Stage Door (1937)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Stage Door (1937) -- G. La Cava

Very cozy comedy drama about young women in a NYC boarding house hoping to make it on Broadway. Ginger Rogers is queen of the wisecracks and Katharine Hepburn is the rich girl slumming it to have a more authentic experience. The 1930s seem so different from today -- I can't even imagine that a place like the Footlights Club (boarding house) still exists. However, David Lynch does use Ann Miller (only 14 years old here) perfectly in Mulholland Dr, renting out cottages to Hollywood hopefuls, and thereby echoing the seamier side of Stage Door (where Adolphe Menjou's producer/exploiter is almost played for laughs).