Primrose Path

1940 marked a high point in Ginger Rogers' career: it was the year of Kitty Foyle, which would earn her a Best Actress Academy Award . Rogers made another exceptional drama that year: this overlooked gem that pushed boundaries with its (for the time) frank view of prostitution. Rogers plays dreamer Ellie May Adams, whose mother supports her squalid family by selling herself. Ellie May marries an upstanding man (Joel McCrea) without revealing her background. But her secret gets out. Rogers shines as the innocent raised amid corruption, Marjorie Rambeau earned an Oscar nomination* as the good-time ma and Queenie Vassar steals scenes as acid-tongued Grandma, who'd go back on the game if anyone would pay her.

• comedy
• drama