Mrs. Parkington (1944) User Reviews

A subtle wit at work

[trimmerb1234 · 7/10 · 6 February 2007]

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.

It Was Like Watching A Fairy Tale Come To Life.....

[Keedee · 8/10 · 23 October 2001]

Oh, why couldn't this film have been longer? I was taken in from the very beginning and was fascinated watching the lives of the Parkingtons. Greer Garson was exceptional as we watched her age from a young lady to a family matriarch in her 80's. I must agree that the pairing of she and Walter Pidgeon was superb and Agnes Moorehead's performance was remarkable. Gladys Cooper always stands out in any cast and with costumes of such splendor and the storylines that ranged from tragic to tremendous, there was no way to lose with this movie. Perhaps now, I'll go purchase the novel and see if I can get any more from this tale that didn't make it to the big screen. As they always say, "the book was better than the movie". I intend to try and find out. I can hardly imagine it, but I can only hope to find more and more delight from the adventures of the Parkingtons. This was one of my favorites with the pairing of Garson and Pidgeon. It's a truly entertaining movie and I recommend it highly!

Great scene that lasts just a second

[BENNYTI · 8/10 · 14 February 2006]

The best scene in the movie is when the recently married Greer Garson and Walter Pigeon are shopping. While Greer is looking at some flowers, she notices Walter's gaze has drifted off to some pretty young women. Without betraying any anger or sadness she says loudly, "Beautiful, aren't they?" With that double entendre, Greer's bitter acceptance of her husband's philandering and the never-ending hell she has created for herself by one bad decision is communicated to the audience instantly. Walter gives a quick look to Greer that shows he has been caught, but he doesn't apologize, showing the permanent rift between them. Great acting!

Entertaining family saga from Louis Bromfield's best-seller.

[tjonasgreen · 25 February 2004]

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.

Garson in her dual role as younger and elder self entertains but the "family" is an unlikable bunch

[Turfseer · 6/10 · 23 August 2022]

Greer Garson, one of the biggest stars at the time Mrs. Parkington was released in 1944, gets to play two roles here: the 83-year-old aging matriarch Susie Parkington of an upper crust New York family and her younger self, married to the charming but irascible mining tycoon Major Augustus Parkington (Walter Pidgeon), told in a series of flashbacks.

The story set in the present time (1938) introduces us to Susie and her arrogant, money-grubbing family members including daughter Alice, the Duchess of Brancourt (Gladys Cooper), granddaughters Helen (Helen Freeman) and Madeleine (Lee Patrick)-daughters of Susie's long deceased son Herbert, grandson-in-law Amory (Edward Arnold) married to Helen, and their two adult children, Jane (Frances Rafferty) and Jack (Dan Duryea).

The main problem with the depiction of these family members is that they are all a very unlikable bunch with really no redeeming qualities. I presume they were drawn that way to emphasize the contrasting goodness of Susie who is entrusted with deciding who ends up with the inheritance (the Parkington family fortune which we later learn is $31 million, approximately $650 million in today's money).

A crisis develops when Jane's fiancée Ned Talbot (Tom Drake) who has been working for dad Amory, reveals that the father will soon be arrested for facilitating a massive Ponzi scheme. Jane is in denial and sends Ned away, siding with her father, who attempts suicide, only to be stopped by Madeline's new husband Al Swann (Rod Cameron).

The flashback brings us all the way back to 1875 to Leaping Frog, Nevada where Susie helps her mother run a boarding house. The Major pays his workers double due to the danger of working in the mines. A mine explosion claims the life of Susie's mom who had the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Perhaps out of guilt as well as a "love at first sight" deep attraction, the Major proposes marriage to Susie and whisks her away to New York City.

Agnes Moorehead, in one of her best roles as Baroness Aspasia Conti (one of Augustus's former mistresses) shows Susie the ropes and helps her to navigate the high society landscape.

