A Woman Rebels is a 1936 American historical drama film adapted from the 1930 novel Portrait of a Rebel by Netta Syrett and starring Katharine Hepburn as Pamela Thistlewaite, who rebels against the social mores of Victorian England. The film was directed by Mark Sandrich; it was the film debut of Van Heflin, and the second last film of David Manners.
Hepburn's performance as the defiant young woman is considered by many critics the epitome of her feminist characterizations of the 1930s.
Contents
Plot
In Victorian London, Pamela defies her autocratic father, and has a baby out of wedlock with her lover, Gerald Waring Gaythorne. Pamela's pregnant sister Flora hears of the death of her young husband, faints, hurting herself, and dies. Pamela raises her illegitimate daughter as her niece and becomes a crusading journalist for women's rights. Eventually she agrees to marry diplomat Thomas Lane after being unfairly named as co-respondent in Gaythorne's divorce.
Cast
Katharine Hepburn as Pamela Thistlewaite
Herbert Marshall as Thomas Lane
Elizabeth Allan as Flora Anne Thistlewaite
Donald Crisp as Judge Byron Thistlewaite
Doris Dudley as Young Flora
David Manners as Lieutenant Alan Craig Freeland
Lucile Watson as Betty Bumble
Van Heflin as Lord Gerald Waring Gaythorne
Marilyn Knowlden as Flora (age 9)
Connie Emerald as Lady Gaythorne
Barnett Parker as Lady Gaythorne's Lawyer
Leonard Carey as Lord Gaythorne's Butler
Elspeth Dudgeon as Lord Gaythorne's Maid
Eily Malyon as Miss Piper
Doris Lloyd as Mrs. Seaton
Molly Lamont as Young Mother
Lillian Kemble-Cooper as Lady Rinlake
Reception
With a box office loss estimated at a hefty $222,000 for RKO, this was Hepburn's third flop in a row which contributed to Hepburn being one of the actors labeled "box office poison" in the infamous 1938 advertisement created by Harry Brandt, president of the Independent Theatre Owners of America.