Full Length Play, Comedy
7m, 4f
Charles Boyer gave his most masterful performance in this story of a fantastically great art dealer in the 1930's. As Lord Pengo he gulled many an uncultured millionaire, but at the same time he performed an inestimable service in bringing to America some of the greatest art treasures of all time, and even in getting one client to establish a national gallery in Washington. "No matter what you pay for a priceless picture." he would say; "you are getting it cheap." The multi-millionaires, dime-store heirs, and nouveaux riches of America stream through his collection of Rembrandts, Van Dycks, and Giorgiones, betraying in the face of art the facts of their heart, such as when the industrial monopolist, who fancies himself a modern-day Renaissance patron of the arts, slyly slips onto the throne of Lorenzo the Magnificent. To achieve such eminence, however, Lord Pengo has had to make art his principal passion, even at the expense of his family. For this his son roundly berates him. At the last curtain. Lord Pengo is near death, and both his secretary and the audience, near tears.