Movie Stats:
Released 1940 (USA)
American, in English
Director - Sam Wood
Stars - Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, James Craig
Plot Summary:
Kitty Foyle (Rogers) is at a crossroads, trying to decide between two men: the love of her life, Wyn Strafford (Morgan), who can’t offer her marriage, and the man who wants to marry her, Mark Eisen (Craig).
Warnings:
None.
Bad Stuff:
The misogyny is both rampant and awful.
The storytelling isn’t great, and not just because of all the flashbacks. For example, it never explains how Kitty & Mark end up together after she initially tells him she can’t continue to see him.
[SPOILER-y]
I don’t really care for Kitty. She says she’s deeply in love with Wyn, but then she keeps deciding that they can’t be together because of their class differences without giving him a chance to prove that it can work. And the movie wants me to be against him because of this, but I’m like, “Give the guy a chance already.”
[SPOILER]
Good Stuff:
I felt that it more realistically portrays a “class difference” relationship in that he’s wealthy and she’s middle class, rather than going for the extreme of wealthy/abject poverty. Also, I was impressed to hear someone in a film from 1940 say that fairytales give women unrealistic expectations of relationships.
If I ignore the cringe-inducing “drunken Irishman” stereotyping, I really liked Kitty’s dad, Tom Foyle (Ernest Cossart). He’s a good father.
I appreciated how strong Kitty is.
About the Performance:
I never saw a single Rogers film before this. I’m so unfamiliar with her work that I honestly thought she only did musicals/dancing. Anyway, I’m glad to finally see one of her films. I can’t say that I was wowed by her acting skills, but I didn’t think she was bad either. I did find her compelling. I would like to see more of her work in order to get a better feel for her abilities.
Other performances of Rogers’s I’ve reviewed: none.
The Verdict:
It’s okay. The misogyny and stereotyping made me very uncomfortable. I know these things can be prominent in older films, but it seemed more prominent in this than other older movies I’ve seen recently. However, I did like that Kitty is a strong woman and I liked that it addresses lots of interesting issues, some of which rarely see the silver screen. Ultimately, I feel that it was pleasant enough to watch one time around, but that I’ll soon forget all about it.
I give it 3.25 stars.
2 comments:
I don't think I knew that Ginger Rogers had non-dancing roles either.
This post is reminding me how movies, which we sometimes see as eternal, are just another thing that become obsolete. Either because of technology, or changing mores.
More than any other project, this one has shown me how easily movies can fall into obscurity. As a society, I think we have this idea that all great/popular movies stand the test of time, but they don't. I mean, Ginger Rogers won a Best Actress Oscar for this and I'd never even heard of this movie before (nor did I know she ever won any Oscars)! And I had a hard time getting my hands on a copy! I ended up renting it on iTunes because I couldn't find it anywhere else.
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