Susie's regards her marriage to the Major as a "fairy tale come true." Indeed, he appears to be a model husband, genial and always forgiving of Susie's inexperience. But eventually a dark side emerges when a fair number of the Major's Wall Street pals fail to show up at a dinner bash he's throwing to celebrate Susie's pregnancy--and he decides to keep a blacklist eventually committing to ruining their careers.

When Susie gets wind of this, she leaves him with the children. They eventually reconcile. Later Susie goes into a deep depression upon the death of her son (which is never shown on screen)-just like the death of the Major which is only alluded to early in the picture (leaving these scenes out may not have been the best of choices)..

The Major's affair with Lady Nora Ebbsworth (Tala Birell) in England brings Susie out of her funk and at the behest of Aspasia heads there to save her marriage. It's the Prince of Wales (Cecil Kellaway)-later to become Edward VIII, King of England-who saves the day by ordering Lady Nora to take a job as an assistant to his mother, Queen Victoria.

When Susie back in the present time decides to cover Amory's debt by giving away the family inheritance (much to the chagrin of her daughter and grandchildren), she confidently asserts "that's what the Major would have done." Perhaps Susie wants to forget about all the bad things her husband put her through and holds on to an idealized image to keep her functioning adroitly in the present.

Susie proves to be a little too much of an all-knowing, prescient character who can do no wrong. And the family members are the opposite: the previously alluded to moneygrubbers.

Nonetheless Mrs. Parkington (the film) has enough twists and turns in a plot that covers two centuries, to keep your interest.

Get Rich with Greer Garson

[wes-connors · 6/10 · 10 September 2015]

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

Mrs. Parkington looks back on her marriage

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 1 August 2015]

Greer Garson lived to be 91 years old, and she never looked as she did as the older Mrs. Parkington and the older Madame Curie - all white.

In this 1944 film, the Parkington family meets for Christmas, just before they all learn of a scandal which will impact the family fortune and the reputation of the family.

Thinking about her husband, Susie (Greer Garson), the matriarch, now 84, thinks back to meeting her husband Gus (Walter Pidgeon) at her family boarding house in Leaping Frog, Nevada. The major, as he was called, owned the mine where everyone worked.

Susie had always dreamed of being in high society, and she knew all about it and would fantasize about what it would be like. She gets her wish when, after the loss of her mother when the mine caves in, the Major and Susie marry and go to New York.

There she meets Aspasia (Agnes Moorhead), the Major's former mistress, who takes Susie in hand and helps her to buy clothes and learn the ways of society. Susie and the Major have children and encounter tragedy and separation. With the Major gone now, Susie reflects on how best to handle this situation by asking herself what the Major would do.

Really lovely film, with fine performances by Moorhead, Pidgeon, and of course, Garson. In the beginning she sports a black wig; I kind of missed, even in black and white, her flaming red hair. Strangely, Gladys Cooper plays Garson's daughter when Mrs. Parkington was 84. Cooper was 16 years older in reality.

In those days, it was more economical for studios to use actresses under contract than borrow someone (though lending actors out was incredibly lucrative). Possibly Cooper was under contract and available.

The film also features Edward Arnold, Dan Duryea, Lee Patrick, Tom Drake, Hugh Marlowe, Hans Conried, with Peter Lawford in a tiny role.

Good movie.

Parkington Family Values

[bkoganbing · 9/10 · 29 September 2009]

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.

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

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 1 November 2013]

"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.

A gem of performances, including a couple of surprises

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 9/10 · 16 February 2011]

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.

the land of could have been

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 12 March 2021]

Tay Garnett's "Mrs. Parkington" looks at the life of a family matriarch, starting from her acquaintanceship with a mine owner whom she eventually marries. Greer Garson's Academy Award-nominated performance is reason enough to watch the movie, as the character changes based on her ambience, studying every situation. It's not a masterpiece - I felt like some of the characters could've been more developed - but you have to appreciate what they put into the production. It's definitely one to see.

