Patsy scandal

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Movie
German title Patsy scandal
Original title Scandal at Scourie
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1953
length 90 minutes
Rod
Director Jean Negulesco
script Norman Corwin ,
Leonard Spigelgass ,
Karl Tunberg
production Edwin H. Knopf
music Daniele Amfitheatrof
camera Robert H. Planck
cut Ferris Webster
occupation

Scandal um Patsy (Original title: Scandal at Scourie ) is an American drama film directed by Jean Negulesco with Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon from 1953. The screenplay is based on the story Good Boy by Mary McSherry .

action

The Catholic orphan girl Patsy is growing in a home in Canada's Quebec on. After a fire destroyed the orphanage through Patsy's fault, Sister Josephine and Father Reilly travel around the country with the orphaned children in the hope of being able to place them with loving adoptive parents. During a stop in Scourie, Ontario , Patsy meets childless Protestant Victoria McChesney. This is immediately taken by the girl. When she introduces Patsy to her husband Patrick, the mayor of Scourie, he is reluctant to adopt a Catholic child. Since he is running for an important political office in the Ottawa Parliament , he fears negative headlines. After he nevertheless agreed to adopt Patsy, his political opponent, the journalist BG Belney, takes the opportunity to claim that Patrick expects the adoption to benefit his election campaign. As a result, Patrick's political career stumbled and the city's residents boycotted his shop.

When the local school burns down and the fire brigade investigates arson, Patsy is suspected. Due to business and political pressures, Victoria announces that she and her husband have already decided to hand Patsy back over to the church authorities. But to Victoria's surprise, her husband stands up for Patsy and declares that he will withdraw his candidacy. When the McChesneys return home, however, they discover that Patsy has disappeared. The girl had noticed that she had to go back to the home and ran away, deeply sad. While a search team is looking for Patsy in a violent storm, it turns out that it was not her but another student who was responsible for the school fire. When the McChesneys find Patsy and assure her that they will take care of her, they return to Scourie together.

background

With the Patsy scandal , MGM Greer put Garson and Walter Pidgeon together in front of the camera for the eighth and last time. Like their first film together, Blossoms in Dust (1941), the story, which was first published in the US magazine Good Housekeeping , is about orphans and the prejudices against them. The film was shot in Canada from July 14th to mid-August 1952. Director Jean Negulesco was loaned to MGM for the film by 20th Century Fox .

Patsy Scandal premiered in the United States on May 17, 1953 . In contrast to Garson's and Pidgeon's big screen hits, including Mrs. Miniver (1942), Madame Curie (1943) and Diary of a Woman (1944), the Patsy scandal could not convince either the critics or the audience. Although the budget was relatively low at $ 1,148,000 for 1953, the film still made a loss of $ 333,000 to the US box office. In Germany, the film was first shown on TV on May 2, 1995 by ARD .

Reviews

Bosley Crowther, of the New York Times, said that Patsy scandals, such as "other Garson and Pidgeon films that promote idealistic ideas," were too full of "romantic ideals and transfigurations." Garson's "infallible integrity" is both "glorious" and "unreal". Pidgeon's “elegant restraint”, on the other hand, is “as neat as the clothes he wears”. According to Variety, it is "a lovely story". Director Jean Negulesco got "the best out of the script".

According to Craig Butler of the All Movie Guide , the film undoubtedly tries to “touch the heart” so that “some of its emotional moments appear forced and manipulative”. Nevertheless, it is obvious "that the makers were at work with their hearts". Leading actress Greer Garson could “naturally play such a role in sleep” and give her character “lightness and sensitivity”. Walter Pidgeon “handled his part just as well”. "The usual chemistry of the two stars" is also present.

The lexicon of international film simply spoke of a "cautious, maudlin attempt to deal with conflicts between Protestantism and Catholicism". In retrospect, Cinema described the film as "obsolete". For the film critic Leonard Maltin , the Patsy scandal was a “lukewarm Garson and Pidgeon film”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Rob Nixon on tcm.com
  2. ↑ Michael Troyan: A Rose for Mrs. Miniver. The Life of Greer Garson . The University Press of Kentucky, 1999, pp. 247-249.
  3. ↑ “Like other Garson-Pidgeon pictures in which idealistic thoughts have been encouraged, this one is heavily injected with romantic attitudes and pretenses. Miss Garson's infallible rightness is magnificent and unreal; Mr. Pidgeon's gentlemanly caution is as trim as the smoking jacket he wears. " Bosley Crowther : 'Scandal at Scourie' Has Greer Garson Shedding Maternal Warmth Again for MGM . In: The New York Times . June 16, 1953.
  4. ↑ “[I] t's a gentle tale […]. Jean Negulesco's direction gets the best from the script. " See Scandal at Scourie . In Variety , 1953.
  5. ↑ “It's undeniable that it does make efforts to pull at the heartstrings and that some of its emotional moments are strained and manipulative. That said, there's [...] a feeling that the makers did put some of their heart into the proceedings. [...] Garson, of course, could play this kind of role in her sleep, and she brings to the role an ease and tenderness [...]. Walter Pidgeon handles his part equally well, and there is the usual chemistry between the often-paired stars. " Craig Butler, cf. omovie.com
  6. ↑ Patsy scandal. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 14, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ See cinema.de
  8. ↑ "Tepid Garson-Pidgeon entry" Leonard Maltin , see. tcm.com