Peg of Old Drury

Peg of Old Drury
Anna Neagle and Jack Hawkins
Directed byHerbert Wilcox
Screenplay byMiles Malleson
Based on
Masks and Faces
by Charles Reade and Tom Taylor
Produced byHerbert Wilcox
StarringAnna Neagle
Cedric Hardwicke
Margaretta Scott
CinematographyFreddie Young
Edited byMerrill G. White
Production
company
Herbert Wilcox Productions for British & Dominions Film Corporation
Distributed byUnited Artists Corporation
Release date
  • 28 August 1935 (1935-08-28) (London)
Running time
75 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Peg of Old Drury is a 1935 British historical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Cedric Hardwicke and Margaretta Scott.[1][2] It was written by Miles Malleson based on the play Masks and Faces by Charles Reade and Tom Taylor. The film is a biopic of 18th century Irish actress Peg Woffington and contains passages of 18th century Shakespearian performance, from The Merchant of Venice, Richard III and As You Like It.[3]

Plot

The film is a very affectionate look at the life of Peg Woffington, and her relationship with David Garrick. It is a lavish costume drama and recreates a Hogarth-type atmosphere of contemporary London in the mid 18th century. It is laced with snippets of legendary history such as Lord Sandwich's invention of the sandwich. Peg is generally more popular with the men than with the women, particularly her fellow female actors. The film has it that Peg dies off stage at the end of the film.

Cast

Critical reception

The film was voted the third best British movie of 1936.[4] Wilcox said the film "was enormously successful both here and in the States, artistically as well as at the box office."[5]

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A somewhat trite and naturally rather patchy account ... The film as a whole suffers chiefly from the fact that it never seems really to get anywhere, or to say anything of vital importance."[6]

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."[7]

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."[8]

Graham Greene, writing for The Spectator, gave a 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".[9]

References

  1. ↑ "Peg of Old Drury". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  2. ↑ "Peg of Old Drury". BFI. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008.
  3. ↑ "Peg of Old Drury". British Universities Film & Video Council. Archived from the original on 1 February 2015.
  4. ↑ "Best Film Performance Last Year". The Examiner (Late News Edition and Daily ed.). Launceston, Tasmania. 9 July 1937. p. 8. Retrieved 4 March 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ Wilcox, Herbert (1967). Twenty Five Thousand Sunsets. South Brunswick. p. 104. ISBN 978-0370004242.
  6. ↑ "Peg of Old Drury". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 2 (13): 128. 1 January 1935. ProQuest 1305797492.
  7. ↑ "Movie Review – Peg of Old Drury – At the Bijou – NYTimes.com". nytimes.com.
  8. ↑ "Peg Of Old Drury". TVGuide.com. Archived from the original on 1 February 2015.
  9. ↑ Greene, Graham (13 September 1935). "On Wings of Song/Peg of Old Drury/Break of Hearts". The Spectator. (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. p. 20. ISBN 0192812866.)
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