You may have noticed that the supporting cast includes Agnes Moorehead (Endora on "Bewitched") and Hans Conried (the voice of Snidely Whiplash on "Rocky & Bullwinkle"). Good times.

Greer Garson Does It Again ****

[edwagreen · 10/10 · 11 February 2012]

With her son-in-law about to go to prison for fraud, the wealthy Parkington family faces financial ruin. Made up as an 84 year old woman, Greer Garson thinks back to her life with her husband, Col. Parkington, a wonderful Walter Pidgeon.

It goes back to her humble beginnings and her meeting with the colonel.

The film proves that money isn't everything as we see the ups and downs of the Parkington marriage, constantly beset by tragedies.

Garson was nominated for best actress here and Agnes Moorehead, with a totally French accent, snared a best supporting actress bid as her rival turned friend.

Gladys Cooper plays Parkington's daughter, a divorcée with a drinking problem. As is the case with the rest of the brood, she is selfish, self-centered and afraid of poverty. Obviously, the Parkington ways did not descend on children and grandchildren.

The picture has an all-star cast. Cecil Kellaway stands out as the Prince of Wales, son of Queen Victoria.

Garson shows her mettle here. She is a stalwart in every sense of the word.

Good But Flawed

[ldeangelis-75708 · 6/10 · 10 February 2023]

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.

tiresome cliched flashbacks through the lens of 40s MGM gloss

[AlsExGal · 4/10 · 28 August 2018]

I actually like Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson in most of their films. I don't feel that the failure of this film lies in their acting, but the blame instead lies with whoever wrote the script and the director. Mrs. Parkington is a widow living in a big mansion and her adult children and grandchildren are visiting her on Christmas Eve, and we soon learn they are all leading disappointing unhappy lives. An author visits and leaves Mrs. Parkington a copy of a book he wrote about her "great American" family. This gives opportunity for the series of flashbacks.

So as a girl, Mrs. Parkington (Susie) meets Augustus Parkington in a Nevada mining town where he owns the mine. Pidgeon as Parkington is trying to do Rhett Butler with an English accent. Susie is doing a cross between Cinderella and Scarlett O'Hara, so she goes between having a Southern accent and an English one as the confused westerners look on.

Later on, the mine explodes, killing Susie's mother, and Parkington asks Susie to marry him. Actually, I think all of that vibration is Irving Thalberg turning over in his grave, appalled at what Louis B. Mayer is turning out as product since his death. But I digress. Marry in haste, repent at leisure, and even in his leisure Augustus Parkington is a petty vindictive man who seems like a sexist even by 19th century standards. He's not the usual adorable socially clueless fellow that graceful Garson's character customarily falls in love with. And the clichés just go on from there.

A tip - Do not play a drinking game with this film where you take a shot every time you hear or see a tired movie cliché or you will be dead in twenty minutes. Watch something else. You have better things to do with your life. I give it four points for the art design, because MGM always did get that right, and also for Agnes Moorehead as Augustus Parkington's French aristocrat (????) mistress. He fires her as mistress after the wedding, then employs Moorehead's character as Henry Higgins to Garson's Eliza Doolittle of the Rockies. A novel way out of a sticky situation for Augustus and the only thing in the film that made me smile.

Disappointing

[hrd1963 · 30 July 2006]

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.

Uneven Acting And Flawed Script Mar This Film

[atlasmb · 6/10 · 4 August 2014]

This B&W film from 1944 stars Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, who were riding a wave of success together at the time. MGM threw all of their best production and talent at this film and it shows on screen. The sets are fantastic, the cinematography is beautiful, the music is lush. But I felt disappointed with the final product.

The story starts during the Christmas holiday in 1938. The members of the Parkington family are assembling in the grand house of their mater familia, Susie (Garson). As they wait for Susie to descend the stair and honor them with her presence, they spread their flawed character traits (and dissatisfaction with the world) around the drawing room.

