Mrs. Parkington, a Mulher Inspiração

This is an entertaining family saga from Louis Bromfield's novel, the kind of long, digressive trash wallow that still regularly tops best-seller lists. Essentially a subversive treatise on why inherited wealth is a bad thing, we observe the wealthy Mrs. Parkington as she copes with her selfish, dishonest middle-aged children in 1920s N.Y. while reminiscing about her stormy Gilded Age marriage to her late husband, a Wall Street cutthroat who made a vast fortune.

Greer Garson wears a black wig in this role and -- surprisingly -- it really dims her luster. One misses that hair, so unmistakably red even in black and white, which usually illuminates her face. She also looks too old in the early scenes in which she's meant to be a teenager, and her acting is too arch in her scenes in old age. Even so, she's a suitable and sympathetic figurehead for this limousine ride of a movie. Walter Pidgeon is exactly what the part of the Robber Baron requires: physically imposing and masculine, stubborn and rakish by turns, he is never dynamic but always convincing.

There are several worthwhile points of interest here: In a role that earned her a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, Agnes Moorehead gives a vivid performance as the French mistress that Parkington insensitively presses into service to make his wife the queen of N.Y. society. Moorehead's efficient acting suggests everything about this woman's precarious existence as well has her combination of artifice and pragmatism. She's like a character out of Trollope. A slightly lesser revelation is Gladys Cooper, cast against type and showing surprising depths of cynicism as a suicidal playgirl. In addition, the film is more frank and relaxed about sexual philandering (both pre-and extra-marital) than one would expect from an MGM film of 1944. And several of the sets, most notably the spectacular rendering of the Parkington mansion on Fifth Avenue (including an entry hall that doubles as a ballroom, complete with two endlessly curving staircases and a colonnade of pillars that leads to a dining hall seating 100) are prime examples of the opulent art direction one routinely enjoys in Hollywood pictures of the '40s.

Finally, although the first third of the film sometimes drags, there are two excellent set pieces that are beautifully constructed and lovingly detailed by director Tay Garnett. The first is a Parkington dinner party to which N.Y.'s 400 are invited -- the pervasive tension and gradual buildup to disaster are really memorable here, as is the use of the film's most impressive set. The second is a very droll bit of drawing room comedy during which Mrs. Parkington meets and enlists the aid of the Prince of Wales to win back her husband from the clutches of an English society hostess. The polite bitchery between the ladies is delightful.

Prospective viewers can decide if this list of pleasures justifies a look at this luxe movie.

Greer Garson got an Oscar nomination for one of her best roles in Mrs. Parkington. Though the film is one that had her co-starring with her favorite leading man, the film is all Greer.

Like Maytime the film starts with Greer as the aged family matriarch of the Parkington family during Christmas of 1938. Her husband who died many years ago was Walter Pidgeon and the family has gathered once again. But there's a crisis brewing. Her grandson-in-law Edward Arnold has embezzled a ton of money in some bad market speculation. His daughter Frances Rafferty and Garson's great granddaughter additionally has a romantic problem, she's torn between her fiancé Tom Drake who is whistleblowing on Arnold and family loyalty.

During the evening Garson reminisces back to certain crisis times in her own marriage and it eventually tells her what she must do in this situation. I will say this about the Parkingtons, Garson's the genuine article, the rest of them are a spoiled and selfish lot, only Rafferty seems to have escaped the taint.

I have to say it was a little strange seeing the much older Gladys Cooper playing the daughter of the heavily made up Greer Garson, still both actresses are professional enough to make it convincing. There's a wonderful performance by Cecil Kellaway as the Prince of Wales during the Gay Nineties when Parkingtons are in Europe. Kellaway may be the Prince of Wales, but he proves to be real sharp in terms of human relations and delicately removes a bump in the road of the Parkington marriage.

Agnes Moorehead got a Supporting Actress nomination for Mrs. Parkington in the role of an impoverished French aristocrat who becomes friend and confidante of Garson. She gives Garson a lot of sage advice. She lost to Ethel Barrymore for None But The Lonely Heart and Garson lost her race for Best Actress to Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight.

Mrs. Parkington remains however one of MGM's best films of the Forties. The influence of Maytime and of Citizen Kane in the telling of the Parkington family story is obviously apparent. And the message about both inherited wealth and the damage that mere speculation without creating could have come from Wall Street. For Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon fans a must.

