Quality Street

Quality Street

26/3/1937 1h 23m 5.8/10

Overview

In the 1810s, an old maid poses as her own niece in order to teach her onetime beau a lesson.

Director

W. Argyle Nelson

Top Billed Cast

Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn

Phoebe Throssel

Fay Bainter

Fay Bainter

Susan Throssel

Estelle Winwood

Estelle Winwood

Mary Willoughby

Franchot Tone

Franchot Tone

Dr. Valentine Brown

Eric Blore

Eric Blore

Recruiting Sergeant

Cora Witherspoon

Cora Witherspoon

Patty

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

8/7/2025

6/10

In a London street full of curtain-twitchers, the chatter is rife when someone buys a cake! Who might be coming to luncheon? Well, quickly we discover that “Dr. Brown” (Franchot Tone) is coming to visit “Phoebe” (Katharine Hepburn). What he delivers, though, isn’t quite what she expects and off to the Napoleonic wars he goes. A decade later, he returns but seems disappointed that she, too, has aged. She’s crestfallen so decides to spruce herself up a bit and see if she can’t re-engage his attentions. Quite cunningly, though, she decides to adopt a sort of alias, and is introduced by the maid “Patty” (Cora Witherspoon) as visiting neice “Livvy”. He’s interested, all right, but soon so are a great many other, younger, uniformed would-be lotharios and so a delicate eggshell-treading drama now plays out with jealousness the name of the game! All the while, there are some meddling spinsters across the street who love nothing more than a good old gossip and with her own sisters out of the joke, too, it’s going to be tough for “Phoebe” or “Livvy” to get away with the masquerade. It’s one of Sir J.M. Barrie’s lesser known stories, this one, but it’s quite a potent one ultimately looking at the hypocrisies of style over substance and beauty being skin deep. Hepburn is on great form, as is the always reliable Estelle Winwood as the prim neighbour, but Tone is, really, more mono-tone. He has the looks ok, but is as flat as a pancake on screen and given the chemistry and spark between the two is crucial to the scheming naughtiness of the tale, he just doesn’t deliver. The score skips along jauntily; the production is packed full of lace and gowns and there are double-standards a-plenty amidst the dialogue. Perhaps, in the end “Brown” thought that perhaps he should just have stayed at the war.

Similar Movies

The Elephant Man

8.0

The Elephant Man

1980

Only Yesterday

7.4

Only Yesterday

1991

Hold That Blonde!

6.0

Hold That Blonde!

1945

Around the World in 80 Days

6.6

Around the World in 80 Days

1956

The Moment You Fall in Love

7.5

The Moment You Fall in Love

2016

A Few Days with Me

5.9

A Few Days with Me

1988

Copying Beethoven

6.4

Copying Beethoven

2006

The Girl in the Snow

4.9

The Girl in the Snow

2025

Not So Long Ago

0.0

Not So Long Ago

1925