(Films released from August 1, 1932 through December 31, 1933 were eligible.)
The nominees were ...
... when they should have been ...
And the Oscar went to ...
Katharine Hepburn in Morning Glory. The Academy had four Hepburn pictures to choose from: A Bill of Divorcement, Christopher Strong, Morning Glory, and Little Women were all eligible. It's easy to see why they chose this one over the first two -- A Bill of Divorcement was her debut and Christopher Strong was a notorious flop. Morning Glory to some extent recapitulates Hepburn's own experiences. In it she plays a small-town girl who comes to the big city determined to become a Broadway star. Born to a well-to-do New England family, Hepburn was also stagestruck, and she managed to launch an acting career in 1928 without much training or experience. An RKO scout saw her in her first stage success in 1932, a play called The Warrior's Husband, and signed her to a contract. But in Morning Glory she's still tentative as a screen actress and director Lowell Sherman does little to help. She needed a "women's director" like George Cukor to bring out her strengths.
... when it should have gone to ...
 |
| Joan Bennett, Spring Byington, Jean Parker, Frances Dee, and Katharine Hepburn in Little Women |
And for Little Women she got Cukor, who did just that. Plus, she had a beloved classic American novel with a role -- the tomboyish Jo March -- that fit her perfectly. It could be said that the Oscar for Morning Glory was as much for her work on Little Women, which was a box-office hit, but on the other hand it also seems prophetic. Again and again, the Oscar went to Hepburn for the wrong movies: the didactic Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, the talky The Lion in Winter, and the slushy On Golden Pond. She now holds the record for most Oscar wins, but it's something of a fluke that she got them for some very weak movies instead of for films that she helped make into classics, such as Little Women, Alice Adams, Stage Door, Bringing Up Baby, Holiday, The Philadelphia Story, Adam's Rib, Pat and Mike, The African Queen and Long Day's Journey Into Night.
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