Greer Garson and Walter Pigeon were one of the great romantic teams of the 1940s but both were too old (particularly Pigeon) for their roles in this disappointing film version of the popular Louis Bromfield novel. Pigeon is simply miscast; he is too much the gentleman to ever be convincing as the boorish, philandering Major "Gus" Parkington. As his wife, Susie, Garson, wearing a dark wig (and looking rather like Yvonne DeCarlo), ages from a naive young woman to the crusty, 84 year old family matriarch. The characterization is never believable but her scenes as the elderly Mrs. Parkington are especially objectionable (she's too arch). Neither Garson or Pigeon is particularly well-aided by a meandering script that fails to adequately clarify the relationships among the family members or takes the time to develop the various characters. Consequently, one simply doesn't care what happens to the members of the Parkington dynasty. The supporting cast...among them, Edward Arnold, Lee Patrick, Dan Duryea, Cecil Kellaway, Frances Rafferty and Tom Drake...is competent but only Agnes Moorehead, in a rare sympathetic turn as Pigeon's ex-mistress, and Gladys Cooper, as Pigeon and Garson's dypsomaniacal daughter, manage to make a significant impression.

This was an entertaining movie, told in both contemporary time and flashback, as Susie Parkington (Greer Garson) recalls her life with her late husband, Augustus (Walter Pidgeon), while dealing with a family crisis that involves all her self-centered children, grandchildren, in-laws and her beloved great-granddaughter, who adds substance to the shallow brood.

Greer is terrific and the character she plays is admirable and likeable, but the same can't be said for Walter, as Augustus can't be called admirable. He's got an ego to match his bank account as well as a vengeful streak that borders on obsessive. Despite being a young, innocent woman (as well as his social inferior) when they wed (he felt responsible for her, as the mining accident he indirectly caused resulted in her mother's death) she manages to hold her own against this strong, often domineering man, like when she confesses to lending financial help to the family of a business rival he sought to destroy. She also stands her ground when it comes to Aspasia (Agnes Moorehead), Augustus's former mistress, who becomes Susie's friend, though still in love with her husband. Later down the road, after a year's separation caused by a family tragedy, Susie follows Augustus to Europe, where she wins him back from another woman, with help from the Prince of Wales! She's more than a match for the husband who called her "Sparrow"!

There are other familiar faces here: Edward Arnold, Dan Duryea, Cecil Kellaway, that add to the story, though I would have been just as happy had the present-day clan been left out altogether.

It's Christmastime in 1938. Elegant 83-year-old family matriarch Greer Garson (as "Susie" Graham-Parkington) welcomes various family members to her majestic New York mansion. The guests display various excesses, which are fueled by their wealth. We will learn the family fortune, estimated at over $30 million (not too shabby for 1938), could be in jeopardy. The holiday spirit triggers Ms. Garson's life story to be told, in a series of extensive flashbacks… Long ago, 18-year-old Garson tends to guests in her poor mother's boarding house. Their Leaping Rock, Nevada home is visited by silver mining tycoon Walter Pidgeon (as Augustus "Gus" Parkington). Garson and Mr. Pidgeon exchange winks; we're off and running...

We see newlywed Garson move from lowly to life in high society. She doesn't have far to go, looking impeccable in her scenes as a Leaping Rock chambermaid. Still, attractive Agnes Moorehead (as Aspasia Conti) decides to show Garson the ropes, having given up on playboy Pidgeon. Multi-millionaires have problems too, as we discover while the decades pass...

"Mrs. Parkington" isn't a very engaging story, but it is an excellent star vehicle for Greer Garson. It's all tailor-made, right down to the way she blows the curl dangling over her forehead. The actress had become MGM's most bankable female, with huge box-office success and measured critical acclaim. Very popular with "Oscar" voters, Garson added another nomination to her collection. She does an outstanding job, though her craftiness and make-up are not often subtle. Moorehead, Edward Arnold and the supporting cast all hit their marks. Director Tay Garnett, photographer Joseph Ruttenberg and the MGM crew make everything look superlative. A sense of staginess pervades, but it's appropriate; after all, this isn't "Citizen Kane".

****** Mrs. Parkington (1944-10-12) Tay Garnett ~ Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Agnes Moorehead, Edward Arnold