You may have met a woman like Susie--one whose very existence is a memorial to the memory of her deceased husband, Major Augustus Parkington (Walter Pidgeon). This woman usually refers to her man as "The Major" or "Mister So And So". And inevitably, the man whose life she celebrates even in death was a real bastard, or at least someone very terribly flawed, making her love for him (supposedly) more heroic, more saintly. There is something to that. Gus was a man dedicated to Susie in his own way. And his love for her was not in compliance with society's rules. But he never bowed to the will of society.

Later that night, Jane--the missing granddaughter--drops by to see Susie. She explains that she is leaving for Peru with a young man. This sparks the first of many flashbacks in the film. Back fifty-five years to Leaping Rock, Nevada--a small town built around a silver mine. Susie was only eighteen when she met Gus, owner of the mine.

Up to this point in the film, I was enjoying its exposition. But somewhere after Leaping Rock the action slowed to a plodding pace. And the deficiencies in the script and the acting became apparent. Some of the words that come from the lips of the primary couple are inauthentic--at least as delivered.

There is a scene where Susie confronts Gus upon realizing he has been working to destroy some men who dared to decline a dinner invitation. Here the acting is truly horrible. And it shows how an inauthentic moment can drag down a film.

Maybe it's just me, but I found the incessant use of "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" in the background monotonous and annoying.

Agnes Moorehead is wonderful as the Baroness Aspasia Conti, the woman who bridged the gap between Susie and Gus and helped them stay together. Hans Conreid is enjoyable in a smaller role as Mr. Ernst, the manager of a temperamental tenor.

With all the talent involved, this film should have been better.

Exceptional acting in an otherwise average drama

[jacobs-greenwood · 6/10 · 2 December 2016]

Directed by Tay Garnett, the screenplay for this Louis Bromfield novel was written by Robert Thoeren and Polly James to create a romance which plays out over 65 years, mostly in flashback. The drama itself is average, but some of the acting is exceptional including Greer Garson in the title role and Agnes Moorehead as Aspasia Conti; both performances were Oscar nominated. Although there are several other familiar actors and actresses in supporting roles, the film's story revolves around Major August 'Gus' Parkington (Walter Pidgeon) and the simple boarding house maid, girl, he married.

The Major's a bit of a scoundrel, certainly an independent and a risk taker, the kind of man who helped build this great country, who is somewhat tamed by Susie, whom he dubs his 'Sparrow', as their relationship evolves. Garson, whose character is an 84 year old widow dealing with the problems of her children, their spouses, and her grandchildren when the film opens, is the only actress who appears throughout the story, though Moorehead and Pidgeon play a close second. Edward Arnold, Gladys Cooper, Frances Rafferty, Tom Drake, Dan Duryea, and Lee Patrick (among others) are Parkington family members who appear in the present day (Christmas, 1938) scenes as does Selena Royale, who also appears in some "earlier" scenes as Mrs. Parkington's longtime maid. Cecil Kellaway, Peter Lawford (though he is just window dressing), Tala Birell, Hugh Marlowe and Fortunio Bonanova, as a hired tenor with Hans Conreid as his manager, appear (among others) in discrete flashback scenes.

The present day drama is two fold, granddaughter Jane (Rafferty) wants to marry Ned Talbot (Drake) who knows about her father Amory's (Arnold) embezzlement and pending exposure for such, and serves only to provide Mrs. Parkington with opportunities to privately reminisce about her life with her husband. With the exception of the risk taking Amory, the other Parkington heirs have grown fat and lazy living off of the departed Major's largess - this is epitomized by (the typecast?) Duryea, who plays Arnold's son. Cooper, Patrick and the rest of the family (which also includes Helen Freeman as Arnold's wife and Rod Cameron as Patrick's fourth husband) are given little to do besides feign outrage and fill scenes. Byron Foulger appears (uncredited) as a befuddled genealogist. This part of the story is of little interest, providing only clichés. The love story, a triangle of sorts, provides the film its only compelling moments:

