Greatest Film Scenes
and Moments



Kitty Foyle (1940)

 



Written by Tim Dirks

Title Screen
Movie Title/Year and Scene Descriptions
Screenshots

Kitty Foyle (1940)

In director Sam Wood's romantic melodrama and RKO's biggest hit of the year, about a love triangle:

  • the scene of hard-working and self-reliant NY/Philadelphia boutique sales-woman Kitty Foyle (Best Actress-winning Ginger Rogers in a non-stereotypical role) making her final life's decision before her mirror-reflection 'conscience' - with a snowglobe in her hand: ("You're no longer a little girl, you're a grown woman now")
  • the scene of Kitty's conversation about how to know if one was falling in love, with one of her suitors - struggling, respectable and idealistic Dr. Mark Eisen (James Craig): (Mark: "A fellow like me knows when he's falling in love, and he knows whether or not it's the real thing." Kitty: "How do you know when you're falling in love?" Mark: "Well, I don't make very much dough, and when I find myself wanting to spend ten bucks on a girl, then I know I'm falling in love")
  • also, working-class Kitty's straight-talk chastisement of the chilling, judgmental family of impetuous, upper-crust (Main Line family) Philadelphian philanderer, the already-married Wyn Strafford VI (Dennis Morgan), when she was visiting his family after their elopement, and the family was talking about making plans for her re-education and preparation to enter the leisure class - so she could be a proper wife: ("I didn't marry Wyn for his money. I don't care if he hasn't got a penny...Let's get a few things straight around here! I didn't ask to marry a Strafford, a Strafford asked to marry me. I married a man, not an institution or a trust fund or a bank. Oh, I've got a fine picture of your family conference here. All the Straffords trying to figure out how to take the curse off Kitty Foyle. Buy the girl a phony education, and polish off the rough edges, and make a Mainline doll out of her! Aww, you oughta know better than that! It takes six generations to make a bunch of people like you. And by Judas Priest, I haven't got that much time")
  • Kitty's determination to be a 'bachelor' mother, after becoming pregnant with Wyn's baby, although their marriage had since dissolved: ("I'm going to have this baby. And I know what I'm going to name him, too. The doctor called me Mrs. Foyle. So I'm going to call the baby Foyle. I'll call him Tom Foyle after my Pop. He'll grow up to be proud of his name. And proud of his mother! And, by Judas Priest, he'll be a fighter too, hard as a pine-knot. Tom Foyle, the toughest kid in the block")
  • in the conclusion (told in flashback), the choice that Kitty faced: to meet either ex-husband Wyn on the docks to elope and sail for South America with him, or to marry Dr. Mark Eisen; two things would affect her decision: (1) a newspaper announcement of Wyn's engagement to someone of his own social standing, and (2) the death of her baby after childbirth
  • Kitty's note left with the hotel doorman Tim (Edward McNamara) regarding the life-changing choice of her path - to meet up with Dr. Eisen: ("...I'm going to be married tonight -- (to taxi driver: "St. Timothy's Hospital")) - and the astonished doorman's last line: "Well, Judas Priest"

Kitty Foyle (Ginger Rogers) Before Mirror

Kitty's Suitor Dr. Mark Eisen

Kitty's Chastisement of the Strafford Family

The Determined Kitty: "I'm going to have this baby"

Note Regarding Kitty's Ultimate Romantic Choice - Given To Doorman

100's of the GREATEST SCENES AND MOMENTS

Greatest Scenes: Intro | What Makes a Great Scene? | Scenes: Quiz
Scenes: Film Titles A - H | Scenes: Film Titles I - R | Scenes: Film Titles S - Z