Wonkette Movie Night: Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day

'Not everything comes along just when we want it. There are times when decisions just have to be made, or you certainly will miss out.'

Miss Pettigrew starts this film being fired from her job as a governess in pre-WWII London. A frumpish and dowdy woman, she is tossed out with a small suitcase of her few belongings, which she loses after bumping into a man on the street. It is desperate times for Miss Guinevere Pettigrew: She is penniless, homeless, and hungry. So when the employment agency will no longer help her, she grabs a job that was going to someone else and shows up on the doorstep of an actress, Delysia Lafosse, who needs help getting her young feller out of bed.

Except the young feller is a naked man named Phil and not the child Miss Pettigrew expected to find. That is when Miss Pettigrew discovers that the actress is the childish one in need of governance. A frantic Delysia begs for Guinevere’s help as another one of her suitors is on his way. Nick is a wealthy night club owner. He supports Delysia financially and owns the apartment in which she has been having her dalliances. Miss Pettigrew plays along with Delysia’s lies and becomes her “social secretary.”

Miss Pettigrew is pulled into the spinning high society life of Delysia Lafosse at a fashion show. There she is given a makeover with new clothes, a hair cut and make-up. When the third man in Delysia’s life appears, a piano player named Michael, Miss Pettigrew recognizes him as the man she’d collided with earlier but again helps the actress untangle another romantic mess.

All in one day, Miss Pettigrew finds a reason to smile and color comes into her grey world. At the same time she is helping Delysia find true love, Guinevere is discovering that her own life can be more than just survival, and possibly find love herself.

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day was based on a 1938 novel written by Winifred Watson. It included illustrations by Mary Thomson.

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day stars Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Lee Pace, Ciarán Hinds, Shirley Henderson, Mark Strong, and Clare Clifford. Directed by Bharat Nalluri.

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day is available for $3.99 in the usual places. Sorry about its limited availability.

To make requests and see the movie lists and schedules go to WonkMovie.

The animated short is Walter by Lorenzo Fresta.

Our next Movie Night selection is Napoleon Dynamite. Available with subscription on Max, Disney+ and Hulu. $3.99 in the usual places. For free on the Internet Archive.