The Major owned a mine in some drink water town, named Leaping Rock, out West (in 1873 or thereabouts). His only concern was how fast he could the silver out of it, so he paid the workers (Harry Cording etc.) double so that they'd work it instead of worry about their safety. Susie did the cleaning in the local boarding house, which her mother (Mary Servoss) owned. She's naturally excited to meet the worldly Major when he comes to town to check on his investment; he is smitten with her beauty. However, she will not give in to his charms and become another of his conquests. When the mine inevitably collapses, Susie's mother is killed because she was filling in for her daughter, taking lunch to the men. The Major leaves her no choice but to accept his proposal and the next thing you know they're married, living and staying in the Royal Hotel in New York. But, what do you know, the Major had been practically engaged to a French Baroness, also living in New York, named Aspasia Conti (Moorehead), before he'd gone out to Leaping Rock. So, the first thing he does upon his return, after apologizing to Aspasia, is ask her to help Susie become presentable to all his friends in New York! The Major's new wife is not initially (ever?) accepted, which in a perverse way leads to a miscarriage of their first child followed by the Major's revenge upon those to whom he assigns blame. Evidently, the Major is so much smarter than all the other men on Wall Street that he's able to cause bankruptcies and suicides among his rivals at will. Marlowe, playing a lawyer, and Alma Kruger (uncredited), as one of the wronged's wives, appear briefly as persons who educates Susie about her husband's dealings.

Susie's and Aspasia's relationship grows as does Susie's with the Major, though she appears to have the upper hand as she's able to wait him out through various disagreements until he breaks down and/or gives in to her (my wife must have seen this movie before we were married). The couple loses another of their children which causes a separation; he goes to England while she cries for a year. Aspasia alludes to the Major's relationship with a certain household hostess he'd hired, which causes Susie to breakout of her funk and travel abroad. There, she meets her "competition" in Birell's character after she'd mistaken Edward (Kellaway), the Prince of Wales, for a gatecrasher. Edward helps Susie to manipulate the situation in her favor once again. Lawford plays a Lord with no lines.

The film's best dialogue, spoken between Garson's and Birell's characters, is a rather catty one. The movie ends by wrapping up the present day situation, or not.

family drama

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 2 July 2023]

It's Christmas 1938. Susie Parkington (Greer Garson) is a rich widow misanthrope. Her relatives have invaded her peace. She hates them all except her great-granddaughter Jane. Jane wants to marry Ned Talbot who wants to take her away from her family. The elder Susie recalls her own younger self as a maid when she meets Major Augustus Parkington (Walter Pidgeon). She doesn't fit his social class and is befriended by Baroness Aspasia Conti (Agnes Moorehead).

It's fine family drama. Both Greer Garson and Agnes Moorehead got Oscar nominations. For me, the most compelling scene is the family gathering to decide on the family fortune. It is somehow very satisfying that these greedy family members are all looking out for themselves. That story is the most compelling.

Garson and Pidgeon work well together again

[raskimono · 8/10 · 24 May 2004]

This alakin movie to the Little Foxes studies a family that is essentially no-good, a bunch of mama's boy's that have never toiled for anything in their lives and are thus extremely ungrateful and selfish. Garson wearing a wig and old Hollywood stars as the matriach of this American dynasty. The plot is jump-started as the family daughter intends to get married but there is a secret which her beau has and intends to tell. This ingot might just kill their chance for marriage and happiness. As it involves financial ruin, it causes an assemblage of the remaining members of this family. Here the flashbacks begin that tells the story of the dead Patriach and the matriarch of this family, how they met at an old dingy coal town, their marriage, pits and falls and always in all these scenes Garson luminence is assured. It is said that the writer of the book so loved this adaptation and told the director Tay garnett so. But one can't avoid the fact, that in my post-TV movie of the week eyes, this movie would have made a good mini-series in the eighties. And it feels it. The ending is a good old smacking of American entreprenial values and greed. I particularly remember a scene where Walter Pidgeon promises to crush everybody who refused to show up for a dinner party. It feels like a scene out Of Kane and Abel, a book that was turned into a well-received mini-series in the eighties. Like I said, that's what it is.

