Apartment for Peggy (1948)

The Age of Commercialism

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Dougdoepke wrote exactly the review I would have written, only better (hence my review title "Ditto"). Please read it for my reactions. I rated the film 10 out of 10, though, due to my own personal interest in gender difference issues. This film highlighted and illustrated some of them exquisitely.Once in a conversation with a female engineer over lunch, I was sharing about my efforts to open cereal boxes, etc., before my husband got to them because he would open the wrong end just tear into the box. She replied, "Oh, it's a 'dick' thing. Even the male engineers lack the patience to read the instructions through before starting to assemble stuff we receive. They always end up with pieces left over that were essential." There's a scene that perfectly plays this out. (I always do the assembling at our house.)Peggy's perfect long-range view of their future together and her need for a shared vision and shared enthusiasm for that vision is perfectly female. Jason's internal pressure to be a better provider right now perfectly illustrates how money pressures too often distract men from the much more substantive essential of their wives' need to experience a well-discussed shared vision they can pursue together and adhere themselves to, no matter what difficulties arise.And the young wives' (Peggy in particular) more sound ways of long-range-view reasoning about how to live and why, contrasted against, well, you watch the film and tell me what YOU think. Whether you are male or female, please don't miss these profound (I thought) aspects of this hidden gem of a film. For me, it was definitely a 10. I even located (inadvertently) Jeanne Crain's granddaughter online and emailed to her my reactions and appreciation.

Behind the misleadingly sappy title lies one of the decade's most positive and humorously enriching films. On the surface, the story is about the post-war housing shortage and the difficulties returning vets had in trying to start a family in old trailers, quonset huts, or whatever lodging could be slapped together. Peggy (Jeanne Crain) is a charmingly spunky newly-wed whose husband (William Holden) is in college on the GI Bill. There she meets stodgy old professor (Edmund Gwenn) and tries to talk her way into making his attic a new home for the couple and their expected baby. The trouble is Gwenn has turned his big old house into a mausoleum in tribute to his dead wife. Now he lives alone, in despair. Having completed his life's work he sees no further point in living and thus looks forward to suicide. In the process, however, he fails to factor in the life-affirming powers of youthful zest, old-age wisdom, and the wonderfully spirited Peggy.What a fine piece of obscure film-making, from scripter-director George Seaton and the cast of three principals, though Crain is a bit much at times. The film must have cost about 50 bucks to make since nearly all the scenes are indoors, but seldom has movie-making money been better spent. Beneath the post-war plot, there's a parable about generational sharing in which each age group brings uniquely enriching benefits to those around them. Thus, Peggy brings hope, joy, and a real home to the others, while husband Holden, though sometimes wayward, brings dedication, hard work, and finally a sense of real values. And as the ivory-tower professor, Gwenn contributes from the wisdom of the ages, but also finds that true philosophical thinking lies not on the dead pages of old books, but can also be found in the unlikeliest of places-- in a launderette full of seemingly empty-headed young wives. That superbly humane scene alone is worth the 90 minutes of watching.A movie like this could have gone off-track in so many places. The material alone might easily have slid into the sort of tear-jerking treatment that would send me running for the off-button. But never do the on-screen results descend to a sappy level. Instead Seaton and Co. maintain a consistently light and intelligent touch throughout, even during the darker passages. In fact, they accomplish one of the most difficult of all challenges inside an industry where cynicism is the norm and sneering is the response to any hint of idealism. To its great credit, the film actually makes us feel that beneath our differences, something like a harmonious human community may exist after all, as the wonderfully metaphorical last scene suggests. I expect a little project like this with its unfortunate title passed quickly into movie oblivion. However, now more than ever, Apartment for Peggy needs rediscovery. For its well-delivered message is truly trans-generational.

A charming domestic comedy leavened a bit with some dark shades, which gives the movie a distinctive edge. It uses the post-WWII GI college boom and simultaneous housing shortage as plot points, which may confuse current viewers a bit. Gwenn plays a college professor who is contemplating suicide because he's being forced into retirement. On a chilly winter afternoon while feeding birds on a park bench, he meets up with chatty young Jeanne Crain, wife of GI student William Holden, who tells Gwenn how desperate they are for housing, especially with a baby on the way. Gwenn agrees to put in a good word for her with college administrator Gene Lockhart, and Lockhart decides to place the couple in Gwenn's attic, which Crain re-makes into a cozy little apartment. Of course, Gwenn is a bit cold about the whole thing at first, but eventually he warms to them, agreeing to teach an informal class for the GI wives who don't want to feel left behind by their husbands, and even giving up the idea of killing himself. There are complications: Crain suffers a miscarriage; Holden decides he doesn't want to wait for a degree and drops out to take a job at a used car dealership; Gwenn tries to talk him into coming back to school, and when he thinks he's failed, he returns to his suicidal ways, but all things are put right in the end. Much of the charm of the film is in its details: Crain is forever making up statistics to argue her side of any point; Gwenn cusses by reeling off the names of the books of the Bible; in the one moment that made me laugh out loud, Gwenn tells a bad joke to his class of housewives and Lockhart gives the camera a wonderful split-second reaction. I loved the use of the beautiful Irish song, "I Dreamt That I Dwelt in Marble Halls" in a couple of scenes.

Wonderful movie set in the post-World War II period. Prof. Henry Barnes (Edmund Gwenn) is a widowed professor living in a large faculty house, and wishing death would end his lonely existence. Peggy is the bride of a WWII veteran, one of many attending college under the GI Bill. Post-war housing is at a premium,, especially for struggling Vets, but someone remembers that Prof. Barnes had an extra room, and sends Peggy to see if she can rent it. The Prof. Barnes' protests are overwhelmed by Peggy's determination to make a real home for her husband, and soon the professor has a family of sorts. Great period piece, with many warm characters. Strong performances by Gwenn and Crain. Also serves as an excellent illustration of "The Greatest Generation" right after they came home and began settling back into society.Another wonderful movie that should have been made into a video and DVD long ago.