Kitty ou la duchesse des bas-fonds

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

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!

Mitchell Leisen was at the top of his form as a director in the mid-'40s and KITTY is a high point in his career, as it is for Paulette Goddard. This is the tale of a sharp-tongued guttersnipe (Goddard) who rises to become a Duchess in society thanks to the manipulations of the scheming Ray Milland and Constance Collier. It's a variation of the Pygmalion tale, a 'My Fair Lady' without music, sumptuously photographed in glorious B&W photography, although it's one of those costume films that would have looked even more ravishing in technicolor.

As for any further comment on the film, here's what I wrote in a recent article on the career of PAULETTE GODDARD:

"When Paramount failed to make a successful bid for 'Forever Amber', they decided to make their own costume drama about a poor wench from 18th century London who rises from guttersnipe to society woman. Paulette gives undoubtedly one of her best performances in a lavish period film that should have been in color. The N.Y. Times noted: 'Paulette Goddard has worked up blazing temperament to go with her ravishing beauty in the title role. If she is less fetching as a late 18th century duchess, it is because the script runs thin on humor and drama. In any case, she gives the work the correct touch of wry romanticism.'"

Paulette Goddard reached one of her cinema high points in portraying the title role in Kitty. The film is part Pygmalion, part Forever Amber, and part Oliver Twist and all entertainment.

She's a diamond in the rough, a rare beauty who was bonded out of fondling home to Sara Allgood who runs a Fagin like enterprise for girls. But Paulette has found a way to make a more honest living, she's posing for Sir Thomas Gainsborough. She's discovered doing just that by a couple of Georgian blades, Ray Milland and Patric Knowles.

Milland finds her later and discovers her origins, but the painting she posed for has come to the attention of Lord Reginald Owen who would like to get to know the lady. Milland sees opportunity here and together with his aunt Constance Collier starts tutoring Paulette like Henry Higgins did with Eliza Doolittle on the finer points of genteel manners and speech.

He tutors her well and Paulette's beauty does the rest. It's a pity that Kitty was not done in color, perhaps had it been made even the following year Paramount might have invested in it.

What they did invest in and I'm sure this was at the insistence of director Mitchell Leisen was in Art&Set design. Leisen who did this before he became a director caught all the mood and ambiance of the late 18th Century Great Britain. The Art&Set Design earned Kitty its only recognition from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts&Science with an Oscar nomination in that category.

Leisen also did well by his players. I did so love the bickering about art with Cecil Kellaway as Gainsborough and Gordon Richards as Sir Joshua Reynolds. Also take note of Dennis Hoey as the first of two husbands Goddard acquires going up the social ladder.

Believe me, Scarlett O'Hara had nothing on Kitty.