Just Peggy
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Just Peggy
| image =
| caption =
| director = J. A. Lipman
| producer = J. A. Lipman
| writer = J. A. Lipman
| based_on =
| narrator =
| starring = Sara Allgood
| music =
| cinematography =
| editing =
| studio = Mia Films
| distributor = Quality Features
| released = {{Film date|1918|08|10|df=yes|ref1={{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15797430 |title=SARA ALLGOOD AT THEATRE ROYAL. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=10 August 1918 |access-date=20 July 2012 |page=15 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}}}
| runtime = 6,500 feet{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63754829 |title=PICTURE SHOWS. |newspaper=The Mail |location=Adelaide |date=7 September 1918 |access-date=20 July 2012 |page=6 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}
| country = Australia
| language = Silent film
English intertitles
| budget =
| gross =
}}
Just Peggy is a 1918 Australian silent film starring Sara Allgood and Gerald Henson, who were married in real life. It is a lost film.Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 81.
Plot
Unable to bear the teasing of his colleagues, hunchbacked musician Peter Wallace leaves for the country. He falls in love with and marries blind girl Helen Raymond, who has a beautiful voice. They have a baby and Helen regains her sight at the north of her child. Once she realises Peter is a hunchback she goes temporarily insane and leaves him, abandoning her daughter at old Matha's with a violin, and taking refuge at a convent. When Helen gets better she leaves the convent and becomes an opera singer.
The daughter is raised as "just Peggy" and grows into a beautiful young woman, and talented musician. She is educated at the expense of Frank Leighton, an impresario. Peter is brought in to conduct and orchestra while Helen is singing; she seems him and faints but when she wakes up the two of them are reunited and try to find Peggy. Peggy winds up performing as a violinist with her old violin; Peter recognises it and she is reunited with her mother and father. Peggy then marries Frank.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57542423 |title="JUST PEGGY.". |newspaper=The Register |location=Adelaide |date=9 September 1918 |access-date=20 July 2012 |page=9 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5588676 |title="JUST PEGGY.". |newspaper=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide |date=9 September 1918 |access-date=20 July 2012 |page=9 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}
Cast
- Sara Allgood as Peggy
- Harry Thomas as Peter Wallace
- Nellie Phillips as Helen Raymond
- Rigby C Tearle as theatrical manager
- Gerald Henson as Frank Leighton
- Lily Rochefort as Martha
- Tralie Nicholson as Madge Norton
- J. A. Lipman as Roland Tweedie
Production
The film was allegedly based on a true story. J. A. Lipman was a theatre producer and actor who wanted to move into filmmaking. He wrote the script as a vehicle for Sara Allgood, then touring Australian theatres in Peg O' My Heart.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5587278 |title=AMUSEMENTS|newspaper=The Advertiser|location=Adelaide |date=4 September 1918 |access-date=20 July 2012 |page=8 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}
Lipman built a small outdoor studio in Seaforth, Sydney, and shot the film there and on location at Palm Beach and Manly in early 1918.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263631215 |title=Production of Moving Pictures – In America and Australia. |newspaper=Australian Town and Country Journal |volume=XCVIII |issue=2555 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=18 December 1918 |access-date=21 November 2023 |page=21 |via=National Library of Australia}} "Mia" in Mia Films was short for "made in Australia". Allgood was paid £100 a week for the six-week shoot.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128376848 |title=It All Began With a Feature Movie on the Kelly Gang. |newspaper=The News |location=Adelaide |date=16 November 1946 |access-date=20 February 2014 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} Harry Thomas was a leading Sydney elocutionist.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article80716695 |title=Advertising. |newspaper=Singleton Argus |location=NSW |date=15 October 1918 |access-date=20 July 2012 |page=3 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}
Reception
The film was very popular on release and made a solid profit. One reviewer called it a "quality picture".[http://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/movwor37chal_1198 "Australian Notes", Moving Picture World 6 Jul 1918 – 31 Aug 1918 p 1128]
Another thought the star was "not suited to the story, and in spite of an interesting personality, cannot be said to be the success in pictures that she was on the stage. The story lead is an average one and the director, J. A. Lipman, must be credited with considerable skill in handling it so well."[https://archive.org/stream/moviwor3738chal#page/n1073/mode/2up Thomas S. Imrie, The Moving Picture World19 October 1918 p 429]
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|0009245}}
- [http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=no;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=just%20peggy;querytype=;rec=3;resCount=10 Just Peggy] at National Film and Sound Archive
Category:Silent Australian drama films
Category:Australian black-and-white films
Category:Australian silent feature films
Category:Lost Australian drama films
Category:1910s English-language films