You get the feeling that Orson Welles saw KITTY FOYLE while preparing his own first films for RKO. He himself said that he screened various movies to learn how they were put together, and named John Ford's STAGECOACH as a major influence, but KITTY was RKO's most important production at the time and RKO was Orson's studio so you have to believe that he had the chance to see it even before it was released. KITTY begins with a humorous history lesson meant to tie into the theme of the film proper and Welles's THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS would begin with a similar historical montage. KITTY FOYLE's story is told in flashback, not yet a common device in Hollywood cinema and not taken from the source novel, and CITIZEN KANE would use interlocking flashbacks to tell its story. Then there is the famous snow globe, startlingly used in KITTY FOYLE, albeit with considerably less expressionist splash than we'd see in KANE. Welles improved immensely on each borrowing, and no doubt he had already used similar devices in his radio work, but a radio drama is not a movie and RKO shaped the films that came out of it, even those films made by so idiosyncratic a talent as Orson Welles.
Odd though it may be to think of it that way, Ginger Rogers probably did more to pay for CITIZEN KANE and THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS than anyone. By 1940 she pretty much was RKO. KITTY FOYLE is a pure star vehicle for Ginger. She may have received more loving closeups as Kitty than she did during the rest of her career combined. KITTY FOYLE is a soap opera, a quintessential 'Women's Picture', and it may be the only picture of its kind that Ginger ever made. Her Kitty is one in a long line of excellent performances, but it's one of the few in a genre that the Academy likes to reward. She won an Oscar for it. Whether or not hers was really the best performance of 1940, the real scandal is that she was never nominated for anything else. As all actors know, dying is easy, it's comedy that's hard.
The weakness of KITTY FOYLE is in Dalton Trumbo's script, too often lugubrious, vulgar and confused. The confusion may have come from the censorship problems. In the novel (I'm getting this second hand; I haven't ever read it), Kitty's night in the Poconos with Wynn results in a pregnancy and subsequent abortion. The Hays Office would have ruled that out if it had ever gotten that far, and one suspects that the abortion at least would have ruled out the entire movie for Rogers. Trumbo keeps the sex part, elided in the standard practice of the time with a fade-out on an intimate kiss, and beautifully reinforces the point the next time we see the characters together by way of diction (instead of "Miss Foyle" it's now "Dear" and "Darling") and of body language (immediate embracing, hands on one another's thighs, etc.). I hear that that's the sort of thing that modern audiences no longer pick up on. If so, too bad. Anyway, Trumbo replaces that abortion with a seven day marriage and subsequent death of the child at birth. It's all absurdly rushed. Kitty walks out on the marriage for not that much reason so far as I could see, the divorce seems procured in a couple of months at most, Dennis Morgan jumps to his next bride in even less time. It just wasn't properly thought through.
In general, the best part of the movie is the early romance between Kitty and Wynn. Rogers' best scene may be when she realizes that her father had been right, that Wynn's real idea of their relationship was keeping her on a payroll that no longer existed rather than marrying her. I'm not sure that she had any poor moments, but the script's worst may have been her first date with the good doctor. How there could ever have been a second date after that one I'll never understand!
KITTY FOYLE was a huge success at the box office and certainly touched the hearts of its targeted audience, the 'white collar girl'. This may have been as much wish fulfillment as it was realism since Kitty's big dilemma is whether to marry an idealistic doctor or instead to go off to South America with a good-looking rich guy. Probably a lot of girls wished they had that problem. But I am a man and no doubt just don't understand. KITTY FOYLE was a good movie that could have been a lot better. Ginger Rogers was a terrific performer who deserved an Oscar for something more than just about anyone. Film and actress proved a happy match.
Odd though it may be to think of it that way, Ginger Rogers probably did more to pay for CITIZEN KANE and THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS than anyone. By 1940 she pretty much was RKO. KITTY FOYLE is a pure star vehicle for Ginger. She may have received more loving closeups as Kitty than she did during the rest of her career combined. KITTY FOYLE is a soap opera, a quintessential 'Women's Picture', and it may be the only picture of its kind that Ginger ever made. Her Kitty is one in a long line of excellent performances, but it's one of the few in a genre that the Academy likes to reward. She won an Oscar for it. Whether or not hers was really the best performance of 1940, the real scandal is that she was never nominated for anything else. As all actors know, dying is easy, it's comedy that's hard.
The weakness of KITTY FOYLE is in Dalton Trumbo's script, too often lugubrious, vulgar and confused. The confusion may have come from the censorship problems. In the novel (I'm getting this second hand; I haven't ever read it), Kitty's night in the Poconos with Wynn results in a pregnancy and subsequent abortion. The Hays Office would have ruled that out if it had ever gotten that far, and one suspects that the abortion at least would have ruled out the entire movie for Rogers. Trumbo keeps the sex part, elided in the standard practice of the time with a fade-out on an intimate kiss, and beautifully reinforces the point the next time we see the characters together by way of diction (instead of "Miss Foyle" it's now "Dear" and "Darling") and of body language (immediate embracing, hands on one another's thighs, etc.). I hear that that's the sort of thing that modern audiences no longer pick up on. If so, too bad. Anyway, Trumbo replaces that abortion with a seven day marriage and subsequent death of the child at birth. It's all absurdly rushed. Kitty walks out on the marriage for not that much reason so far as I could see, the divorce seems procured in a couple of months at most, Dennis Morgan jumps to his next bride in even less time. It just wasn't properly thought through.
In general, the best part of the movie is the early romance between Kitty and Wynn. Rogers' best scene may be when she realizes that her father had been right, that Wynn's real idea of their relationship was keeping her on a payroll that no longer existed rather than marrying her. I'm not sure that she had any poor moments, but the script's worst may have been her first date with the good doctor. How there could ever have been a second date after that one I'll never understand!
KITTY FOYLE was a huge success at the box office and certainly touched the hearts of its targeted audience, the 'white collar girl'. This may have been as much wish fulfillment as it was realism since Kitty's big dilemma is whether to marry an idealistic doctor or instead to go off to South America with a good-looking rich guy. Probably a lot of girls wished they had that problem. But I am a man and no doubt just don't understand. KITTY FOYLE was a good movie that could have been a lot better. Ginger Rogers was a terrific performer who deserved an Oscar for something more than just about anyone. Film and actress proved a happy match.