A Woman Rebels

A Woman Rebels
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mark Sandrich
Screenplay by	Ernest Vajda Anthony Veiller
Based on	Portrait of a Rebel 1930 novel by Netta Syrett
Produced by	Pandro S. Berman
Starring	Katharine Hepburn Herbert Marshall Elizabeth Allan
Cinematography	Robert De Grasse
Edited by	Jane Loring
Music by	Roy Webb
Production company	RKO Pictures
Distributed by	RKO Pictures
Release date	November 6, 1936 (1936-11-06)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	English Italian
Budget	$574,000[1]
Box office	$583,000[1]

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^{[by whom?]} the epitome of her feminist characterizations of the 1930s.

In Victorian London, Pamela defies her autocratic father (Donald Crisp), and has a baby out of wedlock with her lover, Gerald Waring Gaythorne (Van Heflin, in his screen debut). Pamela's pregnant sister Flora (Elizabeth Allan) 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 (Herbert Marshall) after being unfairly named as co-respondent in Gaythorne's divorce.

• 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

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.^[1]

• A Woman Rebels at IMDb
• A Woman Rebels at the TCM Movie Database
• A Woman Rebels at AllMovie
• A Woman Rebels at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films