Post by dreamer on Oct 9, 2007 3:41:46 GMT -5
5/6/1932 Hollywood Citizen News
Katharine Hepburn to play Hamlet. A scenario of William Shakespeare’s play is now on its way to Jock Whitney, and if all plans are approved this will be Whitney’s big flicker to follow Becky Sharp...Miss Hepburn has expressed her willingness to be Hamlet.
7/6/1932 Hollywood Citizen News - Elizabeth Yeaman
Billie Burke and Katherine Hepburn arrive in town today and will soon be reporting for work at Radio Pictures. Miss Burke, as you know, is to have the role of the mother in Bill of Divorcement. Now Irene Dunne has been tentatively slated for the romantic lead, but it looks as if other engagements will make it impossible for her to take the role. At present she is finishing work on Thirteen Women. And unless the studio changes its mind, she will have the lead opposite Leslie Howard in The Animal Kingdom, which is slated to start next week. Howard was at the studio yesterday discussing the production plans, and in the meantime he is finishing work with Norma Shearer in Smilin' Through at MGM. All this is but a preamble to explain that it is more than probable that Katherine Hepburn will get the romantic lead in Bill of Divorcement. She comes from the New York Stage and is under long-term contract to Radio Pictures. And, although the contract is not yet signed, it is practically certain that John Barrymore will play the role of the father opposite Billie Burke.
7/7/1932 Hollywood Citizen News - Elizabeth Yeaman
Practically all of the important players and directors are now farmed out to other studios during the suspension of production at the Burbank studio. David Manners is the latest to be loaned. He started rehearsals this morning at Radio Pictures where he has been cast in one of the leading male roles in Bill of Divorcement. Another important addition to this cast is Elizabeth Patterson, one of the finest character actresses in Hollywood. Katharine Hepburn's as I predicted yesterday has been assigned to the role of the daughter, a highly dramatic part. John Barrymore and Billie Burke have the leads in the mother and father roles. Miss Hepburn, of the New York stage, arrived late yesterday afternoon on the Chief and reported to the studio two hours later for screen tests. In appearance she does not suggest a screen type. Unusually tall, she wore a dark blue Georgian silk ensemble topped by a freakish little horsehair hat of the pancake variety. Her features are angular and, with apologies to Pat Moran her eyebrows are suggestive of Mephistopheles. Her hair is dusty brown and she wears it skinned tightly back behind her ears and screwed into a spare knot at her neck. But when Ern Westmore of the studio make-up department finishes with her she probably will emerge quite different. However, since fully half of John Barrymore's scenes will be played with Miss Hepburn, I wonder how the studio is going to minimize her height since Barrymore is not a tall man. Other celebrities getting off the same train with Miss Hepburn yesterday were Helen Gahagan, Melvyn Douglas, Colin Clive, the artist, and Billie Burke, George Cukor is directing.
9/3/1932 Los Angeles Record
BILLIE BURKE RETURNS TO SCREEN
(Preview)
Title: Bill of Divorcement
Stars: Billie Burke and John Barrymore
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Katherine Hepburn, David Manners, Paul Cavanaugh, Elizabeth Patterson, Henry Stephenson, Gayle Evers, Bramwell Fletcher.
An RKO-Radio picture from the play of the same name by Clemence Dane.
By Relman Morin
Without any effort at all, you could write a book about the excellences of Bill of Divorcement, previewed this week by RKO-Radio.
It is remarkable on any of a dozen counts, the most important of which are:
1. Because it brings Billie Burke back to the screen after fifteen years’ absence and shows her as a lovely, colorful and wholly satisfying film personality.
2. Because it demands the last reserves of John Barrymore’s amazing ability—and gets them
3. Because it is the debut of Katherine Hepburn, young New York stage actress who is so darned good that she gets across despite bad photography.
4. Because, as a story, it is a flawless description of human beings.
Bill of Divorcement is based on the tragedy of a strain of latent insanity, running through a family.
The picture opens with a scene in an English home on Christmas eve. In a few swift, incisive strokes, it outlines its characters and its problem.
Billie Burke plays the wife of an English soldier, whose incipient insanity came to the surface as a result of shell-shock. For 20 years he has been in an asylum.
She tells her daughter that she married him in the war hysteria of 1914. Now, late in life, she has fallen in love again and is about to be married again.
The daughter (Katherine Hepburn) is in love with a man, played by David Manners. She has been told that her father went mad from shell-shock—the strain of insanity in the family is unknown to her.
In the midst of all this, the father, played by Barrymore, returns. He has recovered his sanity, and left the asylum.
Bill of Divorcement is perfectly cast. You will wait a long time before you see a finer piece of acting.
The picture will put Billie Burke in the front rank of dramatic actresses. Her role is not the ga-ga, fluffy thing she has done several times recently on the stage.
Katherine Hepburn is the type of actress who will create two sharply defined lines of opinion. You either will like her or not at all.
George Cukor directed Bill of Divorcement. He deserves laurels and [rest cut off]
10/6/1932 Hollywood Citizen News - Elizabeth Yeaman
Radio Pictures executives are feeling pretty exultant about Bill of Divorcement. Those who have seen the preview claim it is an artistic triumph but expressed doubt that it would be a great box office success. However, the picture has opened in New York and is a tremendous hit, which should prove that the public knows an artistic picture when it sees one. John Barrymore, Billie Burke and Katharine Hepburn play the three principal roles, and they are all safely cornered for more picture work.