A silver-screen saga of a bygone era

[lasttimeisaw · 7/10 · 22 June 2015]

Tay Garnett's resplendent black-and-white MS. PARKINGTON represents one of eight Garson-Pidgeon star-vehicles, it is a vintage family saga of our titular heroine Susie Parkington (Garson), a rich matron starts with a humble beginning as a chambermaid, when a mine explosion takes her mother's life away, out of guilt and admiration, Major Augustus Tarkington (Pidgeon) marries her and spirits her away to New York, so she can get a luxurious life a woman can ever dream of. She gets some advice to adopt the lifestyle of beau monde from a French aristocrat Baroness Aspasia Conti (Moorehead), who is also Major's confidant. And a new but tumultuous page of life opens and Susie gives her best shot to manage a perfect marriage with a dignitary and grows up to be an exemplar who knows and accomplishes a woman's true worth, heightened by a dramatic presentation of an inopportune situation when most of their dinner guests are in absentia for their fancy reception and bookended by a vignette in London involves Edward, Prince of Wales (Kellaway).

These mentioned above actually are told through flashbacks by Susie, when she is an octogenarian and Augustus has long gone, during a Christmas gathering, she learns that her favourite great granddaughter Jane (Rafferty) decides to elope with a former employee of her father Amory (Arnold), and later finds out Amory is going to prison for fraud if he cannot pay a loan worth $31 million, which is equivalent to the entire inheritance for her offspring.

It is drastically ironic that her progeny are abominable snobs (save Jane), since Susie is an excellent woman in all respects, but still, bad parenting cannot be dodged, through Gladys Cooper's portrait of her daughter Alice, a sheer ne'er-do-well and pain-in-the-neck. Or could it be a telling proof that the second/third-generation rich are really past hopes for integrity and humility?

Since the film bifurcates into two alternate narratives with a time-span of over 60 years, it presents Garson a full-scale chance to act from adolescence to senility, although she is consistently pleasant to watch and impressively dignified in the latter period, her rigid posture can never pass off as a woman in her eighties no matter how much effort exerted from the make-up division. Yet, audience can easily side with her character because of what she represents - a wife with a perfect sense of propriety and a woman with sublime wisdom. As the film's title infers, co-star Pidgeon dutifully retreats to a second tier and downplays Major's volatility and vainglory.

Garson is nominated with an Oscar and so is Ms. Moorehead, probably in her most opulent attire, her Aspasia is even much more laudable in handling the delicate issues of the rivalry among women or in a more literal sentence, how to co-exist with the wife of the man you love without hating each other's guts. Kellaway, Arnold and Birell (who plays Lady Nora Ebbsworth, a good sport in playing hostess) are all fittingly memorable, Garnett, a steady hand in orchestrating a character-driven centerpiece with grandeur and style, and so is Bronislau Kaper's mellow escorting score for a two-hour chronicle in the bygone era.

A saga of the wild west and the messed up family that sprung up out of it.

[mark.waltz · 9/10 · 11 March 2017]

The effervescent Greer Carson continued her Oscar reign with this forgotten epic like spectacle, an example of what happens when the values of one generation struggling to rise do not mean squat to the next generation who take the silver spoon they were fed with for granted. Garson goes from anxious young lady to beloved matriarch, struggling for years to contribute to society with the ambitious Walter Pidgeon, later finding that the ungrateful dynasty they create doesn't share the values she's tried to instill in them. They are neurotic, greedy, entitled, drunkards and even suicidal, and as an aging grandmother, reaches out to the last one she thinks she can influence in creating a life of meaning, not waste. A brilliant all star cast and the MGM gloss helps this become one of the great films of the 1940's and a film I wish in spite of its popularity at the time was more well known.

