This isn't a great movie by any means, but for what it is, "A Woman Rebels" is very interesting and of interest to cinema buffs, feminists and history students. It is a picture of the changing perceptions of women in society, and who better to be the star of such a film as the very independent Katharine Hepburn? Hepburn and Elizabeth Allan ("A Tale of Two Cities", "David Copperfield") are sisters as different as night and day, and this is of great concern to their very strict widowed father (Donald Crisp). Their very prickly companion (Eily Malyon) reports them for offenses which brings Crisp's wrath down upon the two girls. Only the devoted Lucille Watson shows them any compassion, a role she will continue to film throughout the film as the only mother-like figure they've known since their own mother died. Hepburn falls in love with rebel Van Heflin and Allan marries the stable David Manners, but tragedy strikes when Hepburn visits her sister in Italy. Now left to raise a child she claims is her sister's, Hepburn returns home, and instead of fighting with her father becomes an independent woman and begins a career, originally without pay and with a male pseudonym, on a women's magazine which until she came along printed nothing but domestic articles on subjects no more confidential than needlepoint.Only two years after the production code came in, this film dared to cover the subject of unwed mothers with dignity and class. Even though it never mentions it, the subject is obvious, particularly with a young woman who visits Hepburn at the newspaper to get help for her ailing child, only to send her a cryptic letter later with tragic overtones. "Shame!" Hepburn screams at society in her column, ripping up the oh-so important story on needlepoint, "a career for respectable women", the print-out insinuates. Hepburn continues to raise her niece alone, keeping secrets when the young girl begins to date Heflin's grown son and becomes involved in scandal brought out by his vindictive wife.Along the way, Hepburn meets the dashing Herbert Marshall who stands by her through thick and thin. Their first encounter is hysterically funny as the stubborn Hepburn finds herself an adversary in a non-moving mule. Who do you think will win this battle? Crisp disappears for much of the second half of the film, but when he returns for a conclusion to the shattered father/daughter relationship, it is heartfelt and emotional, helping you understand the hardness of the patriarch of an earlier generation who simply didn't know how to bring girls up alone in a masculine dominated era.

Katharine Hepburn stars in an early feminist melodrama co-starring Herbert Marshall. The film is noteworthy for not only its lush production and excellent performances, but also the ahead of its time, and novel, depiction of women's rights and suffragists of the 19th century. Hepburn is so good she lights up the screen. Marshall, as always, delivers perfect support. The story is interesting, the cast is appealing, the sets and costumes are magnificent, the direction and cinematography are sublime, and the screenplay is intelligent and literate. Unlike many films of the 1930s, this one doesn't have a tacked on sexist ending. It's true to the women's rights cause through and through. Of all of the historical melodramas I have seen, this ranks with the best. It rises above the (condescending) 'women's picture' genre because of the timelessness of its theme.

The sins of the father shall be visited upon his children, and upon his children's children. Katharine Hepburn plays a woman who was a bright, curious child whose father stymied that curiosity because she was "just a girl". Later in life, Hepburn's illegitimate daughter, whom she raises as her niece, is a bright, curious child, whose curiosity Hepburn stymies whenever said curiosity would reveal her illegitimacy. There's wonderful hypocrisy at work in Hepburn's character, but the film absolutely fails in addressing the issue. Very disappointing.Also infuriating is the handling of the character of the father, who is strict and regimented at the beginning of the film and is reduced to being a near-weeping milksop, comforted by and comforting his loving daughter, near the end. Where was he during the raising of his granddaughter? Were I Hepburn, I wouldn't let him near her, but if that's the case, how did they become reconciled by the end? It makes no sense.

Katharine Hepburn shines as always in this entertaining film that tries to focus on the raise of feminism in the last mid-century. The subject is interesting enough and so is the personality of the main character, played consistently by Miss Hepburn in a mixture of strength and frailty, but unfortunately this ends being a soapy melodrama. Extremely watchable, but could have been a more relevant approach to feminism.