on 12/22/2024, 8:00 pm, in reply to "Where Danger Lives re-posts: I, THE JURY (1953)"
Posted by Don MalcolmUser icon on 9/17/2021, 10:34 am, in reply to "Re: Where Danger Lives: I, THE JURY (1953)"
Jake Hinkson wrote a piece about her back in the "old regime" days of the NC e-zine. It's been excerpted from that issue and can be accessed at the FNF site:
http://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/noircitymag/The-Girl-They-Loved-To-Kill.pdf
Jake admitted that he had a "jones" for Peggie, and this was the apex of his "heartfelt" period, which seems to have faded since.
About the only thing he missed was INVASION USA, which he dismisses in less than a sentence: despite its red-baiting subject matter, her part in it was substantial and unusual; her work in it got her noticed and let to her getting her the part in I, THE JURY. And it's possible that Jake hadn't seen THE COUNTERFEIT PLAN at the time he wrote the essay: his assessment on its impact vis-a-vis her career is likely accurate, but it's actually a pretty good film and deserves a little more attention. (My recollection is that I didn't feel like quibbling about it.) However, it--and not FINGER MAN--is really her last big-screen noir.
Peggie had a far more gregarious love life than Gail Russell (four husbands, all from outside show-biz, as opposed to Gail's storybook flameout with Guy Madison) and never suffered from stage fright; but they both wound up taking the same lonely road, the path to oblivion and death via the bottle. Apparently many of the noir beauties we are entranced by find themselves in greater peril from the realities of Hollywood than the dangers they endure (and sometimes create) on the big screen...
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