brown returns form the war and fails to recognize Phoebe. To get her revenge, Phoebe masquerades as the young and vivacious Livvy, her "neice." Apparently Phoebe looks the part of an old maid so much that Brown is fooled.

"Quality Street" was directed by George Stevens, who had directed Hepburn in "Alice Adams," the first film in which the actress plays of her persona. A silent film version of the play was made in 1927 with Marion Davies, who actually would have been closer to the character's age ten years later when this film was made. The story is mildly humorous and what works is due more to the efforts of the cast rather than the story. Bainter does a nice job as the mousy sister and Estelle Winwood has a nice supporting part as Mary Willoughby. Hepburn's performance will either strike viewers as overly mannered, with lots of fluttering and hand-wringing, not to mention some classic early examples of mouth-quiverings, or an attempt to broaden the differences between Phoebe and "Livvy." Part of the problem is that Tone's Brown never seems worth the wait of an entire decade, but Phoebe still wants him so we pull for her.

It is not surprising, therefore, that "Quality Street" was one of the films that helped put Hepburn on the infamous distributor's list of "Box Office Poison." However, the actress turned 96 this week and her reputation in the history of Hollywood has taken a definite turn for the better.

WHIMSICAL KATE HEPBURN VEHICLE.
This picture takes place in the England of the 1790's. Kate is wooed by Franchot Tone, a young physician. Before he can ask for her hand in marriage, Tone goes off to war to help defeat Napoleon; as the years go by, and Hepburn and her sister (Fay Bainter) grow into spinsterhood, eventually opening their large home as a school. When Tone returns at long last, Hepburn masquerades herself as her own - purely fictitious - 16 year-old-niece in order to win herself a husband before the bloom is entirely off the rose... That Tone would seriously think of Hepburn as a teenager is ludicrous, and Kate overacted here to a fault: wringing her hands, raising eyebrows, fretting, etc. The whimiscal play was originally praised for its charming gentility, but nothing remotely works here, acting-wise, anyway. The costumes, garden scenery & photography far outweigh the performances. Interesting for a rare thirties role for the unique Estelle Winwood as Mary Willougby. While Barrie's QUALITY STREET was a fair hit as a play (it was first produced in the U.S. in 1901), it fails to satisfy as a film. Marion Davies made a 1927 silent version, and this RKO venture from 1937 lost a quarter of a million dollars for the the studio. This movie, along with A WOMAN REBELS among other Hepburn films of the period helped label her "box-office poison"; fortunately, films like HOLIDAY & THE PHILADELPHIA STORY were to come in the near future.