How others will see it. Hepburn lived long, and continued acting well into her eighties. It's easy to overlook that she was once a beautiful young woman whose career was promising, rather than a legacy. Alice Adams presents her as a star, but still in the bloom of youth. The comedy has its charms, as does Hepburn herself, and most people will have little trouble identifying with her woes. Sometimes the social ladder looks like a big boot that is trying to push you down.
Hepburn is the saving grace of the Adams family. The mother means well, but is a single-minded nag. The father is amusing, but worn out. Grown son Walter is entertaining, but he's an embezzler. Business school looms in Alice's future, until MacMurray emerges as the knight in shining armor.
MacMurray is clearly stricken with Hepburn, but his doting only makes Hepburn more nervous, since the stakes grow high. The front she tries to put up (her family is modest, not impoverished) is all too transparent. Will his intention to possess her overcome any famiy objections. In the words of Alice Adams, "Well, lean toward me a little... YES!"
How I felt about it. Hepburn's vulnerable, kittenish, and affected qualities make her more memorable as an actress than the typical beautiful nice girl type, personified by Priscilla Lane or Sylvia Sidney.
Hepburn's 1930s characters were never one-dimensional. She wanted something badly, and instead of grasping for it, like Bette Davis, or patiently waiting for it in nice-girl fashion, she took a third route.
She impersonated someone she wasn't, but without the confidence needed to make it stick. This works in her favor, nonetheless, because the man (MacMurray) enjoys the transparent artifice, and would tire of the front if it represented her true personality.
MacMurray already has money and position. He's not looking for a society snob like Henrietta, who can only offer him more of what he has in excess. Alice is able to give him what he really desires: the heat of intimate female companionship. Alice is on the cusp of pathetic, but she's eager, (somehow) educated, and physically desirable. In the relationship, she's in the driver's seat, but her charm comes from not knowing it.
Look for Hattie McDaniel's entertaining pre-Gone With the Wind role as a no-nonsense servant.
The happy ending isn't fully convincing. Walter committed a serious crime, and this cannot be overlooked. Whatever charm Alice possesses, can she really soften the hardened heart of Mr. Lamb? In the real world, no. Mr. Lamb wouldn't even consider a potentially dangerous visit. But Hollywood is the parallel universe where anything is not only possible, but likely. The likely usually isn't interesting.