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Kitty (1945) Starring Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland

Posted by Milo on Jul 22nd 2016

Kitty (1945)

Starring Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland

Kitty is the "Pygmalion" legend, 18th century style. London aristocrat Ray Milland takes it upon himself to make a lady of a guttersnipe (Paulette Goddard, complete with a cockney accent not to be believed). Milland and fellow conspirator Constance Collieraren't bothering with the girl out of the goodness of their hearts. They want their protegee to marry a wealthy nobleman (Reginald Owen), then divide the wealth between them. Based on the novel byRosamund Marshall, Kitty ends with the heroine in the arms of the penitent Milland. The opulent sets and costumes assembled for this film were too good for Paramount to waste; most of them popped up one year later in the Bob Hope vehicle Monsieur Beaucaire.

Director: Mitchell Leisen
Writers: Rosamond Marshall (novel), Karl Tunberg

Stars: Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland, Patric Knowles, Reginald Owen, Cecil Kellaway, Constance Collier, Eric Blore

Academy Awards, USA 1947

Nominated Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White: Hans Dreier, Walter H. Tyler, Sam Comer, Ray Moyer

Director Leisen worked very hard with the set and costume designers to create a historically correct picture of 18th century England. The California portrait painter Theodore Lukits served as technical adviser for the film's artistic scenes and painted the portrait of Kitty that is seen in the film. Lukits knew Ray Milland because he had painted his wife's portrait in 1942.

Paulette Goddard gives us her closest approximation of Scarlett O’Hara (or Eliza Doolittle) as the rising star, Kitty. Goddard is appropriately feisty and temperamental. When she tells Hugh, “We all three have titles, mine’s the best of all” you just want to wring your hands and say, “Burn!” The absence of more scenes like this are a disservice to Goddard who perfected the role of rebellious, modern-day women of the era.

In 1944, Kathleen Winsor's novel Forever Amber swept the country. The tale of a lusty British wench who sleeps her way to the court of Charles II both titillated and fascinated readers. It didn't take Hollywood long to start clamouring for the rights to the story. In the end 20th Century-Fox claimed the blockbuster tale, but Paramount, not willing to be left in the dust, started production of its own Amber facsimile, Kitty, which premiered two years before its cinematic rival.

Mitchell Leisen won accolades for The Mating Season (1951) and Death Takes A Holiday (1934).

Rosamund Marshall's first published novel in English, None But the Brave, A Story of Holland (1942), for young people, won the New York Herald Tribune Spring Book Award. Her novels for young people were overshadowed by the success of her historical romances for adults. The first of these, Kitty, set the pattern for a continuing series of novels which had sales (in paper-back reprints) ranging from a million and a half to three million by 1942. Two of her novels were made into motion pictures. Kitty was based on her novel by the same name. The 1960 movie All the Fine Young Cannibals was based on her book The Bixby Girls.