"Quality Street" is a comedy romance and drama set in England at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. It's definitely not Jane Austen story-telling or Austen's England, although the story takes place in her time. Rather, this is a lite farce that is set on a street named Quality Street in London. It's apparently a street where only spinsters live, and where old maids go to live their last years. A humorous prologue on the screen as the film opens, describes it as "Quality Street. Where a gentleman passerby is an event."
The cast are all fine, with some prominent women of the silver screen at the time playing the main spinsters - Estelle Winwood, Helena Grant, Cora Witherspoon, and Fay Bainter. Katherine Hepburn does well as Phoebe Throssel and her make-believe cousin, Livy. Franchot Tone plays Dr. Brown, and Eric Blore has a good supporting role for most of the comedy, along with Cora Witherspoon.
The movie is very slow by modern film standards and won't appeal to many people. But, those who enjoy drawing room comedies, and the subtle humor of old settings in England should enjoy it. It was a flop at the box office, the fourth in a row for films with Hepburn in lead roles. That led to her being labeled box office poison in the film word by 1938. Blore's comedy saves this film by one star.
The cast are all fine, with some prominent women of the silver screen at the time playing the main spinsters - Estelle Winwood, Helena Grant, Cora Witherspoon, and Fay Bainter. Katherine Hepburn does well as Phoebe Throssel and her make-believe cousin, Livy. Franchot Tone plays Dr. Brown, and Eric Blore has a good supporting role for most of the comedy, along with Cora Witherspoon.
The movie is very slow by modern film standards and won't appeal to many people. But, those who enjoy drawing room comedies, and the subtle humor of old settings in England should enjoy it. It was a flop at the box office, the fourth in a row for films with Hepburn in lead roles. That led to her being labeled box office poison in the film word by 1938. Blore's comedy saves this film by one star.