Stage Door

Stage Door (1937) is a sharp Hollywood comedy-drama you can watch online on iFILM. Gregory La Cava directs Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, with future legends Lucille Ball, Ann Miller and a razor-tongued Eve Arden filling out the rooms.

Almost the whole picture stays inside the Footlights Club, a New York boardinghouse packed with would-be actresses. Into it walks Terry Randall, a wealthy heiress determined to earn a stage career without her father's money. Cool and superior, she clashes at once with her roommate Jean, a wisecracking dancer. All around them are girls who have been promised parts for years and rarely land one — the banter in the hallway turns to heartbreak fast.

The film runs on talk: lines fire off in volleys, funny and cutting, before the comedy swerves hard into tragedy near the end. It competed for four Oscars, among them Best Picture and Director, and Andrea Leeds drew special notice as an actress for whom one rejection proves too much. For fans of old Hollywood and great ensemble casts of women, it's essential. Stream Stage Door (1937) online on iFILM.