"Morning glory" (1933)

O.K. This is it.
The.Worst.Old."Classic".Black.And.White.Movie.I.Have.Ever.Seen.

Film adaptation of a stage play about young,naive actress coming to New York searching for a big break, with pockets full of dreams and hopes about becoming theatre legend like her idols. Along the way, she is pitied, abused and laughed at, than suddenly gets a last-minute-chance and turns out to be new discovery. At the end she realizes that success means personal sacrifice and accepts it for the sake of her art.

At the paper,it sounds fairly harmless arty warning against sharks in show business, but in reality this must be the worst over acting I have ever seen in my entire life. Usually I love old black & white movies and have no problem if they are a bit dated, but this was laughable, annoying and simply bad. Don't know should we blame the script, director or Katherine Hepburn - we see her first waiting with other hopefuls in front of producer's office, talking and introducing herself to strangers (so far so good,she is obviously not sophisticated and very naive) but during the next five minutes we realize something is wrong with this girl, she talks to much, she is too eager, in fact she never listens anyone and talks constantly about herself without pausing for a breath. Again, maybe this were director's instructions - Hepburn is so annoying that today we would classify her as deluded,deranged and definitely off-balance. All trough the movie her character talks,talks,talks and than talks some more, gestures like she is on a stage, lives on another planet from other people around her and in a final scene when she yells "I'm ready!" it sounds so overbearing that she might as well be ready for a hospitalization.

Now, this is all very confusing - I have seen lots of old classics from 1920s,1930s and 1940s and from what I have seen, these old movies reflect atmosphere and public morals of the times,however this is simply bad case of overacting. All the other characters, including obvious comical cameos, have certain human, normal touch to them but Hepburn is simply mad. I mean, I would press "help" button under my table and call for the ambulance to sedate her and get her away. That Hepburn actually won "Oscar" for this movie is absolutely mystifying - just look at the acting of Mary Astor,Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow not to mention Bette Davis,Garbo or any other actress of the 1930s and underneath obvious Hollywood cellophane we can see natural acting or at least attempts to appear human. This was so bad that it spoiled my enjoyment of Hepburn and keep me wonder about point of Academy Award at all.