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Katharine Hepburn had an interesting face in her youth. It was pleasantly sculpted without being boney. In the opening of Alice Adams she is seen peeking in the shops of South Renford, a sleepy American town. Once we follow her home, we realize that this will be a familiar saga about a small town family struggling through hard times.
Like they did for Bette Davis, better roles came for Katharine Hepburn with age. She was too opinionated, too courageously vocal to play a shy young miss like Alice. It’s a good performance, but it shows signs of being an early one for Hepburn. The fragile small town girl seems tailored more for Claudette Colbert or Priscilla Lane than the sassy star of Adam’s Rib.
Alice Adams works despite of this because it is such a pleasant ensemble piece. Everyone works so well together, especially when the Adamses are seen as a family unit. Both Ma and Pa want the best for their daughter, but Mr. Adams (Fred Stone) carries the guilt of knowing he can never provide enough for his daughter as long as he works as a clerk at a local drug store.
Frank Albertson is interesting as Walter, Alice’s caring but cantankerous brother. When he reluctantly takes Alice to a dance (as Alice is too poor to attract romantic escorts), there is a revealing bit at how the two siblings deal with their standing. Alice mingles with all the big-money guests, pretending to be one of them. Walter, feeling no need to impress anyone, associates the band leader and gambles with the bellhops who, incidentally, are all Black. This is interesting not only because the film draws a link between race and class, but because we see that Walter defines himself by his socio-economic status while Alice can’t help but let her status define her. Walter accepts reality without shame while Alice hides the truth.
Arthur Russell (Fred MacMurray) is also defined by his class and wears old money on his sleeve. He asks Alice to dance and she becomes smitten. But is he genuine or just cocky? Russell is an enigmatic figure and we wish the film would tell us more about him. Despite being engaged to a local socialite, he let’s his affair with Alice grow knowing that it will inevitably lead to heartbreak. What exactly is his plan?
This is one of the stories that Alice Adams could have benefited from expanding. Instead, it tells its story about overcoming adversity in a manner clichéd even in 1935. The shortcoming of Alice Adams is that it doesn’t define the working-class in a relatable way. The world of the Adams family and Arthur Russell are presented from the same level of abstraction, and it’s a very Hollywood abstraction at that. Once again, though, the performances save the day.
Alice Adams is at its best as a story about a family, Alice included. Her story alone is dated and trite, but the struggle of the family as a whole makes for a superior film. The arguments between her parents and her father’s guilt over business decisions feel genuine. Only the dinner scene (when Alice brings Russell home) in which every possible mishap befalls the family is an uncharacteristic farce. It’s somewhat funny, albeit with sad consequences, but unfitting to the context.
Alice Adams is a decent film with a lot of insightful moments and good performances. But its missteps and shortsightedness have dated it faster than it would have otherwise, robbing it of a dramatic flare in the process.