So the next stop was for Radio to sign up Clemence Dane, author of this famous play. Negotiations with her were completed in England yesterday and she is now signed to a writing contract. Miss Dane is leaving shortly for the United States, and following a lecture tour of the East will arrive at the studio about the middle of January.
10/13/1932 Hollywood Citizen News - Elizabeth Yeaman
Katherine Hepburn may have made an unfavorable entry to Hollywood, but she certainly left in a blaze of glory. Radio Pictures practically begged her to sign a term contract, and she kept the executives in suspense until the last moment. She did sign, however. Miss Hepburn is eccentric in her dress and mannerisms. In fact she makes a fetish of eccentricity. Funny old clothes are her pride and joy, yet she traveled about the studio lot in a luxurious imported car. But her performance in Bill of Divorcement has everyone raving. From all accounts, John Barrymore has had to take a back seat in the picture. Miss Hepburn is enormously wealthy by heritage, and quite independent about her future career. But she is returning to Hollywood in the near future to play with Joel McCrea in Three Came Unarmed. Richard Wallace has been assigned to direct this picture.
10/14/1932 Hollywood Citizen News - Elizabeth Yeaman
Radio Pictures queried the public over the air to determine how many people would like Louisa M. Alcott’s novel, “Little Women,” brought to the screen in its original locale and period. The answers were three to one in favor of the original period and locale. So now the screen adapter has started work on the book, and no longer is troubled by the problem of modernizing the book. I believe the plot of Little Women would have been rather ridiculous in a modern setting anyway. Katherine Hepburn will have one of the leads and Anita Louise is set to play one of the other little women. John Robertson will direct.
Two nice directorial assignments were handed out at Radio Pictures this morning. J. Walter Ruben will direct Richard Dix in The Ace, and Gregory La Cava will direct Joel McCrea and Katherine Hepburn in Three Came Unarmed.
10/14/1932 Los Angeles Examiner - Harriet Parsons
(For LOP)
When Red Dust was previewed the other night the audience’s attitude toward Jean Harlow was definitely friendly. Which was a tremendous relief to the harassed Jean.
Jean’s next will be Nora, an original story by Anita Loos. It’s the colorful tale of a gal who’s always flying off the handle and whose wildness constantly gets her into jams. Although Nora has a hot temper, however, she’s not malicious, and the role will be a sympathetic one for Jean.
Story will have plenty of comedy and will be treated in a light vein until the finish, where one of Nora’s outbursts finally involves her in a tragedy. Miss Loos will write the adaptation and dialogue, which means there’ll be many clever lines. Roland Brown will direct.
....
Katherine Hepburn, whose film debut in Bill of Divorcement was little short of sensational, will have one of the principal roles in Little Women. Suppose she will play “Jo,” who is the most colorful of the “Little Women.” Anita Louise, as prophesied in this column (well, I can’t be wrong all the time), will also be in the Alcott story. She’ll play the role of “Meg” as a result of the fan mail which has poured in requesting that she be so cast. Maybe somebody reads this column after all! Dorothy Wilson is also set for a role. Fan mail also requests that the story be kept in the nineteenth century. Wanda Tuchock and Charles Brackett are adapting and John Robertson will direct. And I can’t think of a director in whose hands the much-loved novel would be safer.
10/20/1932 Los Angeles Evening Herald Express
Ad for Katharine Hepburn's A Bill of Divorcement.
10/22/1932 Los Angeles Examiner - A Bill of Divorcement
By Jerry Hoffman
Premieres such as given A Bill of Divorcement in the RKO Hillstreet Theater last night are rare. Those who donned soup and fish and paid extra admission had the satisfaction of knowing their dollars went to a worthy cause. The Motion Picture Relief Fund, sponsoring the opening performance, could rest content in knowing that its patrons saw an unusually fine motion picture.
Uncompromising, powerfully dramatic, A Bill of Divorcement will win great favor with the more discerning film fans. If its theme is somber, its treatment and delivery carry sufficient lightness to remove any morbidity and furnish the primary purpose of any motion picture—entertainment.
A Bill of Divorcement brings a new star for future movies. There is no slur at the personalities or performances of any other members in the company to state simply that not in years has a new face registered so indelibly as that of Katharine Hepburn. This is her first picture. She isn’t pretty—she hasn’t any freaky characteristics. But that piquant little face and her earnest characterization just about carry off all the acting honors.
That’s a big statement, particularly in view of John Barrymore’s grand portrayal. It’s one of the best assignments he has taken in years, and he does it full justice. As Hilary, who returns suddenly to his family after fifteen years in an insane asylum, Barrymore is given every opportunity to do all those things he loves so well.
That he used repression is so much more to his credit. Miss Hepburn plays the daughter of the man she believed mentally deficient because of shell-shock. She is about to marry—and then learns that insanity was not only latent in her father, but present in other members of the family.
Meanwhile, her mother has divorced Hilary, and is on the eve of her wedding to another man. The return of Hilary, apparently cured, complicates matters. The story is relentless, makes no sacrifice to movie formulas or what executives think fans expect. It’s worth seeing.
