Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day
Originally published at Ms. Amused. You can comment here or there.
Wow what a delightful little movie!
Stars Frances McDormand as a governess in London who is very down on her luck and gets fired from the last job that would have her, in 30s/40s wartime.
On the streets with nary a pence nor any worldly possessions, she manages to manuever herself into a position as a social secretary to a starlet in the making, played by Amy Adams (of last year’s Enchanted).
I’d just gotten done watching Nanny McPhee when I put this in. I love Nanny McPhee and especially Emma Thompson’s acting in it so it was an interesting segue into Frances McDormand playing a woman who finds herself acting as a “nanny” to a “mess” of a girl whose morals are in the toliet but is so endearing that “Miss Pettigrew” finds herself staying on to see what happens next.
It’s a very charming, fun movie that I highly recommend. It’s one of those “you’ve never heard of it because it wasn’t mass marketed as a blockbuster romcom.
And it turns out, it’s originally a book written by a Winnifred Watson who was a wife and mother and wrote the story in her head while washing dishes. And the book talks about a girl who jumps in and out of her suitor’s beds and apparently handles cocaine as if it were a piece of candy. Not a book you’d expect from a housewife in the 40s.
But she was a wily one and managed to get it published by writing another book that was more like her “love in the country” tamer ones she’d written before as part of a 2fer deal with the publisher. And it took off proving her right and the publisher who thought it too risque, wrong.
What gets me laughing and shaking my head with admiration for Winny, is the producer in the extra telling the story of the long path of getting it actually made into a movie. “We’re just about to sign the contracts and the lawyers are doing their due diligence, call up from CA and say You don’t own the rights to this movie”. Turns out Winny had sold the rights to a studio way back in the day, and again in 1954, to Universal. Who owns Focus Films through which they were contracting to make this film now. So in essence, wily winny sold the movie rights 3 times to the same studio!
You must go watch the movie and be sure to watch the extra “Miss Pettigrew’s Long Trip To Hollywood” to see Winny’s son talking about her and the photos of her in her 90s with a wicked grin on her face and brandishing a cigarette with no apologies or regrets.
I only regret that there’s not more movie to watch. But there’s the book… I shall be reading that!
If you need yet another reason to watch this movie, how about this? Are you one of those frustrated by the fact that Hollywood seems to have very few good stories about women older than 22? It’s easy to see why Frances McDormand attached herself to the story before there was a screenplay!
Also of note besides the lovely Frances and Amy are Lee Pace whose face kept bothering me cause I knew it but had no idea what the name was. IMDB revealed that he’s the star of Pushing Daisies ahhh. He makes a very nice turn in this movie. But more and more I keep seeing this other bloke in the films and despite his older age, I find myself crushing on him: Ciarán Hinds. I keep thinking that it’s Chris Cooper because they have the same kind of “older gentleman/authorative figure” persona. Clearly there’s another Sam Jackson/Lawrence Fishburne interchangeable actor pair now but Ciarán brings a little extra something that makes me sit up and take notice!
Ah I see he’s in Margot at the Wedding which I’ve been meaning to watch. Guess what I’m doing now?
EDIT: Forgot to mention that I’ve been enjoying older movies lately. Finally saw Singin’ In The Rain for the first time ever. This movie reminded me of the old style of story telling in the movies from the 40s. Originally, if it’d been made in the 40s when Winny first sold the rights, it would have been a musical like a lot of the other movies were. This one isn’t though Amy has at least one singing number but that’s what her character does, sings in a club.
The point and I do have one sometimes, is that if you like or love those older movies, it’s yet another reason to watch this one.