Themes: Class Differences, Lovers Reunited, Romantic Betrayal
Main Cast: Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, James Craig, Eduardo Ciannelli, Ernest Cossart
Release Year: 1940
Country: US
Run Time: 108 minutes
Plot
Though Ginger Rogers' starring vehicles always turned a profit for RKO Radio, many filmgoers thought of Rogers only in terms of "Fred Astaire's partner." Others considered her a delightful comedienne, but no great shakes as a dramatic actress. Thus it was both a personal and professional triumph when Ms. Rogers walked home with an Oscar for her performance in Kitty Foyle. Based on Christopher Morley's Story of an American Girl, the film, told in flashback, relates the progress of working-girl Kitty Foyle (Ginger Rogers) as she pursues her Cinderella dreams. While employed at a department store, Kitty is wooed by Dennis Morgan, scion of a wealthy Philadelphia family. She flirts with the notion of marrying Morgan for his money, but decides that he's a bit too weak-willed for her tastes. Kitty enters into a romance with poor-but-dedicated doctor James Craig, then does an about-face by accepting Morgan's proposal. She quickly runs afoul of Morgan's snobbish family, who are so tightly bound by centuries-old tradition that Kitty is moved to exclaim "You mean to say you let all those dead people tell you what do?" She walks out on Morgan, then discovers that she's pregnant. Even after the trauma of delivering a stillborn child, Kitty is too proud to go back to Morgan. When true-blue Craig comes back into her life, Kitty, repeating her favorite phrase "By Judas Priest!", decides to forego money for love. Though successful to the tune of an $860,000 profit in 1940, Kitty Foyle seems stilted and over-rehearsed when seen today, save for the refreshing spontaneity of Ginger Rogers' performance. The film's best scene is the opening montage of the American Woman's "progress" once she enters the workplace (an uncredited Heather Angel is the central character in this delightful pantomimic vignette). Featured in the cast of Kitty Foyle is director Sam Wood's daughter Katherine Stevens, better known as K.T. Stevens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Kitty Foyle is a good example of Hollywood's portrayal of women characters in the 1940s, and it foreshadowed the types of scruffy, proletariat screenplays which would later bring Dalton Trumbo to the attention of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The resilient, working-class lead character gave Ginger Rogers one of her best roles, and it remains a good example of her versatility. Among the supporting cast members, Eduardo Ciannelli is a standout, while James Craig and Dennis Morgan are both adequate as Rogers' love interests. The tech credits are quite good, particularly for an RKO feature; the studio often couldn't match the lavish standards of its bigger-studio cousins. The story is told in a straightforward style, and director Sam Wood allows the actress room to find the perfect tone for her character. Rogers would garner a Best Actress Oscar for her work. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide
Mark-Lee Kirk - Art Director, Van Nest Polglase - Art Director, Renie - Costume Designer, Argyle Nelson - First Assistant Director, Sam Wood - Director, Henry Berman - Editor, Harry Berman - Editor, Harry E. Edington - Executive Producer, Roy Webb - Composer (Music Score), Mel Burns - Makeup, Robert de Grasse - Cinematographer, David Hempstead - Producer, Darrell Silvera - Set Designer, Vernon Walker - Special Effects, Donald Ogden Stewart - Screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo - Screenwriter, Christopher D. Morley - Book Author
On a snowy eve, Kitty Foyle (Ginger Rogers), an executive at Delphine Detaille's fashion house, is confronted with a choice that will change the course of her life: to marry Mark Eisen (James Craig), a young, sincere doctor, or to sail away with Wyn Stafford (Dennis Morgan), with whom she has been in love for years and who has just re-entered her life. As she wrestles with her conscience, Kitty thinks back to her youth in Philadelphia: young Kitty gawks at the society "Main Liners" and dreams of her Prince Charming, disregarding the advice of her father, who warns her against trying to go out of her class.
Five years later, Kitty meets her prince in the person of wealthy Wyn Strafford, who is so charmed by the girl that he offers her a job at his fledgling magazine. The two fall in love, but Wyn does not have the courage to break from his life in Philadelphia's Main Line society. After her beloved father's death, Kitty goes to New York, where she begins to date Mark while she still longing for Wyn. Wyn finally comes for Kitty and the two are married, but when he takes her home, his family wants to "remake" her and she rebels. Kitty forces Wyn to make a choice, but he remains a prisoner of his family's money and position and the marriage is annulled.
Kitty returns to New York, where she learns in rapid succession that she is pregnant and that Wyn is to marry a Philadelphia socialite. Kitty's plans to rear the child by herself come to an abrupt end when the infant dies in childbirth. Several years later, Kitty returns to Philadelphia to open a branch of the Delphine Detaille fashion house and has a chance encounter with Wyn's wife and son. Finally, as Kitty ponders her past, she decides that there is only one future for her, and she leaves to marry the waiting Mark.
In 1951, in a series of articles examining film adaptation, Lester Asheim, notes that some films "reproduce the costume, housing, and appearance of the novel's prototypes without softening or heightening," but that Kitty Foyle shows the more typical "glamorizing" process of film adaptation:
Kitty Foyle is typical, in every aspect of the adaptation, of the daydream character of film characterization. The glamorizing process carries through from the casting of Ginger Rogers and the Hollywood wardrobe provided her, to such added incidents as Wyn renting an entire nightclub for a night.... While the film retains a scene or two of Kitty's crowded apartment shared with two other girls, such scenes are played for comedy and no attempt is made to convey the day-to-day monotony and routine of the working girl.[1]
Rogers' dress became a popular style, taking the name of the film.
