Mrs Parkington (1944)

Synopsis: One of the weakest of the eight films in which Walter Pidgeon supported Greer Garson, this drama gained the actress an Oscar nomination more deserved by the make-up department. She starts the picture as an octagenarian widow and matriarch who suffers from flashback disease, thereby revealing her early life as the brash mining-town girl who married Pidgeon's millionaire and became a society figure.

Garson learned card tricks for the film, but the lumbering script deprives director Tay Garnett of a winning hand. In the original American version, Edward, Prince of Wales (played by Cecil Kellaway) is entranced by Garson, but British audiences were given Hugo Haas as a Balkan monarch to avoid offending Buckingham Palace.

Cast: Lesley Roach, Gary Smith, Anthony Shepherd.
Runtime: 124 min