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Such a frustrating disappointment

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

On Quality Street, women occupy their time by either witnessing or passing gossip about their friends and neighbors. Whenever there's a gentleman caller, all the neighbors peer out their windows and stare, taking note of how he was dressed, if he brought flowers, and how long he stayed. What else is there to do in 1805? Katharine Hepburn and her old maid sister Fay Bainter live on Quality Street, and while they primarily socialize with other old maids and gossipers in town, Kate has one particular friend she treasures: the dashing Franchot Tone. She's known Franchot for a year, and when she thinks he's going to propose, the rumor gets spread all over town. It turns out he enlisted in the army instead, and Kate feels humiliated. Ten years later, Franchot comes home from the war. He's a little gray at the temples, and Kate is no longer the blushing beauty he remembers. Can they fall in love again or is it too late? While it has an intriguing premise, the rest of the film is pretty silly. In order to get him back, Kate throws caution to the wind and acts like a harlot with all the other men in town, and her mischief-making gets a little long in the tooth after a few scenes. It is great fun to see Kate all dolled up, though. She's more beautiful than she's ever looked in her movies, and her flirtations are charming and sweet. I'm fans of both Kate and Franchot, but Fay Bainter was my favorite character in the film. She was unselfish and a wonderful sister, and I wish she'd taken some screen time away from Kate's silliness.

If you enjoy stories from the early 1800s you might like this movie. It's a mild example of the type--pleasant, with moments of funny lines and good acting, and nobody is really fooled by the woman posing as her own niece, just confused over the cover up. The friends are not dopes, and neither is her fella. At first he seems as if he has a cruel streak which is probably from a lack of experience with sensitive women after so many years in the military and the difference between his memory and the reality--he was used to the way HE had aged, but he comes across by the end as an exceptionally nice guy, a real catch, with a taste for daffy dames rather than the plump sweet young things he was supposed to favor. He joined in with the ridiculous plan with stylish conviction when he figured out what was going on.And of course Phoebe's mistake was being so hurt, and who wouldn't feel shocked when confronted by the knowledge that you have wasted your youth loving a man who thinks you are dowdy and unattractive and can't even recognize you when you are dressed up, that she decided to play this deception, likely because she read too much and lived too little to immediately see how foolish it was. It spiraled out of control because of her nosy neighbors who wouldn't allow her to merely send Livvy home and forget the whole thing. I have to think it did Phoebe's ego a world of good to be pursued so ardently by the soldiers! I'm sure when she got married her husband got to see both the restrained and capable school teacher and the goofy social butterfly in her from then on, which was probably a far better outcome than if everything had gone well from the start.Modern reviewers can't know what original audiences thought of these movies but Depression era viewers would certainly have had an acute understanding of what happened to a woman without a man in an era when a woman had no rights or protections. Many a Depression era woman decided to settle, as Phoebe's sister did, for her situation and become a confirmed spinster school teacher, a type that my father disliked as much as the man in this movie. (In the 30s US, if a woman married she lost her teaching job.) And teachers were paid so little in the Depression that they boarded in people's homes or got rooms with other teachers, in my mother's case with her sister as in this movie, enduring intense financial distress and societal restriction that could make a woman seem old before her time. There were many women in the 30s who became single, childless career women from necessity, just as there were after WWI and other wars around the world. There were so many single, childless women scratching out a living in Britain after WWI that there was a name for them and they had a little social world of their own. So I would say this movie would have been a lot more comprehensible to audiences in the Depression than to us.Hepburn was 30 when this came out. That was the right age for the story. In the 1930s, and in the early 1800s, 30 was NOT the new 20. 30 was well into maturity.

This is a gem!--IF you like stories set in this time period to begin with. IF you like the more sentimental acting style prevalent in the 1930's. And probably IF you're female.This has some resonance with Jane Austen's Persuasion. For me, it felt as if I'd found a new Georgette Heyer story, and on film! This is set in the Regency period in England. It is both romantic and comedic. Katherine Hepburn gives another great performance, similar to her Jo March in Little Women. I don't find her acting over the top at all. Franchot Tone is a good foil for her--not a great actor, but pretty hunky. Additionally, it has a lovely cast full of the kind of character actors you see in films like the Greer Garson Pride and Prejudice. In this case, it's Fay Bainter, Estelle Winwood, and other notables giving the film a fey charm.

Gosh, I hate to disagree with the previous posters/reviewers, but this is awful! Watching it was like taking a ninety minute dose of mental Castor oil.Hepburn is WAY too old to be playing such a silly, frivolous part. One can almost see her teeth lengthening as the movie goes on! She looks ridiculous as the ingénue and more ridiculous as the "niece". Franchot Tone, who was a real hunk in his day, looks exhausted and bemused, as well as totally embarrassed to be in this stinker. Joan Fontaine is in the movie for about three minutes. For those three minutes, she is insufferable.Fay Bainter is excellent as her usual vague, dithering self, but dear old Estelle Winwood looks like one of David Ickes lizard people! Her sole contribution to the movie is some stellar eye popping. I kept wondering why they ( the sisters) didn't just lock their doors!Perhaps this movie is simply hopelessly dated, but after awhile, I just wanted it to be over so I could crawl up to bed at 1:30 AM.Even my Mother, who is old enough to have seen this when it was out in the theaters, said, " That was the worst movie I ever saw. why did we stay up this long??" Good question, Mom!! Maybe we just couldn't believe Katherine Hepburn actually did this to herself.James Barrie needed to stick to Neverland.