Billie Burke is the mother, David Manners, Paul Cavanagh and Henry Stephenson are the other men present. Elizabeth Patterson is unusually good. Howard Estabrook again proves his ability as one of the screen’s best craftsman by his treatment in collaboration with Harry Wagstaff Gribble of Clemence Dane’s play. George Cukor directed brilliantly.
Augmenting the feature are Shampoo, the Magician (need you be told what it is?), and a Mickey Mouse comedy, Mickey’s Nightmare. Sam Hoopl’s Hawaiians and Max Steiner’s Symphony Orchestra furnish the vocal and instrumental portions of the program.
10/22/1932 Los Angeles Evening Herald Express
A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT
By Harrison Carroll
A rather plain but intensely vibrant girl makes her screen debut and virtually steals honors in A Bill of Divorcement, which last night was introduced in gala premiere fashion to an audience at the RKO Hillstreet Theater.
This girl, one of the most distinctive personalities to reach the screen in a long time, is Katharine Hepburn, lately of the Broadway stage. Over-thin, lean featured, with a wide forehead under a tossing bob, great eyes, prominent cheekbones and a generous mobile mouth, this young actress is no conventional beauty.
Because of her vitality, her temperament, her unusualness, however, she exerts a peculiar fascination. At times, she is more than a little reminiscent of Garbo. Yet she is not imitative. Her personality is her own and is a compelling one. It is entirely possible that she may become a star.
FILM WELL DONE
Without her, A Bill of Divorcement would be a well-played, well-directed but not particularly thrilling picture.
Adapted from the play by Clarence Dane, it is the screen turned serious and perhaps a bit forgetful of the obligation of entertainment.
One considers rather gloomily the sacrifice of youth involved in this story of hereditary insanity. Sidney is so gallant, so intensely alive, that her plight seems all the more terrible when she must give up her lover and devote the rest of her days to a man who will be always threatened with a return of a mental affliction.
In neglecting him so far, I have not done justice to John Barrymore, who gives a distinguished performance as the unhappy Hilary. His is the role of a sensitive musician who comes out of a black void of insanity to find that he has a grown daughter and that his wife is in love with another. It is a taxing role and Mr. Barrymore plays it brilliantly. What could be more touching than that pitiful scene in which Hilary renounces and yet pleads for the love of his wife?
DRAMATIC FIND
Only because Miss Hepburn is discovered so dramatically in her first picture, is Mr. Barrymore’s presence slightly overshadowed.
Among the others of the cast there are good performances by Henry Stephenson, as the doctor; Paul Cavanagh, as the other man; Billie Burke, as the mother; and Elizabeth Patterson, as the husband’s sister. David Manners has little to do as the girl’s sweetheart, but in this little he is completely dominated by Miss Hepburn.
The picture is directed with considerable insight by George Cukor.
For all its morbid theme, it has strong interest.
Last night’s showing, of course, had all the glamor of a premiere. A large delegation of stars was on hand and a battery of lights illuminated the front of the theater.
Opening the program was a comedy, Shampoo the Musician, while other short subjects included a Mickey Mouse cartoon and a newsreel. Max Steiner led the orchestra, which was augmented by Sol Hoopl’s Hawaiian chorus.
10/22/1932 Los Angeles Record
A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT
RKO-HILLSTREET—John Barrymore in A Bill of Divorcement, with Billie Burke, Katharine Hepburn and David Manners, RKO-Radio film directed by George Cukor. Screen play by Howard Estrabrook and Harry Wagstaff Gribble from the stage play by Clemence Dane. Mickey Mouse comedy; RKO comedy, Shampoo, the Magician, and Max Steiner and orchestra.
By Llewellyn Miller
Hundreds of new players drift into Hollywood every year. A handful stays and gradually becomes part of the industry. Very rarely does an actress make a sensational place for herself in films with her first part.
And when it does happen it is an exciting moment.
It happened last night when A Bill of Divorcement opened at the RKO Hillstreet Theater.
Katharine Hepburn did as neat and complete a job of walking away with a picture as you are likely to see in some time.
She is a remarkable looking girl...not so much beautiful as vividly attractive, and vividly intelligent looking. She is a long shred of a girl who moves with a rather stiff awkwardness which gives the illusion of distinction just because it is highly individual.
Her voice is decidedly metallic, almost brassy at times. While it is not particularly flexible, she achieves the effect of a wide range by sensitive, restrained emphasis and delicate shadings.
Thee is a strong similarity to Greta Garbo about her. Her face is dominated by great eyes, set at exotic angles, and by the mouth, which is generous and sharply chiseled.
Beyond this visual likeness, however, Miss Hepburn is like no other actress. She is very much an individuality, and an individuality which will become important on the screen, very soon, if I am not mistaken.
It is a remarkable thing how Katharine Hepburn draws the attention in a scene. In a number of occasions she even takes the eyes away from John Barrymore, who certainly is doing some of his best work as the tragic Hilary. She achieves this, not necessarily by better acting, but by an ability to dominate a stage picture, just by her presence.
Billie Burke, noted all of her career as a comedienne, has been cast as the weak, sweet mother who has much that is pathetic but nothing that is funny about her. The part is not the happiest choice which might have been made for her first talking picture. Some sympathy, but not a great deal of concern is elicited by her part of Margaret, who divorced her husband after he had spent 15 years in an insane asylum.
