Kitty Foyle(1940).

Kitty Foyle(1940). Cast: Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan and James Craig, which is based on Christopher Morley's 1939 bestseller with the same name. Ginger Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Kitty Foyle, and the dress she wore in the film became a new dress style, known as a Kitty Foyle dress.

Five years One snowy day, Kitty Foyle, has to make a choice that will change her life forever: marry the kind hearted doctor Mark Eisen, or to sail away with wealthy Wyn Stafford, with who she has been in love with for years.

Kitty, thinks back to growing up in Philadelphia: as a young Kitty reads the society page she dreams of her "Prince Charming" concerned, her father, warns her against marrying out-side of her class.

Five years later, Kitty meets wealthy Wyn Strafford, who is so charmed by her that he offers Kitty a job at his magazine. The two fall in love, but Wyn is worried about his parents.

After her father's death, Kitty moves to New York, where she begins to date Mark. Later, Wyn comes for Kitty and the two are married, but when he takes her home, his family wants to "remake" her.

Things do not go well for the couple and the marriage is annulled. Kitty returns to New York, where she learns that she is pregnant and that Wyn is to marry a Philadelphia socialite.

Kitty's plans to raise the child by herself, but.. her baby dies in childbirth.

Years later, Kitty returns to Philadelphia to open Delphine Detaille a fashion house and happens to meet Wyn's wife and son. Kitty, decides to make a decision that will once again change her life..

Ginger Rogers, gives a wonderful performance as the young woman who makes her own way in life. You will need plenty of Kleenex.

Fun Facts:

At first Ginger Rogers was not sure that she wanted to take on the lead role, because Kitty has an abortion in the book. Rogers' mother reminded her that the production code wouldn't allow most of the material in the book, Rogers found objectionable to be seen in films.

Katharine Hepburn was first offered the lead role but turned it down.

The dress that Ginger Rogers wore to that year's Academy Awards was a lingerie-style top which was very racy for the day.

Among the many letters that Ginger Rogers received for her work in the film, this was the one that she treasured the most: "Hello Cutie - Saw "Kitty" last night and must write this note to say "That's it!" Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! You were superb Ginge - it was such a solid performance - the kind one seldom sees on stage or screen and it should bring you the highest honors anyone can win!! Hope to see you soon, As ever your, Fred."

Odette Myrtil (June 28, 1898 – November 18, 1978), she was the daughter of two stage actors. She studied the violin at a boarding school in Brussels and began performing the violin professionally at the age of 13.

In 1915, at the age of 16, she came to the United States to join the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway as one of the Ziegfeld Girls.

The following year she came to London where she was a major success in the West End show The Bing Boys Are Here.

She spent the next several years appearing successfully on the London stage and in vaudeville productions in major European cities.

 In 1923 Myrtil returned to New York City as a vaudeville entertainer at the Palace Theatre where she had her first major success in America. She became a staple of the theatre scene in New York City up into the early 1930's, often appearing in Broadway musicals which featured her abilities as both a singer and violinist. She had a particular triumph as Odette in Jerome Kern's 1931 musical The Cat and the Fiddle which was written specifically as a vehicle for her.

Thereafter she only made a handful of appearances on Broadway, with her last show being the original production of Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer's Saratoga in 1960.

She spent a couple years in the early 1950s portraying Bloody Mary in the original run of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, having succeeded Juanita Hall in the role.

After 1935, she had a career as a film actress, appearing in mainly mid-sized roles in a total of 25 films from 1936 to 1952.

She had previously only appeared as a dancer in the 1923 film Squibs M.P. Her first speaking role was as Renée De Penable in Dodsworth (1936).

Some of her other film credits are Kitty Foyle (1940), Out of the Fog (1941), I Married an Angel (1942), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Uncertain Glory (1944), Devotion (1946), The Fighting Kentuckian (1949), and as "Madame Darville" in Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951).

 She sang the title song on camera as herself in the 1954 film The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) and again portrayed herself in her last film appearance in the film Hot Pants Holiday (1972).

From 1955 to 1958 she managed The Playhouse Inn, located next door to the Bucks County Playhouse.

From 1961 to 1976 she operated the New Hope restaurant Chez Odette which is now a different restaurant bearing her name, Odette's Restaurant.

During her life, Myrtil was married twice: for eight years to vaudeville performer Robert Adams and later to film director and producer Stanley Logan.

She died in nearby Doylestown, Pennsylvania in 1978, aged 80.

Affectionally Yours(1941).

Affectionately Yours(1941). Cast: Rita Hayworth, Merle Oberon and Dennis Morgan. Also featured were the Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen.

