Kitty Foyle (1940)

Kitty Foyle, one of the ten nominees for Best Picture of 1940, has such an odd structure to it. It isn't confusing, by any means; I don't mean that. It's just strange. Much of the film is a discussion between the title character, played by Ginger Rogers, and her reflection in the mirror. I do understand that the mirror is supposed to represent Kitty's conscience, but wouldn't she know the details of her own history? Why would she need her conscience or her reflection or anyone else to relate these events back to her? I suppose that's what passed for a clever plot device in 1940, and maybe that's why this standard soap opera-ish film was chosen to be one of the Best Picture finalists. Other than Rogers' performance as Kitty, there's little else that's above average in this film.

Subtitled The Natural History of a Woman, Kitty Foyle begins with a sequence designed to show the development of women's rights since 1900, particularly the so-called equality that women have achieved as a result of the suffrage movement. It's really a rather condescending presentation, particularly as it suggests that what equality has truly brought is the inability of a woman to sit down on a crowded trolley because men no longer feel obligated to have manners. It's pretty clear that we're meant to think that women were better off before they started demanding to be treated as the equal of men. Like I said, a very condescending attitude.

When the story finally gets to Kitty herself, we learn that she has been dating a handsome young doctor. He is so dedicated to his career that they have to stop on the way to dinner so that he can deliver a baby. He proposes to Kitty while she's holding another woman's child in her arms because they both decide that it "looks" and "feels" right. However, he wants reassurances from her that her relationship with some man in Philadelphia is over before they wed, and he asks her to meet him the next day at noon for the ceremony. With the kind of timing that only Hollywood could invent, the man from Philadelphia, actually her first husband, Wyn Strafford VI (Dennis Morgan), is waiting for her back at her apartment. He too wants to be with Kitty, and he invites her to join him on a trip to Buenos Aires. He's married again and can't divorce his current wife, but Kitty initially decides that she will leave with him at midnight.

That's when the magic mirror begins. Or maybe it's the snow globe that's magic. You see, Kitty has this snow globe that she purchased for her father years ago, and she shakes it while looking at herself in the mirror. That snow globe is used as a transition between the various scenes from Kitty's past that follow, and it's a remarkable globe indeed that could keep the snow whirling for almost two hours without all settling to the bottom. I suppose, though, that if you have a magic mirror that represents your conscience, you ought to have a magic snow globe that serves as a bridge between thematic elements in your life story.

Wyn and Kitty initially meet at her father's home. Wyn is starting a magazine named Philly and has decided to interview his old cricket coach, Pop (Ernest Cossart), Kitty's dad, for a story. He hires Kitty to be a secretary, and it isn't long before he's making suggestive comments to her. Nowadays, some of the statements he makes into the Dictaphone would be considered sexual harassment (and pretty stupid, considering that she would have a record of them to use as evidence). However, Kitty is also attracted to him, and they begin dating. He takes her to New York to a speakeasy on the night of Franklin Roosevelt's election, and they share a bottle of some hard-to-pronounce Italian drink. He also takes her to the Poconos, making her wonder if he's trying to hide from his rich friends and family the fact that she is from a poor background.

Despite warnings from her father that wealthy people like Wyn always marry each other, Kitty decides to stay with him. However, after her father dies and then the magazine folds during the Great Depression, she leaves for New York and starts a career on her own. She becomes a cosmetics saleswoman for fashion designer Delphine Detaille (Odette Myrtil), and in a comic accident involving a fire alarm button, she meets Dr. Mark Eisen (James Craig), who tries to convince her to go out on a date with him. Their first date is three hours of playing cards, double solitaire, a rather inauspicious beginning and one that makes Kitty wonder about his intentions. Subsequent dates go better once he realizes that she isn't out to get his money, the reason he had "tested" her with the cards.

That, of course, is when Wyn returns to Kitty's life. It's the night of the Assembly, the largest ball in Philadelphia for the upper class, and he's there to keep his promise to take her...just not in Philadelphia. He rents out an entire room for the night and brings her a dress and flowers. They're the last ones on the dance floor when the sun begins to rise, and it's clear that Kitty is still in love with him. They marry without his family's consent, and the moment that he introduces Kitty to the family as his wife is a shocker. The delightfully wry Gladys Cooper plays Mrs. Strafford, who begins to make plans to send Kitty to school and make her more presentable to society. If she refuses and Wyn takes her away from the family, he loses all of his money. Kitty decides instead to divorce Wyn and leave Philadelphia behind her forever.

That's not how the film ends or even all of the key moments in the plot, but I've spared you the death of Kitty's baby in childbirth--it was Wyn's, not to worry. And I've skipped over the subplot involving an unusual ring shaped like a serpent that belonged to Wyn's grandmother and allegedly represents eternal life. I've also avoided talking about the scene where Kitty meets the new Mrs. Wyn Stafford and her son. All of these scenes are played with too much sentimentality to rise above the maudlin. Of course, I've also left you without knowing which of the two men Kitty chooses at the film's end. If you want to find out, you can watch on your own. I have no idea if you'll be surprised or not.

Rogers won the Oscar for Best Actress for the title role, and she is quite good here. She's not the charismatic co-star of all of those films with dancing partner Fred Astaire. Instead, she has to carry the film almost all on her own, and she's certainly up to the task. I don't think she's particularly convincing as a little girl in some of the earlier flashback sequences, but they are thankfully brief. She's shot in soft focus throughout much of the film, giving her face a particularly gleaming quality. As talented an actress as Rogers is, though, I would have given the award that year to Bette Davis for The Letter or maybe to Joan Fontaine for Rebecca. Both of those actresses had more substantial material to work with, and both of them delivered classic performances. Rogers, while certainly a fine actress, isn't really their equal in this role.