Zoë Akins Movies

This remake of Zoe Akins' Morning Glory stars Susan Strasberg as Eva Lovelace, the role that won Katharine Hepburn her first Oscar back in 1933. Fresh from the midwest, the starry-eyed Eva arrives in New York, convinced that she has what it takes to be Broadway's greatest actress. Armed with more chutzpah than talent, Eva proves fascinating to big-time producer Lewis Easton (Henry Fonda) and playwright Joe Sheridan (Christopher Plummer, in his film debut). But the realization of her girl remains just outside of Eva's reach until she replaces temperamental star Rita Vernon (Joan Greenwood) on the opening night of Sheridan's newest play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marise Aubert (Greer Garson) has begun seeing a psychiatrist to treat her overwhelming guilt. It seems that Marise was married to Paul (Robert Mitchum), who was sent overseas in World War II. She loved Paul deeply and remained faithful to him. She then receives tragic news that Paul died in action, and months later is visited by Jean Renaud (Richard Hart), one of Paul's friends from the Army. Jean tells Marise that he and Paul were captured by enemy troops, and Paul died in the midst of a heroic attempt to escape. Marise senses that Jean is as lonely and heartbroken as she is, and she allows him to stay at her house. They fall in love, but the situation becomes complicated when a letter arrives from Paul. Jean hides it from Marise, hoping that she will not discover that her husband is still alive. He tries to convince her to sell her home and move away from her troubling memories, but before the sale can go through, Paul appears at the doorstep. While Paul can forgive Marise for betraying him, she is unable to forgive herself. Desire Me was released without a director's credit; the bulk of the principal photography was supervised by George Cukor, but by all accounts it was a troubled shoot, and eventually Mervyn LeRoy] and Jack Conway both worked to finish the picture. Garson nearly drowned while filming one scene, and Mitchum claimed that Cukor put Garson through 125 takes of another scene before she could say the word "No" to his satisfaction. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

When Zoë Akins' play The Old Maid (based on a novel by Edith Wharton) won the 1934-1935 Pulitzer Prize, the selection was roundly condemned by critics, who felt that Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour was more deserving, but had lost because of its lesbian theme. Certainly, Akins' story of the relationship between two Southern cousins in the years between 1833 and 1854 is nothing spectacular. Delia Lovell marries James Ralston, leaving her old beau Clem Spender out in the cold. Delia's cousin Charlotte comforts Clem by spending the night with him. Charlotte becomes pregnant, secretly farming out her daughter, Tina, to another family. The years pass; Charlotte sets up a day nursery so that she may remain close to her daughter (still in the dark as to the true identity of her mother). Meanwhile, Charlotte has become engaged to Ralston's brother Joseph. The troublesome Delia, who discovers her cousin's secret, contrives to prevent Charlotte from marrying Joseph, then arranges to have Charlotte raise Tina as her niece rather than her daughter. More years pass; Tina regards Delia as her mama and Charlotte as just an "old maid." At Tina's wedding, Charlotte almost reveals the truth to her daughter, but.....It's all slick romance-magazine stuff, and hardly worthy of the Pulitzer. On the other hand, the film version of The Old Maid, starring Bette Davis as Charlotte and Miriam Hopkins as Delia, is a classic of its kind, and one of Davis' best vehicles. The story is given additional substance by moving the early scenes up to the time of the Civil War, making Clem Spender (George Brent) less of a cad by killing him off at Vicksburg, thus rendering it impossible for Clem to make an honest woman of Charlotte. From the vantage point of the 1990s, when film stars find it difficult to turn out more than one picture a year, it is incredible that The Old Maid was but one of four first-rate Bette Davis films to be released in 1939; the others were Dark Victory, Juarez, and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Accused is a British melodrama starring American actor (and confirmed Anglophile) Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Somewhat incongruously cast as an Apache dancer, Fairbanks and his dance partner/wife Dolores Del Rio headline a Paris musical. Fairbanks becomes the unwilling target for the attentions of performer Florence Desmond (the famed British impressionist, here playing a hateful adventuress). Desmond is later murdered with the dagger used by Fairbanks and his wife in their act, and Dolores is accused of the crime. A florid court trial unmasks the real killer. Zoe Akins, a prominent playwright of the 1920s whose once-celebrated works seem somewhat childish today, was one of the scenarists of Accused. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this tragic drama, a pregnant daughter prepares to marry a man she doesn't love when her 'sister' tells her a story. It seems that when the older woman was a girl she too got pregnant by her lover. When her father found out, he had the impregnator sent to war where he was killed. Meanwhile he allowed his daughter to keep her little girl under the provision that she tell the child that she is her sister. The sister of course, is the woman's daughter. Unfortunately, when her father learns that his daughter has told her daughter the truth he has her committed to an asylum. