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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"
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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
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