Like the following year's "The Valley of Decision", this is a family soap opera where each scandal and scheme makes you want to know more about each of these characters. Garson is breathtakingly beautiful, aging from late teens to her 80's, another example that behind every strong and ethical little old lady was once a face of such loveliness that wrinkles seem impossible until the ravages of time take over. Pidgeon has minimal screen time, just part of the ensemble supporting Greer, but as their fourth pairing, it is as important as those and he is vital to how the story builds.

Underneath the titles, two fascinating supporting players deliver characterizations that are thrilling in every little detail. As Pidgeon s former mistress, Agnes Moorehead delivers her most surprising performance, an aging French beauty who knows what she has become and willingly passes the baton to Garson, training her in the nuances of becoming a great lady. She deservedly received an Oscar nomination for this part, and you will remember her long after this film is over. She would do her final acting work in a very similar part, the elegant Aunt Alicia in the original Broadway production of "Gigi".

Then there's Gladys Cooper as Garson's troubled daughter, so filled with self hate and disrespect for the legacy that she needs to be reminded of her parent's struggles so she could be rich and miserable. Married to an amoral count (Edward Arnold), she mocks everybody other than her mother, including herself in her disgust. With her characterization, misery has never come in such a well dressed package.

Everybody else contributes little bits of detail here and there, with Cecil Kellaway, Tom Drake and Lee Patrick among the huge cast of fascinating characters. As this is based upon a novel by Louis Bromfield, I'm surprised that nobody has had the thought of remaking it. In today's world of self centered individuals blaming their problems on the elders in their family without trying to fix their problems besides claiming to have some mental disorder, this feels to be very timely as the world escapes from traditional values and simple beauty that comes from nature and God, not man made pleasures that only briefly remove problems.

Greer Garson's performance is a tour de force!

[Pat-54 · 6/10 · 23 September 1998]

Greer Garson is given the chance to age on screen from a penniless young woman to multi-millionaire dowager in her 80's. The script is rather uneven, but the screen team of Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon is always a winner. Miss Garson received yet another Academy Award nomination (her fifth) for her performance.

Rags to Riches

[thedarkside-79541 · 7/10 · 22 April 2021]

The story of a rich man falling in love with a common woman and bringing her into high society. She quickly takes to her new life. The story takes place as a widow having flashbacks about how her life came to be and the love that she had.

Asparia (Agnes Moorhead) did a fine job as a friend who once was in love with Mr parkington (Walter Pideon), but took it upon herself to help his new wife adjust to her new way of life and eventually became friends.

Eventually, Susie (Greer Garson) must make a dicission on what to do with the family fortune after Amory (Edward Arnold) embazzles $31 million.

In order for you to find out what becomes of everyone and everything you will have to watch the movie.

I much preferred Mrs. Miniver to Mrs. Parkington

[lyricook-1 · 1/10 · 19 July 2015]

In spite of the top notch acting by the entire cast, I think this film should have been relegated to a typical country song of woe with a woman moaning about her chosen life to a sympathetic guitar. It is not because I viewed it from our current perspective; I don't think the attitudes portrayed were necessarily universal even in that era. My own parents, born in 1892 and wed in 1914, were partners in their marriage, as were most of their friends. Even though women took care of the home and children and men were the breadwinners, in all decisions and routines both husbands and wives were equal participants. At least there was a brief hint that women were sexual beings also, or maybe that was Garson's normal sparkle.

Is the story worth telling? - SPOILERS

[reelguy2 · 2 November 2002]

This superficial, ultra-glossy family saga features an outstanding cast, but like so many MGM efforts, that does not a good film make. Garson is unconvincing in her scenes as the aged matriarch, and her usual warmth is missing in one crucial scene: The maid has just told Agnes Moorehead how Mrs. Parkington is still, after a a year, despondent over the death of her son, when we see Garson, pouting like a young girl who's been told to get off the telephone.

Walter Pigeon, however, is quite good in a rare role as a less than perfect gentleman. Overall, solid story telling. But is the story worth telling?