Alice Adams is a 1935 romantic drama film directed by George Stevens and starring Katharine Hepburn.

The film is about a young woman in a financially-struggling family and her pretentious attempts to appear upper class and to wed a wealthy man while she conceals her poverty.

Her father is an invalid employed as a clerk in a factory owned by Mr. Lamb, who has kept Adams on salary for years despite his lengthy illness.

She and her mother put on airs, the entire family dresses inappropriately in formal wear despite the hot summer night, and the Adamses pretend that they eat caviar and fancy rich-tasting food all the time.

The dinner is ruined by Alice's inability to keep up the lie, but she blames the situation on the supposed slovenly behavior and poor cooking skills of Malena, the maid hired by the Adamses for the occasion.

When Walter shows up with bad financial news, Alice gently expels Russell from the house now that everything is "ruined."

The men argue violently, but their friendship is saved when Alice confesses that her parents took the glue formula only so that she could have a better life and some social status.

Berman enlisted the aid of Cukor, who agreed that the more realistic ending would be box-office poison and so the script was changed into allowing Russell to fall in love with Alice and to win her over.

[9] After the cinema circuits deducted their exhibition percentage of box office ticket sales, the film made a profit of $164,000.

[2] In a retrospective review, Pauline Kael deemed the film "a classic" and stated that "Hepburn gives one of her two or three finest performances".