Kitty Foyle: A Review

KITTY FOYLE

There are some films that are for all time. There are other films that are of their time. Kitty Foyle falls squarely in the latter category. Now best remembered, if at all, for winning Ginger Rogers a Best Actress Academy Award, Kitty Foyle suffers from its now dated manner and some very questionable plot points. However, it does have a strong central performance and is an interesting time capsule of World War II America.

Billed as "the natural history of a woman", Kitty Foyle begins with a five-minute overview of who we got what the film calls the "white-collar girl". This new woman came about after she got the vote. Now that men and women were equal, there was no need for men to give up their seats to any female. We then get to the main plot.

Kitty Foyle (Rogers) has gotten the best news around. Her boyfriend Mark (James Craig) has just asked her to marry him. Despite being a doctor, Mark is poor. Mark asks her if it is all over between her and the man from Philadelphia. Kitty says yes, as that mysterious Philadelphian is married and with a child. With that, Mark tells Kitty to meet him at the hospital at midnight.

Ah, but Kitty did not count on that Philadelphia freedom sweeping back into her life. Like a very wealthy bad penny, her Pennsylvania paramour surprises her at her women's hotel. He is Wyn Strafford VI (Dennis Morgan). He may be married. He may have a young son. He is also still passionate about Kitty. He now asks her to run away with him to Argentina. Wyn is planning to leave his wife and child and begs Kitty to go with him. Despite her promise to Mark, she agrees.

Now, she has a literal talk with herself via a mirror. We then slip into the long flashback in Kitty Foyle to see how she got into this predicament. Kitty has always looked upon the Philadelphia elite with not-so-secret longing. Her father or Pop (Ernest Cossart) tells her that Cinderella stories are illogical. However, handsome prince charming Wynnewood Strafford VI happens to come along. She likes him and he likes her, but they have a mostly platonic relationship. Wyn won't propose and his magazine has fallen to the Great Depression. With no proposal, no job and Pop dying suddenly, Kitty starts fresh in New York City.

She might have left the City of Brotherly Love, but her heart still belongs to Wyn. Kitty is a hit at a high-end perfume shop, but she still has a lot to learn. A false fire alarm caused by Kitty brings her into contact with Mark. He is poor. He is a bit absurd. He eventually wins Kitty over. However, all Wyn has to do is come up for Kitty to fall to pieces into his arms again.  

Despite all common sense, Wyn and Kitty marry. The Straffords attempt to accept this, but it is clear that their class differences will be too hard to overcome. There is divorce, then the loss of any chance of a reconciliation. There is more loss for Kitty, but which man will she choose?

After watching Kitty Foyle, I thought early on that she was a dolt. I also thought that she was rather horrible on a variety of levels. She has a good man in Mark yet is willing to abandon him with apparently no hesitation because Wyn sweeps in at almost the last minute. Add to that how Wyn would spirit Kitty off to Buenos Aires to be his mistress or at least his floozy until his second divorce is final. I cannot remember for sure, but I think that Wyn was not going to tell his wife and child that he planned on leaving them for Kitty. He was, if memory serves right, going to Argentina anyway. He was not, if memory serves right, making his abandonment official until he got to South America.

That Kitty Foyle seriously contemplated all this is something that I find very troubling. Up to a point, I understand how someone could be so deeply in love with someone that they lose all common sense to be with them. However, that notion of weak-kneed devotion seems at odds with Kitty Foyle's "strong, empowered woman" message. She is willing to have a child outside of marriage. She is even willing to have the child carry her maiden name.

This is all surprisingly daring stuff for 1940. The film does make clear how she could have an out-of-wedlock child (she got pregnant during her brief marriage). It even shows how she was mistakenly called "Mrs. Foyle", leading to having her son carry the Foyle and not Strafford name. Kitty Foyle shows that Kitty discovered that Wyn was engaged to marry someone of his own class, preventing a reconciliation or awareness that he would be a father. Nevertheless, I still found a lot of that a bit too much to accept.

Kitty Foyle has a major disadvantage of it being a product of its time. Kitty mentions that Wyn sounds a lot like Ronald Colman. They celebrate then-Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt's election to the Presidency and the end of Prohibition. Most cringeworthy of all, Rogers' Kitty at one point exclaims, "I'm free, white and twenty-one...or almost". I genuinely did not know that such a phrase was real. 

In a way, it is nice that such things are shown in films like Kitty Foyle. It allows one a chance to see how far we've come. It is a bit of a time capsule of early 1940's America. However, how many contemporary viewers would know who Ronald Colman was, let alone whether Wyn was doing a good or bad impersonation of him? 

Kitty Foyle was something of a breakout role for Ginger Rogers. She had been a hoofer for years. Her work with Fred Astaire had made her beloved by audiences. Here, she was able to show her dramatic chops. She did well in the role. Rogers showed flair for comedy, such as when she fakes a fainting spell to try and get out of trouble. She also gets to act against herself when having a conversation with her reflection. This was a well-shot element from director Sam Wood. I did think that the voiceovers she had on the various flashbacks were a bit too much. I also thought that her confrontation with the other Staffords was a bit forced too. It was not terrible, but it was showier than I would think good.

However, Rogers also has some wonderful moments where Kitty shows regrets about things. A tender moment is when she encounters the new Mrs. Wyn Strafford VI and their son, Wyn Strafford VII. She will not tell her customer her name. She won't share that with the child either. However, we see a mix of genuine pain at seeing the young child. She knows that her own son would be about his age. Early on, Wyn comments on Kitty's legs. You can see in Ginger Rogers' performance that she is both amused and unamused at his comments.

It is unfortunate that the rest of the cast save Ernest Cossart as Pop matched Rogers. Dennis Morgan frankly came across as creepy. His Wyn was outwardly pleasant. However, one always sensed that the man had no spine. I figure that was the character, which meant that Morgan played the part correctly. However, Morgan never convinced me that he was truly in love with Kitty. He struck me as someone who wanted her but did not value her. 

In a curious twist, James Craig's Mark was the opposite. He was handsome enough. He also came across as someone who valued her but did not want her. Mark was from the get-go the best choice for Kitty. He was a doctor, albeit a poor one. He, after a bad start, did win her over. Why she kept rushing back to the creepy, somewhat dim Wyn is something that I cannot figure. Craig as Mark, however, never expressed romantic ardor for Kitty. He seemed to play Mark as someone who considered Kitty a bit of a chum. It is one thing to wonder why Kitty wants Wyn to where she, to use modern parlance, ghosted Mark. It is another thing to wonder why Mark put up with her picking him up and dropping him without a moment's hesitation.

Kitty Foyle was a big hit when released. It makes sense. It was a product of its time starring a very popular performer. It is not a bad film. It is, however, dated to where it is almost an antique. Less remembered than her pairing with Fred Astaire, Kitty Foyle shows Ginger Rogers' range but little else.    

DECISION: C+