Does anyone know how Quality Street, a popular brand of confectionary here in Britain, got its name? Or why for many years the brand was advertised using a picture of a dashing soldier and his pretty sweetheart, both dressed in the costumes of the early 19th century? The reason (and I only discovered this recently) is that "Quality Street" is the name of a play by J M Barrie (of "Peter Pan" fame) and that the soldier and the girl are based upon characters in the play, which was still popular in the British theatre when the brand was first launched in 1936. "The Quality" was a now-obsolete term for the wealthy classes, and "Quality Street" referred to those parts of a town where such people lived.
The play also seems to have been popular in the American theatre, and it was made into two Hollywood films, a silent one from 1927 with Marion Davies in the leading role (which I have never seen) and this one from 1937, made by RKO Radio Pictures. In 1805 Phoebe Throssel, an inhabitant of Quality Street, is a beautiful young woman of twenty. She has set her heart upon the handsome Dr. Valentine Brown, and when he tells her that he has something important to say to her she assumes this will be a proposal of marriage. All he has to say, however, is that he has enlisted in the army to fight against Napoleon.
Fast forward to 1815. The Napoleonic Wars are over. Phoebe, still unmarried and helping her older sister Susan to run a school, is now a beautiful young woman of thirty. Did I say Phoebe is beautiful? Yes, of course she is. She is, after all, played by Katharine Hepburn, perhaps the loveliest star of the period, herself thirty years old at the time the film was made. Well, perhaps the role was originally intended for another actress, or perhaps the film-makers did not notice just how beautiful Katharine was, because the plot revolves around the idea that Phoebe has lost her looks in the intervening ten years and is no longer attractive. When Dr Brown, now a captain in the Army, returns to Quality Street Phoebe (whose heart is still set on him) passes herself off as her own (non-existent) niece Olivia ("Livvy"). As Phoebe endows the supposed "Livvy" with an outgoing, flirtatious personality quite unlike her own, this act of deception leads to various complications.
I have never seen a performance of Barrie's play, so have no idea how this scenario might work out on stage. (It is almost never staged today; it might still have been popular in the thirties, but in more recent years it has, like most Edwardian dramas, vanished into obscurity). In the film, however, it just does not work at all. Katharine Hepburn as the 20-year-old Phoebe looks very much the same as she does as the 30-year-old Phoebe or as "Livvy", so it seems incredible that Captain Brown, or anyone else, is taken in by her ruse. The film is set in England, but not all the cast sound English. Hepburn's English accent is a good one, but Franchot Tone as Brown makes no effort to hide his American accent, and no effort is made by the scriptwriters to explain it away (e.g. by making his character Canadian).
Katharine Hepburn is today widely regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses of all time; her record of four "Best Actress" Oscars has never been equalled, let alone beaten, by another actress. (Only one, Meryl Streep, has won three). It therefore comes as a surprise to learn that she was not always held in such high esteem and that in 1938 she was one of a group of actors labelled "box office poison". "Quality Street", which was a financial flop when released in 1937, was one of several films which contributed to this label. Hepburn's own reputation was to recover, especially after she appeared in the highly successful "The Philadelphia Story", but that of this film continued to languish, and today it has deservedly joined Barrie's play in obscurity. 4/10
The play also seems to have been popular in the American theatre, and it was made into two Hollywood films, a silent one from 1927 with Marion Davies in the leading role (which I have never seen) and this one from 1937, made by RKO Radio Pictures. In 1805 Phoebe Throssel, an inhabitant of Quality Street, is a beautiful young woman of twenty. She has set her heart upon the handsome Dr. Valentine Brown, and when he tells her that he has something important to say to her she assumes this will be a proposal of marriage. All he has to say, however, is that he has enlisted in the army to fight against Napoleon.
Fast forward to 1815. The Napoleonic Wars are over. Phoebe, still unmarried and helping her older sister Susan to run a school, is now a beautiful young woman of thirty. Did I say Phoebe is beautiful? Yes, of course she is. She is, after all, played by Katharine Hepburn, perhaps the loveliest star of the period, herself thirty years old at the time the film was made. Well, perhaps the role was originally intended for another actress, or perhaps the film-makers did not notice just how beautiful Katharine was, because the plot revolves around the idea that Phoebe has lost her looks in the intervening ten years and is no longer attractive. When Dr Brown, now a captain in the Army, returns to Quality Street Phoebe (whose heart is still set on him) passes herself off as her own (non-existent) niece Olivia ("Livvy"). As Phoebe endows the supposed "Livvy" with an outgoing, flirtatious personality quite unlike her own, this act of deception leads to various complications.
I have never seen a performance of Barrie's play, so have no idea how this scenario might work out on stage. (It is almost never staged today; it might still have been popular in the thirties, but in more recent years it has, like most Edwardian dramas, vanished into obscurity). In the film, however, it just does not work at all. Katharine Hepburn as the 20-year-old Phoebe looks very much the same as she does as the 30-year-old Phoebe or as "Livvy", so it seems incredible that Captain Brown, or anyone else, is taken in by her ruse. The film is set in England, but not all the cast sound English. Hepburn's English accent is a good one, but Franchot Tone as Brown makes no effort to hide his American accent, and no effort is made by the scriptwriters to explain it away (e.g. by making his character Canadian).
Katharine Hepburn is today widely regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses of all time; her record of four "Best Actress" Oscars has never been equalled, let alone beaten, by another actress. (Only one, Meryl Streep, has won three). It therefore comes as a surprise to learn that she was not always held in such high esteem and that in 1938 she was one of a group of actors labelled "box office poison". "Quality Street", which was a financial flop when released in 1937, was one of several films which contributed to this label. Hepburn's own reputation was to recover, especially after she appeared in the highly successful "The Philadelphia Story", but that of this film continued to languish, and today it has deservedly joined Barrie's play in obscurity. 4/10