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Madame Parkington

Original title: Mrs. Parkington
  • 1944
  • Approved
  • 2h 4m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
2K
YOUR RATING
Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon in Madame Parkington (1944)
A widowed matriarch reminisces about her family fortunes, including her romance with a financier/mine owner.
Play trailer2:22
1 Video
11 Photos
DramaRomance

A widowed matriarch reminisces about her family fortunes, including her romance with a financier/mine owner.A widowed matriarch reminisces about her family fortunes, including her romance with a financier/mine owner.A widowed matriarch reminisces about her family fortunes, including her romance with a financier/mine owner.

  • Director
    • Tay Garnett
  • Writers
    • Robert Thoeren
    • Polly James
    • Louis Bromfield
  • Stars
    • Greer Garson
    • Walter Pidgeon
    • Edward Arnold
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.0/10
    2K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Tay Garnett
    • Writers
      • Robert Thoeren
      • Polly James
      • Louis Bromfield
    • Stars
      • Greer Garson
      • Walter Pidgeon
      • Edward Arnold
    • 30User reviews
    • 9Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 2 Oscars
      • 4 wins & 3 nominations total

    Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:22
    Official Trailer

    Photos10

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    Top cast99+

    Edit
    Greer Garson
    Greer Garson
    • Susie Parkington
    Walter Pidgeon
    Walter Pidgeon
    • Major Augustus Parkington
    Edward Arnold
    Edward Arnold
    • Amory Stilham
    Agnes Moorehead
    Agnes Moorehead
    • Aspasia Conti
    Cecil Kellaway
    Cecil Kellaway
    • Edward, Prince of Wales
    Gladys Cooper
    Gladys Cooper
    • Alice, Duchess de Brancourt
    Frances Rafferty
    Frances Rafferty
    • Jane Stilham
    Tom Drake
    Tom Drake
    • Ned Talbot
    Peter Lawford
    Peter Lawford
    • Lord Thornley
    Dan Duryea
    Dan Duryea
    • Jack Stilham
    Hugh Marlowe
    Hugh Marlowe
    • John Marbey
    Selena Royle
    Selena Royle
    • Mattie Trounson
    Fortunio Bonanova
    Fortunio Bonanova
    • Signor Cellini
    Lee Patrick
    Lee Patrick
    • Madeleine
    St. Luke's Episcopal Church Choristers
    St. Luke's Episcopal Church Choristers
    • Carolers
    • (as Saint Luke's Choristers)
    Harry Cording
    Harry Cording
    • Humphrey
    Celia Travers
    • Belle
    Mary Servoss
    Mary Servoss
    • Mrs. Graham
    • Director
      • Tay Garnett
    • Writers
      • Robert Thoeren
      • Polly James
      • Louis Bromfield
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews30

    7.01.9K
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    Featured reviews

    6planktonrules

    Well acted and lovely to look at but also very difficult to like.

    "Mrs. Parkington" is an incredibly well made film--with great acting and some lovely production values. Clearly, MGM gave this film the full glossy studio treatment. And, for her wonderful performance, Greer Garson was nominated for an Oscar. However, I am very ambivalent about the film because so many of the characters are either despicable or pathetic. In many ways, it reminds me of the country music song "Stand By Your Man"--as a woman should put up with ANYTHING in order to keep even the most awful man. Clearly, this is a film for dependent personalities!

    The film begins near the present time. The Parkington family appears to be made up of a group of sociopaths--all loathsome jerks who think mostly of themselves. When the matriarch, Mrs. Parkington (Garson) learns that one of the brood is a thief, she begins to reminisce--remembering her life with Mr. Parkington (Walter Pidgeon). At first, their marriage seems pretty nice--with a rich and doting husband. However, through the course of these long series of flashbacks, you learn that Mr. Parkington is vindictive, petty, selfish and cheats on Mrs. Parkington. And, as for Mrs. Parkington, she is clever and long-suffering--and lifted up as some sort of shining example. I couldn't help but think she was pathetic and would have probably accepted Mr. Parkington back after he murdered or slept with children or sheep. And this brings me to my ambivalence--no one--not anyone in this family is likable in the least. And, the film seems to promote the notion that a woman's job is just to put up with this and smile throughout! Talk about an anti-feminist message! The bottom line is that I'd hate for my daughters to watch such a film, as I'd hate to think that Mrs. Parkington is someone to admire (though the film tries HARD to say this). If Garson's character had either shot her husband or left him and bled him dry in alimony, then maybe I would have enjoyed it much more. A great job of acting and a sick message to this film.

