one of my favorites!
Added 10/19/2009
Kitty Foyle, starring Ginger Rogers -- in one of her non-dancing roles -- is one of my favorite movies of all time! Ms. Rogers won an Oscar -- and rightly so -- for her performance of a woman torn between the love of her life (who is always just out of her reach) and the love of a young doctor who adores her. A classic tale, wonderfully acted and artfully directed...grab the popcorn and snuggle in...don't forget the Kleenex!
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Great service
Added 6/1/2009
This was a very last minute purchase for mother's day and it still arrived in time!
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Yes, THAT Ginger Rogers stars as Kitty Foyle in this serious drama
Added 12/8/2008
I was flipping the channels the other night and this B&W movie must have just started because the scene of the working girl on the bus just caught my attention. (back in those days of pre-Marlon Brando, all stars had that "star" look to them whether they were playing a poor beggar or a rich heiress)
I was caught up in the movie just like that. Only after the movie ended did I find out that the main character Kitty was Ginger Rogers and she'd won an Oscar for her role in this movie with the same name: Kitty Foyle. It made sense to me why she won the Oscar that year. Ginger was Kitty.
I had no idea she had made any dramas. I only knew about her dancing with Fred Astaire. I was told I was watching a Ginger Rogers marathon and did not move until I watched another of her movies, "It Had to be You."
And within those few hours, a Ginger Rogers fan was born.
p.s. It did not hurt that in Kitty Foyle, the actor who played Wyn was oh-so-very-handsome
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Excellent movie with Ginger Rogers - Kitty Foyle
Added 7/15/2008
I watched this movie and it was excellent - the movie has a lot of strong drama and a touch of humour - Ginger Rogers does an awesome job in this movie !!
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Ginger Rogers' Oscar Winning Performance Will Resonate With All Working Girls
Added 11/26/2007
Ginger Rogers stepped off the dance floor and into dramatic movies in the 1940's. This classic love story, subtitled "The Natural History of a Woman," is a great introduction to her work for those not familiar with it.
She plays the part of Kitty Foyle, a working class girl with lots of moxie and a desire to have all the finer things in life that only a rich husband could provide. The movie begins at the end when she has until midnight to choose between two lovers: her former boss, the handsome and wealthy Wynn Strafford (Dennis Morgan) of Philadelphia's Main Line Society who can offer her an unmarried arrangement or the poor yet dedicated doctor (James Craig) who has courted her and wants to marry her. The story unfolds in flashbacks as Kitty gazes into a snow globe and remembers all the heartache and complex situations that have brought her to this night.
Notable for its depiction of a working class girl and her shattered dreams, this earned Ginger Rogers the Academy Award for Best Actress. Included in the special features on the DVD are two appropriate cartoons: a Tom and Jerry episode entitled "Kitty Foiled" and a classic spoof of the movie entitled "Bad Luck Blackie."
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Cute, but Chicago is better.
Added 11/4/2008
Its quite rare, but in this case the newer version is actually much better. If you have seen Chicago, you can see where they drew their inspiration, but this is not nearly as good as the newer film. This film is like a watered down, slapstick version. It is supposed to take place in 1927, but the clothing looks suspiciously 1940's. Even though I like Ginger Rodgers, I much prefer Renee Zelweger as Roxie, Rodger's character is almost annoying. Adoplh Menjou makes an interesting Billy Flynn, but can not beat Richard Gere by far.
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Great Performances, Awkward Script in this Production-Code Version of the Legendary CHICAGO
Added 4/28/2008
Loosely based on the 1924 trials of Chicago murderesses Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner, as well as the exploits of notorious defense lawyers W.W. O'Brien and William Scott Steward, playwright Maurine Dallas Watkin's play CHICAGO was a popular stage success of 1926--a wickedly funny satire on fame and the American justice system. It was also a popular silent film of 1927. But when Hollywood returned to the story in 1942 the movies were under the infamous "production code," and there was simply no way the story could be filmed as originally written. The resulting film was a very loose adaptation in which the role of Velma Kelly was largely cut and Roxie Hart herself became less sinner than a fame-hungry dimwit who pleads guilty to a crime of which she is innocent in order to gain media fame.
ROXIE HART is one of those films that goes off with a bang when it works and dies with a fizzle when it doesn't. The great success is the cast: both Ginger Rogers and Adophe Menjou are knock-outs in the leading roles of Roxie and her slick-and-slimy defense attorney Billy Flynn, and the supporting cast (which includes a host of famous faces, including Nigel Bruce, Phil Silvers, Sara Allgood, Spring Byington, William Frawley and Iris Adrian) is hard to beat. The jail house scenes are a scream--yes, Ginger coaxes everybody into dancing "The Black Bottom"--and the court room scenes even more so--with Ginger showing as much false emotion as she does leg.
On the other hand, the film uses a framing device in which a reporter (George Montgomery) tells the story of Roxy to a bar-room audience some twenty years after the fact, and it creaks, plods, thuds, brings the movie to a slow crawl, and then gives us a surprise ending that's not only completely unsurprising but which has the effect of undercutting the entire premise of the film. When ROXIE HART flies, it really flies; when it falls, it does so with the thump of an over-cooked poundcake.
Even so, the film was still appealing enough to intrigue Broadway star Gwen Verdon, who was so fascinated by the general premise that she begged then-husband Bob Fosse to transform it into a stage showcase for her own talents. Fosse agreed it would make a great musical, but he ran afoul of original author Watkins, who had had a change of heart about her play over the years and didn't want to see it resurrected. When Watkins died in 1969 her estate felt differently, released the rights, and by 1975--with all its sin blackened humor restored--CHICAGO began to prove its worth on the musical stage. An Academy-award winning film version aside, it is currently one of the most widely admired and widely performed musicals on the world stage.
Getting back to ROXIE HART--well, no, it ain't no CHICAGO. But that awkward framing device aside, fans of the later musical will enjoy seeing this variation of their favorite musical, and certainly no one can argue with the calibre of the performances. The DVD is not mint, but it is close, and it comes with two film trailers. Recommended, as long as you don't expected too much.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
4 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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Ginger Rogers Sparkles!
Added 4/18/2008
Yes she does! This DVD released by 20th Century Fox is a crisp print, audio excellent. What a fun romp! Don't miss the jailhouse scene for a riotous rendition of "Black Bottom". And if you ever wondered what exactly was meant my a "circus" in reference to a court room, "Roxie Hart" will give you a visual definition that is utterly jaw-dropping!
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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