Poor Walter Pidgeon, I'd always underrated him. It's my Dad's fault. See Boomer-aged Dad, a sci-fi obsessive who began reliving his childhood theater time in the 80's with the dawn of affordable home video exposed me to only one Walter Pidgeon--Dr. Morbius of Forbidden Planet--who I thought and think was super-cool, but at the same time carried some baggage with him thanks to Dad.
Me: Who is this guy?
Dad: He was someone once, but not so much by this point.
Ouch.
Yesterday I alluded to Pidgeon's best work coming alongside Greer Garson, and I think this is largely true--they're a team that'd be on the tip of my tongue pretty soon after someone says Powell and Loy or Astaire and Rogers and gets the great film tandem ball rolling. But I'd say Walter Pidgeon at his peak is on display tonight at 8 pm when TCM airs Fritz Lang's Man Hunt. No Garson to distract and while Joan Bennett offers her own bit of distraction her face time is limited in this one, this is Walter Pidgeon's film.
TCM picks out almost all of the high spots (1948's Command Decision is missing, but okay), though probably the Pidgeon movies I'm most curious about myself are the first two early in the a.m., years before his MGM hey day, Sweet Kitty Bellairs and The Hot Heiress at Warner Brothers. I must also confess to having never seen Julia Misbehaves and so I am REALLY looking forward to that. Following is the complete TCM schedule of Walter Pidgeon films for Thursday:
Walter Pidgeon TCM Summer Under the Stars, August 19, 2010
- 6:00 am Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930) starring Claudia Dell, Ernest Torrence, Walter Pidgeon
- 7:15 am The Hot Heiress (1931) starring Ben Lyon, Ona Munson, Walter Pidgeon
- 8:45 am The Shopworn Angel (1938) starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Walter Pidgeon
- 10:15 am Flight Command (1940) starring Robert Taylor, Ruth Hussey, Walter Pidgeon
- 12:15 pm Design for Scandal (1941) starring Rosalind Russell, Walter Pidgeon, Edward Arnold
- 1:45 pm Julia Misbehaves (1948) starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford
- 3:30 pm Mrs. Parkington (1944) starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Edward Arnold
- 6:00 pm Executive Suite (1954) starring William Holden, June Allyson, Barbara Stanwyck
- 8:00 pm Man Hunt (1941) starring Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders
- 10:00 pm Madame Curie (1943) starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Henry Travers
- 12:15 am Mrs. Miniver (1942) starring Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright
- 2:45 am Forbidden Planet (1956) starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen
- 4:30 am Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951) starring Walter Pidgeon, Margaret Leighton, Robert Beatty
*All times EST
Walter Pidgeon Vintage Movie Card and Collectible Gallery of Images
If you like the vintage bus passes I recently acquired a huge batch of them and am auctioning them on eBay this week - over 160 individual passes
to be listed in all. Complete Photo ID Guide covering them to come this weekend.
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