Peg of Old Drury
3.6 /10 1 Votes
Director Herbert Wilcox Cinematography Freddie Young Duration Language English | 3.4/10 IMDb Genre Drama, History, Romance Story by Charles Reade, Tom Taylor Country United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Release date 28 August 1935 (London) (UK) Based on the play Masks and Faces by Charles Reade and Tom Taylor Writer Miles Malleson, Charles Reade (play), Tom Taylor (play) Cast Anna Neagle , Cedric Hardwicke , Jack Hawkins , Robert Atkins , Leslie French Related Herbert Wilcox movies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Peg of Old Drury is a 1935 British historical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Cedric Hardwicke and Margaretta Scott. The film is a biopic of eighteenth-century Irish actress Peg Woffington. It was based on the play Masks and Faces by Charles Reade and Tom Taylor. It contains passages of eighteenth century Shakespearian performance, from The Merchant of Venice, Richard III and As You Like It.
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The film was voted the third best British movie of 1936. Wilcox said the film "was enormously successful both here and in the States, artistically as well as at the box office."
Cast
Critical reception
The New York Times wrote, "with superb acting, photography that is effective and unusual, yet not bizarre, and direction that is gentleness and good taste itself, Peg of Old Drury is one of the finest cinema production ever to come out of England, or of anywhere else, for that matter"; while TV Guide wrote, "Neagle and Hardwicke give impressive performances, and the excerpts from Shakespeare and Jonson are flawlessly mounted. Much of the film's power derives from the screenplay by actor Malleson in his first screenwriting assignment." Graham Greene, writing for The Spectator, gave a more mixed review suggesting that there is "no historical truth to be found anywhere in the deft, neat tale". Greene remarked on the attractiveness of Neagle and found that the film was "very pretty", but concluded that "prettiness is a quality one wants, if at all, in small quantities".
References
Peg of Old Drury WikipediaPeg of Old Drury IMDb Peg of Old Drury themoviedb.org