    Oh, and I should mention that in one brief scene, the Parkingtons joke about how it is Mr. Parkington's job to regularly 'thrash his wife'. Wow....need I say any more?! Well, yes. If you like films that promote women as lovely doormats, also try Mary Pickford's last film, "Secrets". Her husband is also a piece of work and she looks back fondly to their lives together.
    hrd1963

    Disappointing

    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.
    9vincentlynch-moonoi

    A gem of performances, including a couple of surprises

    Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon turn in fine performances here, in fact, they're as good here as in any of their films. Garson has long been a favorite of mine, and I particularly revere her performance in "Random Harvest". This film isn't quite that good, but it is a gem.

    Of particular interest here are two very unusual performances by supporting actors. When I read, in advance, that Agnes Moorehead played a French socialite...well, I just couldn't see it. But, she was wonderful, and this is an Agnes Moorehead you've never seen before! And Cecil Kellaway as Edward, Prince of Wales...again, a very different performance, and so well done.

    The story itself is interesting, with Garson as an old family institution reflecting on her life. If there's a criticism about this film, it's that Garson looks too young even in her elderly makeup. But, for much of the movie, she's her usual alluring self. Is it a sentimental melodrama? Yes. But a delightful one.
    9bkoganbing

    Parkington Family Values

    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.
    7trimmerb1234

    A subtle wit at work

    This appears at first to be a familiar kind of opulent family-through-the-generations saga. And Greer Garson was one of the queens of the genre.

    But underlying this throughout is a droll, adult subtle wit. And the stylish stars to deliver it. There are those fairly subtle remarks which make the attractive guest smirk and the wife glare at her husband, all of whom are bound by the rules of politeness never to directly say what is, we so gather, very much going on. Remarks intended to indicate just to husband and wife that the attractive guest knows more about the husband's likes and dislikes than does his wife. They are such that other guests - and possibly some viewers - would be unaware of the true state of play. Fully adult themes with never a glimpse of stocking.

    I didn't intend watching this but just heard the small bit of banter from actor Cecil Kellaway(as the Prince of Wales) who has a surprise meeting with Mrs Parkington. Rarely have I heard words spoken with, how to say it, a more skillful modulation. The speaker, who Mrs Parkington fails to recognise, is no ordinary person. The same thing could be said about the film.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Unusual for a film even today, the movie was shot in chronological order.
    • Goofs
      The gypsy fiddler plays Johann Strauss's "Roses from the South" on violin in a scene set in 1872, but that music was written in 1880.
    • Quotes

      Susie 'Sparrow' Parkington: Why did you marry me?

      Major Augustus Parkington: Life was too simple without you.

    • Alternate versions
      In the European released version, Cecil Kellaway was replaced by 'Hugo Haas' and the role was changed to "Balkan King." Also, Tala Birell's character was changed to simply "Countess" instead of "Lady Norah Ebbsworth." Three actors in casting call lists but who were not in the U.S. print (Ann Codee, George Davis and Frank Reicher may also have been in this version (see the trivia section.)
    • Connections
      Featured in Twenty Years After (1944)
    • Soundtracks
      I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen
      (1876) (uncredited)

      Music by Thomas Payne Westendorf

      Played extensively in the score, mostly as a love theme

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 4, 1948 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • La señora Parkington
    • Filming locations
      • Morrison Ranch, Agoura, California, USA(fox hunt sequence)
    • Production company
      • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 2h 4m(124 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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