Kitty

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.

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.

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.

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.

If you have not seen this film, you are missing a great classic film. Director Mitchell Leisen's skill with art design, his precise handling of actors, and an attention to detail are quite obvious. What is also obvious is that the picture's sets and furniture have that grandiose William Hearst feel to it. Later, I was not surprised to find out that Leisen had indeed borrowed items from Hearst . Maybe the publishing magnate was hoping that Paramount's director would cast main squeeze Marion Davies in the title role. That obviously did not happen. But we do have Paulette Goddard, who despite the dazzling array of Hearst treasures, is perhaps the most ornate piece of set décor on screen.