Kitty Foyle 1940

     Tom Foyle loves his daughter very much and they are a blue-collar family living in Philadelphia.  Kitty fell in love with Wyn Strafford VI but he’s a wealthy man with a long line of family in Philadelphia.  They marry but the marriage doesn’t work out.  Kitty moves to New York and she meets doctor Mark Eisen.  He has asked her to marry him and she’s getting ready to leave to meet him.  Just at this moment, Wyn comes back into her life.  He wants her to leave right now and go to South America with him.  He’s left his wife but he’s not getting a divorce.

     There is a lot of heartache for Kitty in this film.  Philadelphia was a very snobby town and the rich did not mix with the working people in marriage.  Kitty probably didn’t have a chance from the beginning for her marriage to work out?  I thought it was interesting that she is in a hospital bed but she is wearing all her eye makeup and lipstick?  It seems impossible but this film is 77 years old?  3 ½* (I liked this movie) 

 

108 min, Drama directed by Sam Wood with Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, James Craig, Eduardo Ciannelli, Ernest Cossart, Gladys Cooper, Odette Myrtil, Mary Treen, K.T. Stevens, Walter Kingsford, Cecil Cunningham, Nella Walker, Kay Linaker.

Note:  Imdb 7.1 out of 10, 75% critic 73% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.3* out of 5* with 75 reviews, TCM Leonard Maltin 3.5* out of 4*, 4.52* out of 5* average user ratings.

Special Note:  Ginger Rogers won an Oscar for this film as Best Actress.  The film was nominated for best picture but the award went to The Philadelphia Story of 1940.  She listened to Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet in her dressing room to prepare for her sad scenes.  This film was RKO’s biggest hit of 1940 and earned $869,000 in profits.  Originally, Katharine Hepburn was offered the lead role but she turned it down.