The Gay Lady (1949)

Jean Kent rises from being a child performer in Camden Town in the 1890s to a member of the Gaiety Theater chorus, to the Duchess of Wellwater in a storm-in-a-teacup tumultuous marriage. It's a slight programmer, eked out by Jean Kent's lively performer as a too-candid good girl and by good set and color design. The way cinematographer Harry Waxman shoots the movie, it winds up looking like a series of color rotogravures.

It's derived from one of the eccentric novels of S.J.Simon and Caryl Brahms. While it is not a great movie, Miss Kent's performance is excellent. She had gone on the stage at the age of ten (with her mother) and later worked in the chorus at London's famed Windmill Theater. Doubtless she based her performance on close observation.