Just Peggy

Just Peggy is a 1918 Australian silent film starring Irish actor Sara Allgood. It is a lost film.[3]

Just Peggy
Directed byJ. A. Lipman
Produced byJ. A. Lipman
Written byJ. A. Lipman
StarringSara Allgood
Production
company
Mia Films
Distributed byQuality Features
Release date
10 August 1918[1]
Running time
6,500 feet[2]
CountryAustralia
LanguageSilent film
English intertitles

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.[4][5]

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
  • Fred Ward
  • Percy Walshe
  • Vincent White
  • Aileen Campbell
  • Monica Dick
  • Mona Scully
  • Marjorie Henry
  • Roma Highes
  • TM Lloyd
  • T Moran

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.[6] 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. "Mia" in Mia Films was short for "made in Australia".[3] Allgood was paid £100 a week for the six-week shoot.[7]

Harry Thomas was a leading Sydney elocutionist.[8]

Reception

The film was very popular on release and made a solid profit.[3] One reviewer called it a "quality picture".[9]

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."[10]

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References
  1. "SARA ALLGOOD AT THEATRE ROYAL". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 10 August 1918. p. 15. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  2. "PICTURE SHOWS". The Mail. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 7 September 1918. p. 6. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  3. Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 81.
  4. ""JUST PEGGY."". The Register. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 9 September 1918. p. 9. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  5. ""JUST PEGGY."". The Advertiser. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 9 September 1918. p. 9. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  6. "AMUSEMENTS". The Advertiser. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 4 September 1918. p. 8. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  7. "It All Began With a Feature Movie On The Kelly Gang". The News. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 16 November 1946. p. 2. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  8. "Advertising". Singleton Argus. NSW: National Library of Australia. 15 October 1918. p. 3. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  9. "Australian Notes", Moving Picture World 6 Jul 1918 - 31 Aug 1918 p 1128
  10. Thomas S. Imrie, The Moving Picture World19 October 1918 p 429
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