His startling return, just as she is preparing to marry, ends the daughter's hope of happiness. She discovers that her father's condition was not due to shell-shock, but to a taint in the blood of his family.
A Bill of Divorcement is an excellent play, and it remains distinguished in its adaptation to the screen, though some of the power is lost by the necessary shortening.
There is a pleasant restraint in George Cukor's direction, and the whole cast behaves politely, even when certain members are going a little unbalanced.
John Barrymore always has rather reveled in portraying plain and assorted insanities, probably because he does such parts so well. His portrait of Hilary makes very real the instability and the emotional unreliability of the man who had lost 15 years out of his life. A gaze which loses focus momentarily, a vagueness of speech, a frenzied tumbling together of conflicting impulses in some scenes...these things make a dramatic part.
Memorable, too, is the brave fright with which his daughter welcomes, and the clear, prophetic stare which she turns upon her barren future when she realizes what her heritage must be.
Elizabeth Patterson as a reproachful aunt, David Manners, Paul Cavanaugh, Henry Stephenson and Gayle Evers make supporting parts count.
A Roscoe Ates comedy, and a wildly funny Mickey Mouse cartoon are short features. Mickey has a nightmare in this one. It is all about getting married and having a large and all too energetic family. Max Steiner conducts the orchestra, and the Royal Samoans do songs.
A brilliant first night audience indicated that the film had aroused a good deal of comment before its release. It will now, anyway for it is one of the really stimulating offerings of the season.
11/5/1932 Harrison Carroll
New Discovery Katharine Hepburn returns here surprised and a little worried about all the praise she received for her work in A Bill of Divorcement. She shakes her head over RKO’s plans to co-feature her with Joel McCrea in Three Came Unarmed, and probably to star her in Little Women. Better for her, she believes, would be a slow buildup.
Apparently, the new responsibility has had a sobering effect for she arrived minus her usual eccentric attire. The only bizarre item in her costume was a floppy gray felt hat with a low crown and a white hat cord. The Paris milliner told her it was modeled on the hat worn by Confederate soldiers in the Civil War.
11/18/1932 Los Angeles Examiner
MISS HEPBURN SAYS STOCK TRAINING KEY TO SUCCESS
By James E. Mitchell
Katharine Hepburn, Radio Pictures’ newest star, yesterday said that the royal road to good acting is by way of the small stock company.
Nowhere else can the ambitious young actress be given parts of greater variance and parts that would take years of endeavor on the New York stage to attain, Miss Hepburn said.
In her own career, she has played stock with the Edwin Knopf Company in Baltimore, Massachusetts Players, a Connecticut stock company headed by Henry Hall, the Theater Guild and in college plays.
It gives one the necessary background and experience before essaying major parts on the professional stage, where it is “make or break,” she said.
“I used to talk very rapidly and studied under a New York voice teacher who, after basic training, told me I needed practice and lots of it,” said Miss Hepburn.
“Stock companies gave me that practice. The frequent changing of the plays gave me variance. Stock companies are necessary for the beginning actress. It is the only way one can assemble all one’s future obstacles and hurdle them at the same time.”
12/2/1932 Hollywood Citizen News - Elizabeth Yeaman
It invariably happens that way in Hollywood. Here after Katharine Hepburn has spent weeks cultivating the affections of Amos, the pet monkey, so that he would perform nicely with her in Three Came Unarmed, the studio has gone and decided not to make the picture. She will just have to face the fact that all those monkey capers were for naught. The eccentric Miss Hepburn is to star in The Great Desire, alias The Magnificent Affair, alias Christopher Strong. Yet, that was the story all bought for Ann Harding. I should have known it was too good to be true that the story for Ann’s next picture should have been settled so quickly and painlessly. It seems when the writers got to work on the adaptation of Christopher Strong they found the starring role of the daredevil aviatrix not exactly suited to Miss Harding’ but a perfect fit for Katharine Hepburn. So the executives simply switched stars instead of trying to rewrite the whole story. It sounds sensible enough. Dorothy Arzner still will direct the picture. And Gregory La Cava, who was to have directed Three Came Unarmed with Miss Hepburn, now has been assigned to direct Ann Harding, if and when the studio finds a story for her.
12/9/1932 Los Angeles Examiner - Louella O. Parsons
That lad, Colin Clive, who couldn’t make up his mind whether he wanted to stay in Hollywood or return to his beloved London, is coming back. He is a good actor as anyone can testify who saw him in Journey’s End and Frankenstein, but he always gets homesick just when he is about to start a picture in Hollywood. David Selznick is sure he won’t get homesick this time, for he is putting him in the title role of Christopher Strong, with that much-talked-of young lady, Katherine Hepburn. Christopher Strong is The White Moth. It has been named and renamed so many times no one can be quite sure what name it will bear when it reaches the screen. Christopher Strong, however, is the original title.
12/26/1932 Hollywood Citizen News
Hollywood In Person
By Mollie Merrick
When Katharine Hepburn plays golf and her score is down in the 80s by the way—favorite caddie is that scottie who is always with her and who runs to the ball and waits for his mistress.
12/31/1932 Los Angeles Record
Get A Load of Hollywood
Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard giving a double holiday party...accidentally, they invited the same guests...so they made one party out of the whole thing...
Katherine Hepburn, from chilly New York, hugging a stove on the Dorothy Arzner set.
to be continued...
Katharine Hepburn to play Hamlet. A scenario of William Shakespeare’s play is now on its way to Jock Whitney, and if all plans are approved this will be Whitney’s big flicker to follow Becky Sharp...Miss Hepburn has expressed her willingness to be Hamlet.
7/6/1932 Hollywood Citizen News - Elizabeth Yeaman
Billie Burke and Katherine Hepburn arrive in town today and will soon be reporting for work at Radio Pictures. Miss Burke, as you know, is to have the role of the mother in Bill of Divorcement. Now Irene Dunne has been tentatively slated for the romantic lead, but it looks as if other engagements will make it impossible for her to take the role. At present she is finishing work on Thirteen Women. And unless the studio changes its mind, she will have the lead opposite Leslie Howard in The Animal Kingdom, which is slated to start next week. Howard was at the studio yesterday discussing the production plans, and in the meantime he is finishing work with Norma Shearer in Smilin' Through at MGM. All this is but a preamble to explain that it is more than probable that Katherine Hepburn will get the romantic lead in Bill of Divorcement. She comes from the New York Stage and is under long-term contract to Radio Pictures. And, although the contract is not yet signed, it is practically certain that John Barrymore will play the role of the father opposite Billie Burke.
7/7/1932 Hollywood Citizen News - Elizabeth Yeaman
Practically all of the important players and directors are now farmed out to other studios during the suspension of production at the Burbank studio. David Manners is the latest to be loaned. He started rehearsals this morning at Radio Pictures where he has been cast in one of the leading male roles in Bill of Divorcement. Another important addition to this cast is Elizabeth Patterson, one of the finest character actresses in Hollywood. Katharine Hepburn's as I predicted yesterday has been assigned to the role of the daughter, a highly dramatic part. John Barrymore and Billie Burke have the leads in the mother and father roles. Miss Hepburn, of the New York stage, arrived late yesterday afternoon on the Chief and reported to the studio two hours later for screen tests. In appearance she does not suggest a screen type. Unusually tall, she wore a dark blue Georgian silk ensemble topped by a freakish little horsehair hat of the pancake variety. Her features are angular and, with apologies to Pat Moran her eyebrows are suggestive of Mephistopheles. Her hair is dusty brown and she wears it skinned tightly back behind her ears and screwed into a spare knot at her neck. But when Ern Westmore of the studio make-up department finishes with her she probably will emerge quite different. However, since fully half of John Barrymore's scenes will be played with Miss Hepburn, I wonder how the studio is going to minimize her height since Barrymore is not a tall man. Other celebrities getting off the same train with Miss Hepburn yesterday were Helen Gahagan, Melvyn Douglas, Colin Clive, the artist, and Billie Burke, George Cukor is directing.
9/3/1932 Los Angeles Record
BILLIE BURKE RETURNS TO SCREEN
(Preview)
Title: Bill of Divorcement
Stars: Billie Burke and John Barrymore
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Katherine Hepburn, David Manners, Paul Cavanaugh, Elizabeth Patterson, Henry Stephenson, Gayle Evers, Bramwell Fletcher.
An RKO-Radio picture from the play of the same name by Clemence Dane.
By Relman Morin
Without any effort at all, you could write a book about the excellences of Bill of Divorcement, previewed this week by RKO-Radio.
It is remarkable on any of a dozen counts, the most important of which are:
1. Because it brings Billie Burke back to the screen after fifteen years’ absence and shows her as a lovely, colorful and wholly satisfying film personality.
2. Because it demands the last reserves of John Barrymore’s amazing ability—and gets them
3. Because it is the debut of Katherine Hepburn, young New York stage actress who is so darned good that she gets across despite bad photography.
4. Because, as a story, it is a flawless description of human beings.
Bill of Divorcement is based on the tragedy of a strain of latent insanity, running through a family.
The picture opens with a scene in an English home on Christmas eve. In a few swift, incisive strokes, it outlines its characters and its problem.
Billie Burke plays the wife of an English soldier, whose incipient insanity came to the surface as a result of shell-shock. For 20 years he has been in an asylum.
She tells her daughter that she married him in the war hysteria of 1914. Now, late in life, she has fallen in love again and is about to be married again.
The daughter (Katherine Hepburn) is in love with a man, played by David Manners. She has been told that her father went mad from shell-shock—the strain of insanity in the family is unknown to her.
In the midst of all this, the father, played by Barrymore, returns. He has recovered his sanity, and left the asylum.
Bill of Divorcement is perfectly cast. You will wait a long time before you see a finer piece of acting.
The picture will put Billie Burke in the front rank of dramatic actresses. Her role is not the ga-ga, fluffy thing she has done several times recently on the stage.
Katherine Hepburn is the type of actress who will create two sharply defined lines of opinion. You either will like her or not at all.
George Cukor directed Bill of Divorcement. He deserves laurels and [rest cut off]
10/6/1932 Hollywood Citizen News - Elizabeth Yeaman
Radio Pictures executives are feeling pretty exultant about Bill of Divorcement. Those who have seen the preview claim it is an artistic triumph but expressed doubt that it would be a great box office success. However, the picture has opened in New York and is a tremendous hit, which should prove that the public knows an artistic picture when it sees one. John Barrymore, Billie Burke and Katharine Hepburn play the three principal roles, and they are all safely cornered for more picture work.
So the next stop was for Radio to sign up Clemence Dane, author of this famous play. Negotiations with her were completed in England yesterday and she is now signed to a writing contract. Miss Dane is leaving shortly for the United States, and following a lecture tour of the East will arrive at the studio about the middle of January.
10/13/1932 Hollywood Citizen News - Elizabeth Yeaman
Katherine Hepburn may have made an unfavorable entry to Hollywood, but she certainly left in a blaze of glory. Radio Pictures practically begged her to sign a term contract, and she kept the executives in suspense until the last moment. She did sign, however. Miss Hepburn is eccentric in her dress and mannerisms. In fact she makes a fetish of eccentricity. Funny old clothes are her pride and joy, yet she traveled about the studio lot in a luxurious imported car. But her performance in Bill of Divorcement has everyone raving. From all accounts, John Barrymore has had to take a back seat in the picture. Miss Hepburn is enormously wealthy by heritage, and quite independent about her future career. But she is returning to Hollywood in the near future to play with Joel McCrea in Three Came Unarmed. Richard Wallace has been assigned to direct this picture.
10/14/1932 Hollywood Citizen News - Elizabeth Yeaman
Radio Pictures queried the public over the air to determine how many people would like Louisa M. Alcott’s novel, “Little Women,” brought to the screen in its original locale and period. The answers were three to one in favor of the original period and locale. So now the screen adapter has started work on the book, and no longer is troubled by the problem of modernizing the book. I believe the plot of Little Women would have been rather ridiculous in a modern setting anyway. Katherine Hepburn will have one of the leads and Anita Louise is set to play one of the other little women. John Robertson will direct.
Two nice directorial assignments were handed out at Radio Pictures this morning. J. Walter Ruben will direct Richard Dix in The Ace, and Gregory La Cava will direct Joel McCrea and Katherine Hepburn in Three Came Unarmed.
10/14/1932 Los Angeles Examiner - Harriet Parsons
(For LOP)
When Red Dust was previewed the other night the audience’s attitude toward Jean Harlow was definitely friendly. Which was a tremendous relief to the harassed Jean.
Jean’s next will be Nora, an original story by Anita Loos. It’s the colorful tale of a gal who’s always flying off the handle and whose wildness constantly gets her into jams. Although Nora has a hot temper, however, she’s not malicious, and the role will be a sympathetic one for Jean.
Story will have plenty of comedy and will be treated in a light vein until the finish, where one of Nora’s outbursts finally involves her in a tragedy. Miss Loos will write the adaptation and dialogue, which means there’ll be many clever lines. Roland Brown will direct.
....
Katherine Hepburn, whose film debut in Bill of Divorcement was little short of sensational, will have one of the principal roles in Little Women. Suppose she will play “Jo,” who is the most colorful of the “Little Women.” Anita Louise, as prophesied in this column (well, I can’t be wrong all the time), will also be in the Alcott story. She’ll play the role of “Meg” as a result of the fan mail which has poured in requesting that she be so cast. Maybe somebody reads this column after all! Dorothy Wilson is also set for a role. Fan mail also requests that the story be kept in the nineteenth century. Wanda Tuchock and Charles Brackett are adapting and John Robertson will direct. And I can’t think of a director in whose hands the much-loved novel would be safer.
10/20/1932 Los Angeles Evening Herald Express
Ad for Katharine Hepburn's A Bill of Divorcement.
10/22/1932 Los Angeles Examiner - A Bill of Divorcement
By Jerry Hoffman
Premieres such as given A Bill of Divorcement in the RKO Hillstreet Theater last night are rare. Those who donned soup and fish and paid extra admission had the satisfaction of knowing their dollars went to a worthy cause. The Motion Picture Relief Fund, sponsoring the opening performance, could rest content in knowing that its patrons saw an unusually fine motion picture.
Uncompromising, powerfully dramatic, A Bill of Divorcement will win great favor with the more discerning film fans. If its theme is somber, its treatment and delivery carry sufficient lightness to remove any morbidity and furnish the primary purpose of any motion picture—entertainment.
A Bill of Divorcement brings a new star for future movies. There is no slur at the personalities or performances of any other members in the company to state simply that not in years has a new face registered so indelibly as that of Katharine Hepburn. This is her first picture. She isn’t pretty—she hasn’t any freaky characteristics. But that piquant little face and her earnest characterization just about carry off all the acting honors.
That’s a big statement, particularly in view of John Barrymore’s grand portrayal. It’s one of the best assignments he has taken in years, and he does it full justice. As Hilary, who returns suddenly to his family after fifteen years in an insane asylum, Barrymore is given every opportunity to do all those things he loves so well.
That he used repression is so much more to his credit. Miss Hepburn plays the daughter of the man she believed mentally deficient because of shell-shock. She is about to marry—and then learns that insanity was not only latent in her father, but present in other members of the family.
Meanwhile, her mother has divorced Hilary, and is on the eve of her wedding to another man. The return of Hilary, apparently cured, complicates matters. The story is relentless, makes no sacrifice to movie formulas or what executives think fans expect. It’s worth seeing.
