Review of Kitty Foyle (1940) by Adrian B — 28 Feb 2011

I worked backstage on a stage musical about the life of Ginger Rogers. This movie and the Oscar Ginger won for playing Kitty Foyle was shown as the crowning achievement of her career. I had seen this years ago when I was in college as part of my Oscar winning film list. I remembered that Ginger (at nearly 30) plays Kitty at many ages. I thought I remembered a scene in this movie when Ginger is playing Kitty as a little girl, she climbs into an over sized arm chair, and kicks her dangling legs. My wife and I with a couple friends just watched a video of Kitty Foyle and that scene did not appear. What movie was I confusing this movie with?

Kitty is dating a simple working class doctor. Then an old boyfriend who she thought was gone from her life for good finds her again. They both ask her to meet them later to run off and start a new life together. She begins packing and finds a snow globe. Kitty's conscience talks back to her from the hotel dresser mirror and encourages her to think carefully through her past in order to chose the right guy. Through the snow globe we see a teenage Kitty fascinated by the Chicago social elite. When she returns home (the snow globe belongs to her father), her pop tries to tell her about her proud Irish working class roots and how the aristocratic class would never accept her. Kitty's pop (Ernest Cossart) is a witty rascal who has a lot of great lines. We see Kitty grow up and fall for Wyn Strafford one of the Chicago social elite who is trying to run his own magazine until the capitol that his family provided runs out. Her relationship with Wynn is complicated and she heads to New York on her own. There, while working as a perfume sales girl, she reluctantly meets the doctor Mark. Ginger Rogers shines without singing or dancing. The script, which flashes back and skips through time, seems very mature and a bit ahead of its time. Plus there are many genuine laughs. Kitty is quite a modern woman and the ending is satisfying. If the play I worked on is to be believed, even though she was not credited in the role, Ginger had quite a bit of artistic control over this movie and she made sure the story and the characters were believable.