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In honour of Ginger Rogers' 105th birthday, which is tomorrow, this week on «Film Friday» I thought I would bring you one of my favourite films of hers. This is also the picture that gave her the only Academy Award for Best Actress of her career. Directed by Sam Wood, Kitty Foyle (1940) opens with Kitty Foyle (Ginger Rogers), a cosmetic saleswoman in a New York boutique owned by Delphine Detaille (Odette Myrtil), trying to decide whether she should marry Dr. Mark Eisen (James Craig) and be respectable, or sail away with the already-married Wyn Strafford (Dennis Morgan), whom she has loved for many years and has just re-entered her life. As she wrestles with her conscience, Kitty thinks back to her youth in Philadelphia, where she lived with her Irish father, Tom (Ernest Cossart). Teenage Kitty is obsessed with the city's elite «Main Liners» and dreams of marrying a rich man, despite her father's warnings against getting carried away with her fantasies.   Ginger Rogers, Ja...

Directed by Irving Rapper, Now, Voyager (1942) tells the story of Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis), an unattractive, overweight, repressed spinster whose life is brutally dominated by her tyrannical mother (Gladys Cooper), an aristocratic Boston dowager whose verbal and emotional abuse to her daughter has contributed to her lack of self-confidence. Fearing Charlotte is on the verge of a mental breakdown, her sister-in-law, Lisa (Ilka Chase), introduces her to psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains), who recommends she spend some time in his sanatorium, Cascade. Under Jacquith's care, Charlotte regains some degree of self-confidence, improves her outward appearance, and treats herself to an ocean voyage to Brazil. Onboard the ship, she meets and falls in love with Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid), an architect who is dutifully committed to an unhappy marriage for the sake of his young troubled daughter, Tina (Janis Wilson). Charlotte and Jerry have several romantic misadventures while ...

Directed by Henry Koster, The Bishop's Wife (1947) concerns the tribulations of Bishop Henry Brougham (David Niven) and his increasingly desperate attempts to raise money from his wealthy parishioners for a new cathedral. To do so, he ignores everything and everyone else, including his beautiful wife, Julia (Loretta Young). His prayers are literally answered by an angel named Dudley (Cary Grant), who reveals his identity only to Henry. However, Dudley's mission is not to help build a cathedral, but to spiritually guide Henry and the people around him. While Henry is annoyed by Dudley's presence, the angel soon charms everyone, including the Broughams' maid, Matilda (Elsa Lanchester), and even the non-religious Professor Wutheridge (Monty Wolley).    In the days that follow, Dudley persuades the wealthy parishioners, particularly widowed Agnes Hamilton (Gladys Cooper), to contribute the needed funds not to construct the cathedral, but to help the needy instead, much t...