Billie Burke is the mother, David Manners, Paul Cavanagh and Henry Stephenson are the other men present. Elizabeth Patterson is unusually good. Howard Estabrook again proves his ability as one of the screen’s best craftsman by his treatment in collaboration with Harry Wagstaff Gribble of Clemence Dane’s play. George Cukor directed brilliantly.
Augmenting the feature are Shampoo, the Magician (need you be told what it is?), and a Mickey Mouse comedy, Mickey’s Nightmare. Sam Hoopl’s Hawaiians and Max Steiner’s Symphony Orchestra furnish the vocal and instrumental portions of the program.
10/22/1932 Los Angeles Evening Herald Express
A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT
By Harrison Carroll
A rather plain but intensely vibrant girl makes her screen debut and virtually steals honors in A Bill of Divorcement, which last night was introduced in gala premiere fashion to an audience at the RKO Hillstreet Theater.
This girl, one of the most distinctive personalities to reach the screen in a long time, is Katharine Hepburn, lately of the Broadway stage. Over-thin, lean featured, with a wide forehead under a tossing bob, great eyes, prominent cheekbones and a generous mobile mouth, this young actress is no conventional beauty.
Because of her vitality, her temperament, her unusualness, however, she exerts a peculiar fascination. At times, she is more than a little reminiscent of Garbo. Yet she is not imitative. Her personality is her own and is a compelling one. It is entirely possible that she may become a star.
FILM WELL DONE
Without her, A Bill of Divorcement would be a well-played, well-directed but not particularly thrilling picture.
Adapted from the play by Clarence Dane, it is the screen turned serious and perhaps a bit forgetful of the obligation of entertainment.
One considers rather gloomily the sacrifice of youth involved in this story of hereditary insanity. Sidney is so gallant, so intensely alive, that her plight seems all the more terrible when she must give up her lover and devote the rest of her days to a man who will be always threatened with a return of a mental affliction.
In neglecting him so far, I have not done justice to John Barrymore, who gives a distinguished performance as the unhappy Hilary. His is the role of a sensitive musician who comes out of a black void of insanity to find that he has a grown daughter and that his wife is in love with another. It is a taxing role and Mr. Barrymore plays it brilliantly. What could be more touching than that pitiful scene in which Hilary renounces and yet pleads for the love of his wife?
DRAMATIC FIND
Only because Miss Hepburn is discovered so dramatically in her first picture, is Mr. Barrymore’s presence slightly overshadowed.
Among the others of the cast there are good performances by Henry Stephenson, as the doctor; Paul Cavanagh, as the other man; Billie Burke, as the mother; and Elizabeth Patterson, as the husband’s sister. David Manners has little to do as the girl’s sweetheart, but in this little he is completely dominated by Miss Hepburn.
The picture is directed with considerable insight by George Cukor.
For all its morbid theme, it has strong interest.
Last night’s showing, of course, had all the glamor of a premiere. A large delegation of stars was on hand and a battery of lights illuminated the front of the theater.
Opening the program was a comedy, Shampoo the Musician, while other short subjects included a Mickey Mouse cartoon and a newsreel. Max Steiner led the orchestra, which was augmented by Sol Hoopl’s Hawaiian chorus.
10/22/1932 Los Angeles Record
A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT
RKO-HILLSTREET—John Barrymore in A Bill of Divorcement, with Billie Burke, Katharine Hepburn and David Manners, RKO-Radio film directed by George Cukor. Screen play by Howard Estrabrook and Harry Wagstaff Gribble from the stage play by Clemence Dane. Mickey Mouse comedy; RKO comedy, Shampoo, the Magician, and Max Steiner and orchestra.
By Llewellyn Miller
Hundreds of new players drift into Hollywood every year. A handful stays and gradually becomes part of the industry. Very rarely does an actress make a sensational place for herself in films with her first part.
And when it does happen it is an exciting moment.
It happened last night when A Bill of Divorcement opened at the RKO Hillstreet Theater.
Katharine Hepburn did as neat and complete a job of walking away with a picture as you are likely to see in some time.
She is a remarkable looking girl...not so much beautiful as vividly attractive, and vividly intelligent looking. She is a long shred of a girl who moves with a rather stiff awkwardness which gives the illusion of distinction just because it is highly individual.
Her voice is decidedly metallic, almost brassy at times. While it is not particularly flexible, she achieves the effect of a wide range by sensitive, restrained emphasis and delicate shadings.
Thee is a strong similarity to Greta Garbo about her. Her face is dominated by great eyes, set at exotic angles, and by the mouth, which is generous and sharply chiseled.
Beyond this visual likeness, however, Miss Hepburn is like no other actress. She is very much an individuality, and an individuality which will become important on the screen, very soon, if I am not mistaken.
It is a remarkable thing how Katharine Hepburn draws the attention in a scene. In a number of occasions she even takes the eyes away from John Barrymore, who certainly is doing some of his best work as the tragic Hilary. She achieves this, not necessarily by better acting, but by an ability to dominate a stage picture, just by her presence.
Billie Burke, noted all of her career as a comedienne, has been cast as the weak, sweet mother who has much that is pathetic but nothing that is funny about her. The part is not the happiest choice which might have been made for her first talking picture. Some sympathy, but not a great deal of concern is elicited by her part of Margaret, who divorced her husband after he had spent 15 years in an insane asylum.
His startling return, just as she is preparing to marry, ends the daughter's hope of happiness. She discovers that her father's condition was not due to shell-shock, but to a taint in the blood of his family.
A Bill of Divorcement is an excellent play, and it remains distinguished in its adaptation to the screen, though some of the power is lost by the necessary shortening.
There is a pleasant restraint in George Cukor's direction, and the whole cast behaves politely, even when certain members are going a little unbalanced.
John Barrymore always has rather reveled in portraying plain and assorted insanities, probably because he does such parts so well. His portrait of Hilary makes very real the instability and the emotional unreliability of the man who had lost 15 years out of his life. A gaze which loses focus momentarily, a vagueness of speech, a frenzied tumbling together of conflicting impulses in some scenes...these things make a dramatic part.
Memorable, too, is the brave fright with which his daughter welcomes, and the clear, prophetic stare which she turns upon her barren future when she realizes what her heritage must be.
Elizabeth Patterson as a reproachful aunt, David Manners, Paul Cavanaugh, Henry Stephenson and Gayle Evers make supporting parts count.
A Roscoe Ates comedy, and a wildly funny Mickey Mouse cartoon are short features. Mickey has a nightmare in this one. It is all about getting married and having a large and all too energetic family. Max Steiner conducts the orchestra, and the Royal Samoans do songs.
A brilliant first night audience indicated that the film had aroused a good deal of comment before its release. It will now, anyway for it is one of the really stimulating offerings of the season.
11/5/1932 Harrison Carroll
New Discovery Katharine Hepburn returns here surprised and a little worried about all the praise she received for her work in A Bill of Divorcement. She shakes her head over RKO’s plans to co-feature her with Joel McCrea in Three Came Unarmed, and probably to star her in Little Women. Better for her, she believes, would be a slow buildup.
Apparently, the new responsibility has had a sobering effect for she arrived minus her usual eccentric attire. The only bizarre item in her costume was a floppy gray felt hat with a low crown and a white hat cord. The Paris milliner told her it was modeled on the hat worn by Confederate soldiers in the Civil War.
11/18/1932 Los Angeles Examiner
MISS HEPBURN SAYS STOCK TRAINING KEY TO SUCCESS
By James E. Mitchell
Katharine Hepburn, Radio Pictures’ newest star, yesterday said that the royal road to good acting is by way of the small stock company.
Nowhere else can the ambitious young actress be given parts of greater variance and parts that would take years of endeavor on the New York stage to attain, Miss Hepburn said.
In her own career, she has played stock with the Edwin Knopf Company in Baltimore, Massachusetts Players, a Connecticut stock company headed by Henry Hall, the Theater Guild and in college plays.
It gives one the necessary background and experience before essaying major parts on the professional stage, where it is “make or break,” she said.
“I used to talk very rapidly and studied under a New York voice teacher who, after basic training, told me I needed practice and lots of it,” said Miss Hepburn.
“Stock companies gave me that practice. The frequent changing of the plays gave me variance. Stock companies are necessary for the beginning actress. It is the only way one can assemble all one’s future obstacles and hurdle them at the same time.”
12/2/1932 Hollywood Citizen News - Elizabeth Yeaman
It invariably happens that way in Hollywood. Here after Katharine Hepburn has spent weeks cultivating the affections of Amos, the pet monkey, so that he would perform nicely with her in Three Came Unarmed, the studio has gone and decided not to make the picture. She will just have to face the fact that all those monkey capers were for naught. The eccentric Miss Hepburn is to star in The Great Desire, alias The Magnificent Affair, alias Christopher Strong. Yet, that was the story all bought for Ann Harding. I should have known it was too good to be true that the story for Ann’s next picture should have been settled so quickly and painlessly. It seems when the writers got to work on the adaptation of Christopher Strong they found the starring role of the daredevil aviatrix not exactly suited to Miss Harding’ but a perfect fit for Katharine Hepburn. So the executives simply switched stars instead of trying to rewrite the whole story. It sounds sensible enough. Dorothy Arzner still will direct the picture. And Gregory La Cava, who was to have directed Three Came Unarmed with Miss Hepburn, now has been assigned to direct Ann Harding, if and when the studio finds a story for her.
12/9/1932 Los Angeles Examiner - Louella O. Parsons
That lad, Colin Clive, who couldn’t make up his mind whether he wanted to stay in Hollywood or return to his beloved London, is coming back. He is a good actor as anyone can testify who saw him in Journey’s End and Frankenstein, but he always gets homesick just when he is about to start a picture in Hollywood. David Selznick is sure he won’t get homesick this time, for he is putting him in the title role of Christopher Strong, with that much-talked-of young lady, Katherine Hepburn. Christopher Strong is The White Moth. It has been named and renamed so many times no one can be quite sure what name it will bear when it reaches the screen. Christopher Strong, however, is the original title.
12/26/1932 Hollywood Citizen News
Hollywood In Person
By Mollie Merrick
When Katharine Hepburn plays golf and her score is down in the 80s by the way—favorite caddie is that scottie who is always with her and who runs to the ball and waits for his mistress.
12/31/1932 Los Angeles Record
Get A Load of Hollywood
Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard giving a double holiday party...accidentally, they invited the same guests...so they made one party out of the whole thing...
Katherine Hepburn, from chilly New York, hugging a stove on the Dorothy Arzner set.
to be continued...