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A prize-winning aviator (Katharine Hepburn) falls for the title character (Colin Clive), a British politician who is happily married. Both fall into a tempestuous affair, but are able to resist their urges. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Zoë Akins' archetypal "gold-digger" stage comedy The Greeks Had a Word for It was transferred to the screen in 1933, with the "It" changed to "Them" in the title, reportedly at the insistence of over-cautious producer Sam Goldwyn (this became a moot point in the 1940s, when the film was reissued as Three Broadway Girls). Ina Claire, Madge Evans, and Joan Blondell star as ex-showgirls Jean, Polaire, and Schatze, who pool their resources to rent a luxurious penthouse apartment. Their strategy is as follows: if they live like millionaires, dress like millionaires and act like millionaires, they'll be able to attract wealthy boyfriends. The original play ended with all three girls continuing their gold-digging activities unto eternity, while the film concludes with one of the three finding true love in the arms of Dey Emery (David Manners). The Greeks Had a Word for Them was later remade (and considerably rewritten) as How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), with Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, and Lauren Bacall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Working Girls is a slight, dated, but still entertaining comedy, typical of its era. Louise Adams (Frances Dee) and her friend (Claire Dodd) travel to the city in order to get jobs and hopefully find husbands. There they face the usual complications, but the women persevere and all ends well. The film is notable because its director Dorothy Arzner, was one of the few American women directors of the studio era. Arzner began her career as script-girl where she progressed to film editor. Her editing so impressed Paramount that Arzner was allowed to direct. She went on to have a long career and was the first woman member of the Directors Guild of America. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Kay Francis and Lilyan Tashman portray what used to be euphemistically labelled "good time girls". They work the convention circuit, providing companionship and other favors for tired business men--who of course lavish the girls with expensive gifts. Francis spoils this little set-up by falling for poor but virtuous Joel McCrea. Meanwhile, Tashman continues plying her trade with wealthy Eugene Pallette, whose wife responds not with jealousy but by trying to imitate Tashman's style! Girls About Town is the sort of ribald film fare that would be chased off the screen a few years later by the more stringent Production Code. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though he plays an Italian-American character in Ladies Love Brutes, George Bancroft refreshingly avoids the ethnic stereotype so prevalent in films of the early 1930s. Bancroft is cast as Joe Forziati, a rough-and-tumble building contractor who is suddenly thrust into great wealth. He tries to remain his same down-to-earth self, but soon he's putting on airs in hopes of impressing attractive divorcee Mimi Howell (Mary Astor). Forziati ultimately drops his social pretenses and puts up his dukes when both his son Joey (David Durand) and Mimi's boy Jackie (Freddie Burke Frederick) are kidnapped by Capone-like gangster Mike Mendino (Stanley Fields). Billed third, Fredric March is rather wasted as Mimi's former husband. Ladies Love Brutes was based on Pardon My Glove, a play by Zoe Akins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, two young people fall in love and desire to wed, but their union is opposed by their families. As a result, the two decide to make love out of wedlock and the girl gets pregnant. Not long afterward, her young lover is killed and she must raise her baby alone until a much older man begins to take an interest in her. Her family is all for the union and without enthusiasm, she agrees to marry him. She then bears a daughter and swears that her daughter will know true romance. Unfortunately, she is again opposed by her husband the religious fanatic who ends up sending the girl to China as a missionary. While abroad, she meets a handsome young man, and begins to fall in love. This is confusing for her until her dying mother sends her a telepathic message encouraging her to go ahead and fall in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on Zoë Akins's 1923 novel Déclassée and the 1925 film of the same title, Her Private Life stars Billie Dove as Lady Helen Haden, a married Englishwoman blackmailed after having a fling with American gambler Ned Thayer (Walter Pidgeon). When Sir Bruce Haden (Montagu Love) divorces her, Lady Helen travels to New York, where she is forced to pawn her jewels in order to survive. Although she still loves Thayer, she marries his wealthy boss, Rudolph Solomon (Holmes Herbert). The latter nobly steps aside, however, when he discovers that his own sister (Thelma Todd) actually committed a crime for which Thayer had taken the blame. Her Private Life, which featured the talking-picture debuts of both Dove and Walter Pidgeon, was also released in a silent version. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide