Kitty (1945)

This movie has many of our old favorite actors in it. Great cast. Kitty (Paulette Goddard) is a filthy street girl who tries to steal a pair of shoes and is caught. Thomas Gainsborough (Cecil Kellaway) takes her in, lets her bathe, and clothes her in a nice dress. He decides to paint her portrait. He is intrigued by the idea of painting a portrait of an anonymous beauty. During the sessioin, Patric Knowles and Ray Milland come in, and are taken by her, but Kellaway will not let them talk to her, lest her Cockney accent give away her status. However, Milland sees her leaving.and discovers the trick. He offers to take her home until he learns that she is indentured to a woman whose girls are thieves, so he takes her home to be a scullery maid. Constance Collier is his aunt, and an alcoholic. The inimitable Eric Blore is his butler.

At an exhibition of paintings, everyone is captivated by Goddard's portrait, but only Milland and Kellaway know who she is. Reginald Owen (the Duke of Malmunster) is interested, and Milland identifies her as a ward of his aunt, who at the moment is traveling. What is really happening is an intense class in being a lady, conducted by Milland and Collier. Unknown to them, Dennis Hoey, an ironmonger who lives locally, sees them on the patio and pays a visit. Milland lets us be known that he intends her for the Duke, but she lets it be known that she does not intent to marry a duke. Later Milland is hauled off to debtors prison. Goddard decides to marry Hoey in order to get the necessary money. Later Milland is in financial trouble again, and Goddard steals money from her husband to help him again. He beats her, and the maid she helped hits Hoey to protect her. He dies, and she inherits his fortune, but is expecting his child. Milland matches her with the Duke, and this time succeeds. The Duke thinks the child is his, and no one tells him any differently. The child is born, and the Duke promptly dies.

Goddard is now fabulously wealthy. She tells Milland that she loves him. But she thinks he only thinks of her as a guttersnipe. She throws him out of the house. Next Knowles (the Earl of Carstairs) starts paying her attention. And suddenly Milland realizes that Goddard is a lady. He goes to see her and declares his love, but she spurns him - and then weeps. Milland brings in the woman to whom she was indentured. She tells her story.  Knowles tells her he loves her regardless, but she realizes there can never be anyone but Milland.

Much of the set and costumes were used in the Bob Hope movie, Monsieur Beaucaire a year later.

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Collier