“In 1934, Hepburn bought herself out of the embarrassment of her Broadway debut in ‘The Lake,' which had furnished her with the immortal line ‘The calla lilies are in bloom again..' and Dorothy Parker's comment on her performance: ‘She ran the gamut of emotions from A to B.' Back with RKO, she made The Little Minister and Break of Hearts, and then really sprang back into form with Alice Adams, based on Booth Tarkington's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, and beautifully directed by George Stevens, a young, inexperienced director here given his big break. Film history differs. According to David Shipman (‘The Great Movie Stars') Hepburn insisted on having Stevens direct, but the consensus has it that she was furious to be assigned an unproved talent, but got on extremely well with him.
“He extracts one of her best performances as the daughter of a small-town family trying to climb the social scale by marrying her off well. Fred MacMurray is the suitor, subjected to one of the funniest dinner scenes on film, as the family upgrades its image with a huge, gum-chewing maid who serves piping hot soup and hopelessly melted ice cream on a stiflingly hot summer's night.
“Hepburn and the film won Academy Award nominations. This was the role that established her as a gifted comedienne, looking forward to the classic partnerships with Grant and Tracy: ‘She has never looked more stunning nor played with such distinction, authority and charm. It is a performance that is superb in every detail, well sustained, carefully modulated and accurately pitched to the keys of humor and wistful pathos which define the character' (New York Post).” --Richard Kwietniowski