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Kitty (1945 film)

Kitty
Kitty (1945 film).jpg
Theatrical poster to Kitty (1945)
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
Produced by Mitchell Leisen
Written by Rosamond Marshall (novel)
Karl Tunberg
Darrell Ware
Starring Paulette Goddard
Ray Milland
Music by Victor Young
Cinematography Daniel L. Fapp
Edited by Alma Macrorie
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date
  • March 31, 1945 (1945-03-31)
Running time
103 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $3.5 million (US rentals)

Kitty is a 1945 film, a costume drama set in London during the 1780s, directed by Mitchell Leisen, based on the novel of the same name by Rosamond Marshall (published in 1943), with a screenplay by Karl Tunberg. It stars Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland, Constance Collier, Patric Knowles, Reginald Owen, and Cecil Kellaway as the English painter Thomas Gainsborough. In a broad interpretation of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion story line, the film tells the rags-to-riches story of a young guttersnipe, cockney girl.

In 1783, Kitty (Goddard) is caught trying to pick the pocket of the painter Thomas Gainsborough (Kellaway). He offers to pay her more to sit for a portrait for him. There, she attracts the attention of Sir Hugh Marcy (Milland) and the Earl of Carstairs (Knowles). Sir Hugh, upon finding out her real social status, offers her a job as a scullery maid. Kitty learns that he is impoverished, having lost his post in the foreign office due to a scandal.

Gainsborough's portrait, The Anonymous Lady, creates a stir, as people try to guess who the subject is. The Duke of Malmunster buys both that painting and Gainsborough's The Blue Boy. When the duke asks Gainsborough who the model is, Sir Hugh claims she is his aunt's ward. The duke admits he may have been mistaken in having Sir Hugh dismissed from his position (in favor of the duke's nephew), and in exchange for an introduction to Kitty "Gordon", offers to reinstate him. Sir Hugh, who had planned to avenge his dismissal, changes his mind in favor of monetary gain.

He and his aunt, Lady Susan Dowitt, teach Kitty how to pose as a lady of fashion. What Sir Hugh does not count on is the attraction Kitty develops for him. When Hugh is sent to debtors' prison, Kitty charms the wealthy ironmonger Jonathan Selby into marrying her, using part of her dowry to free Hugh. Hugh is furious, but has to accept the situation.


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