La bribona del armiño

I remembered this one from TV a hundred years ago. Paulette Goddard has the title role, and she is quite beautiful and completely convincing. Real-er than Eliza Doolittle, she slips in and out'a Houndsditch slang, but she is never comic or plays it broad. She is a lady long before she marries into royalty.

Her persistent love of Hugh (played at his caddish-sexy best by Ray Milland) is the engine that drives the story. Plenty of good supporting roles, including Sara Algood, Cecil Kallaway (playing Gainsborough),Eric Blore, and that divinely handsome eternal man-who-loses-the-girl, Patric Knowles.

I loved it - and though I am not a great Ray Milland fan, I find he can be very convincing as a lover. His only better example of it is "Golden Earrings" with Miss Marlene Dietrich. And as for Miss Goddard, we never saw enough of her to type-cast her - feisty, spirited, yes, but a little unexpected in the depth of her performance, and a very lovely lady to boot.

This is what movies used to be - good characters (somebody to root for), an intelligent story, and Glamour. I recommend this picture highly!

Other IMDb comments on this one tell all that ought to be said about this lavish feast, unaccountably mounted in black-and-white when Technicolor was obviously called for. I suspect that the iron control that Natalie Kalmus exercised on almost every Technicolor film made through at least the mid-Forties discouraged many a producer from adding the extra expense to the budget, burdening his crew with the cumbersome three-strip cameras and the hellishly hot lighting they required, and the high cost of the final prints. Now that virtually every film is made in color, we forget that making a film in color prior to the introduction of Technicolor's own single-strip process and its rivals (i.e., Metrocolor, Warnercolor, DeLuxe Color, etc.) was a very big deal, indeed. Which is not in the least meant to say that Hollywood's artisans did not achieve some memorably beautiful work using black-and-white cameras. "Kitty" is a prime example, with a luxurious production and a cast fully able to flesh out the script's frequently funny evocation of a very pre-modern England. Even on a TV broadcast which I caught many years ago, this one was a thoroughly entertaining and eye-filling treat, and it would certainly merit a VHS and/or DVD release in my estimation.

Paulette Goddard is "Kitty" in this delightful 1945 film directed by Mitchell Liesen for Paramount. The film also stars Ray Milland, Constance Collier, Cecil Kellaway, Patric Knowles, and Reginald Owen.

Goddard plays a young guttersnipe who steals for a living. As she's trying to steal the gold buckle off of a footman's shoe, she is noticed by none other than Thomas Gainsborough, who cleans her up and paints her. She comes to the attention of Sir Hugh Marcy (Milland) but when he finds out she's a guttersnipe, he loses interest.

Once her beautiful portrait is on display, the Duke of Malmuster buys the portrait and prevails upon Sir Hugh for an introduction to the subject. Since Sir Hugh is flat broke, he and his tipsy aunt (Collier) try to turn Kitty into a lady so they can introduce her to the Duke, who is in a position to get Hugh his job back. Things, however, take a turn. Not only does Kitty have other plans, but fate steps in.

A very good movie, inspired by Shaw's Pygmalion, that has a wonderful, lively performance by Goddard, who goes from Cockney spitfire to lady and falls back on her Cockney roots when she loses her temper.

Milland is good and not very likable as the conniving Sir Hugh, and Constance Collier is a riot as Aunt Susan. Handsome Patric Knowles is on hand as a friend of Sir Hugh's who, like a lot of other men, is captivated by Kitty.

I was a little disappointed in the ending. I frankly would have liked to have seen Kitty go off into the sunset with someone else.

I agree with one of the posters here that this would have been a beautiful film in color. But I'll take Goddard any way I can get her; she's always been a favorite of mine.

Paulette Goddard deserves to have this movie seen and enjoyed, and so do we. She was a charming actress, and this film gave her a chance to show it. Ray Milland is also a very charming cad. It's been too long since I've seen it, on TV when I was much younger, but I remember how much I liked it. For years I think I had it confused with FOREVER AMBER, but I was able to get ahold of that film on VHS a couple of years ago, and was greatly disappointed--I thought it sure wasn't as good as I remembered. It wasn't until I happened upon KITTY while looking at films done by Paulette, whom I also loved in REAP THE WILD WIND, that I realized I was disappointed by AMBER because it was not KITTY. Well, so it goes.

Come on, whoever owns the Paramount vault, dig into it. And look at other Mitchell Leisen films too, like HOLD BACK THE DAWN, TO EACH HIS OWN, and LADY IN THE DARK (which I don't think I've seen but would love to). He is one of the great UNDISCOVERED directors.

Give us DVDs--PLEEEEZE.

leisen

This film was a wonderful tribute to Paulette Goddard's looks and abilities. At the top of her career, she proves that she is one of Hollywood's most glamorous enduring stars. In this film she plays a guttersnipe that is chosen by Gainsborough (played wonderfully by Cecil Kellaway) to have her portrait painted in typical Gainsborough fashion. As she poses for him two handsome dandies stop by for a visit, only to be bewitched by her beauty, thinking she is of noble birth, much to Kellaway's amusement. Upon learning the truth, Ray Milland, trains Kitty to head for bigger prey, hoping to make himself rich, as he is living way over his means. Of course, she falls in love with him. Along the way to fame, Kitty becomes a Duchess and goes her own way to success, even though she still loves Milland. In the end, love wins out. A wonderful performance is also given by Constance Collier as Milland's drunken lady friend in conspiracy. The scene when she is introduced to the waif Goddard and is reposing, drunk in her bed, is hysterical. 5 stars to this one. Goddard never looked lovelier. In fact,I have an original color poster from the film. A vintage collection I am quite proud of.