Foreign correspondent Rickey Mayberry, is running all over Europe with other women,while his wife Sue, is alone in New York. Rickey soon learns that Sue has divorced him. It is then that he realizes he cannot live without her. He rushes home to win her back. His new flame Irene has plans of her own.

Rickey returns to New York to find Sue is engaged to Owen Wright. Sue did not like separation caused by Rickey's work. So, he figures the only way to make her happy is to quit his job. But his editor, Chester Phillips, does not want to lose his best reporter and Irene also does not want to lose Rickey. The two join forces to keep the Mayberry's apart and they come up with a plan to have a photo of Irene and Rickey together for ammunition.

Irene pretends to be on Rickey's side and offers to help him with Sue. He tells Sue that Irene is a girl from a dating service. Sue invites them to go out to dinner with she and Owen. The plan is ruined when Irene "accidentally" lets the incriminating photo be seen. Sue realizes they already know each other and decides to marry Owen the following day.

Irene and Phillips try and keep him from the ceremony. They invite him to Irene's apartment, where four thugs keep him trapped until morning. Will Rickey escape in time for the ceremony?

I thought this was a very cute movie. It's also always fun to watch Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen perform.

Merle Oberon (18 or 19 February 1911 – 23 November 1979) was an Indian-born British actress.

She worked as a club hostess under the name Queenie O'Brien and played in minor and unbilled roles in various films.

Her film career received a major boost when the director Alexander Korda gave her a role, under the name Merle Oberon in the film, The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). She was then given leading roles in the film, The Scarlet Pimpernel(1934), with Leslie Howard, who was her lover at the time.

Oberon's had a successful career, partly as a result of her relationship with and later marriage to Alexander Korda. He sold "shares" of her contract to producer Samuel Goldwyn, who gave her roles in Hollywood. Oberon earned her sole Academy Award for Best Actress nomination for, The Dark Angel (1935). Around this time she had a serious romance with David Niven.

She was selected to perform in Korda's film, I, Claudius (1937), but a serious car accident resulted in filming being cancelled. Oberon was scarred for life, but skilled lighting technicians were able to hide her injuries. She went on to perform in her most famous film, Wuthering Heights(1939), A Song to Remember(1945) and in the film, Désirée(1954).
Please click to read Lady Eves, Claudis(1937) The movie that never was review.

Perfect Strangers(1950)

Perfect Strangers(1950). Comedy/drama. Director: Bretaigne Windust. Cast: Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan and Thelma Ritter. The screenplay for the Warner Bros. release by Edith Sommer was based on an adaptation of the 1939 Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur play Ladies and Gentlemen by George Oppenheimer.

Jury members selected to sit for the Los Angeles murder trial of Ernest Craig are: Terry Scott, who is separated from her husband, David Campbell, married with two children, Lena Fassler, pregnant with her sixth child, Mrs. Isobel Bradford, a society woman and womanizer Robert Fisher.

The sequestered jury discuss over dinner, how they believe Craig murdered his wife when she refused to give him a divorce so he could marry his secretary. Terry tells the others to keep an open mind until they hear the case.

After the first day in court, the jurors return to their hotel suite. During a heated discussion of the case, Terry and David walk out to the balcony, but are soon joined by Isobel and Fisher. David and Isobel agree that when Craig had the motive for the murder, Terry accuses them of being too opinionated.

Later David walks out to the balcony where Terry, apologizes for her earlier outburst, they talk about what they would be doing if they were at home. David talks about his family, Terry talks about her lonely life since separating from her husband. They end up in each other arms for a passionate kiss.

The following day in court, the district attorney reads a love letter from Craig to Eileen, which upsets Terry. During the next break, she tells David that they should stop seeing each other.

Things look bad for Craig when his sister-in-law takes the stand saying that she heard him quarrel with his wife before she fell to her death from a cliff. After the defense presents its case, the jury begins to deliberate the verdict, David is elected foreman.

Will Terry decide to she return to Cleveland and her husband and will Graig be found Innocent?

This is a must see for all Ginger fans and among the supporting roles, Thelma Ritter delivers as always.




Ritter's first movie performance was in the film, Miracle on 34th Street (1947).

Her second role, A Letter to Three Wives (1949).

Ritter was also cast in the film, All About Eve (1950), which earned her an Oscar nomination.

A second nomination followed for her work in, The Mating Season (1951) starring Gene Tierney and John Lund.

Ritter performed steady for the next dozen years.

She also performed in many of the episodic drama TV series of the 1950's: Alfred Hitchcock Presents, General Electric Theater, and The United States Steel Hour.

Later film roles were as James Stewart's nurse in, Rear Window (1954) and as Doris Day's housekeeper in Pillow Talk (1959).

Although best-known for comedy roles, she performed in occasional dramatic roles, Pickup on South Street (1953) and The Misfits (1961).