Peg del mio cuore

Peg O' My Heart is really charming,due mainly to the wonderful Marion Davies. She also sings and dances in a few numbers quite delightfully! I saw this on the Turner Classic Movies cable station. A real boon to classic movie lovers!

Peg o' My Heart (1933)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Based on the J. Hartley Manners play, this film becomes a showcase for star Marion Davies who gives it her all as the spunky Irish girl who moves to England so that she can collect a large inheritance. First she has to become a lady but what she doesn't know is that in order to collect the money she can't see her father (J. Farrell MacDonald) again. This story was previously filmed twice in the silent era but looking at the story one couldn't help but think it would be nice material for the star. The film on the whole looks and smells good but once you bite into it you'll realize that there's really not as much here as you'd think. That's not to say the film isn't worth watching but I'm going to go out on a limb and say only Davies fans will really want to spend their precious time with it. Davies manages to be quite good here, although I don't think anyone could defend her Irish accent, which is all over the place. At times she seems to slip in and out of it so much you can't help but get a little smile on your face. Outside of that Davies is good in the film and gives it her all and this includes some very funny facial gestures including some funny eye winks. The supporting cast is a bit of a letdown with Onslow Stevens looking completely bored throughout and Juliette Compton coming off too stiff. MacDonald has some good moments but he isn't in the film too much. The film isn't ever as funny as one might hope as the fish out of water routine never really gets pushed to its limits, which I think is the fault of the (uncredited) director.

Marion Davies was given quite the acting challenge by MGM and her paramour William Randolph Hearst. In doing Peg O' My Heart she was taking on a role that was made immortal on stage and in a silent screen version by Laurette Taylor. But Marion was more than up to the challenge.

In fact the film was the best of possible worlds for Davies. She could be the sweet heroine that Mr. Hearst always saw her as. But the part called for some singing and Irish dancing and Marion's great talents for mimicry. She's got the brogue down perfect, she really does sound like J. Farrell MacDonald's daughter and he came by his brogue naturally.

The play was written for Laurette Taylor by her husband J. Hartley Manners and became Taylor's signature part. Davies did make it her own. The play was considerably expanded from the stage version which only takes place in the drawing room of the Chichester home in Great Britain.

Young Peg O'Connell was the daughter of MacDonald and an English mother who left them because she couldn't stand the life in the fishing village in the west of Ireland. What's great for some is bad for others, the village looks and feels a whole lot like Innisfree where John Wayne couldn't wait to move to in The Quiet Man.

But mom's died and she's left a will that says the Chichester family will be paid an installment to educate young Peg in proper English ways and then Peg's to receive a big inheritance. Looks like mom made out quite fine after she left J. Farrell MacDonald. Anyway she's also to cut off contact from her father completely.

The usual English and Irish stereotypes circa 1912 when Peg O' My Heart opened on Broadway for a 603 performance run abound in the film version. Peg's presence however changes quite a few things in the lives of the Chichesters before she makes up her mind what her destiny is.

Marion is just fine in the part, I certainly would like to know what Laurette Taylor might have thought of her performance.

I have never seen this movie before but I have heard of Marion Davies. I decided to give it a watch and I must admit I enjoyed it. I liked the lively Irish singing and dancing. To me the movie really highlighted the differences between the earthy Irish and the snotty English. I thought Marion Davies was pleasant surprise as Peg O'Connell although I did feel see was a wee bit old for the part (36). Michael the dog was pretty cool and J. Farrell McDonald was heartwarming as the old fisherman father. I also enjoyed how the English came across as cold- blooded and hypocritical. Obviously the film studio was relying heavily upon Hollywood stereotypes that would appeal to the Irish-American urban audience that this film was intended for in the first place.

Marion Davies is wonderful in her best film. She sings ("Sweetheart Darlin'") and dances and is perfect as the Irish country lass who inherits a fortune. She is sent to live with English relatives who take her money and treat her badly. Of course Peg doesn't know they are being paid to "educate" her.

Few star actresses of her day would have played the plain Irish girl who becomes a beautiful woman. A great stage hit for Laurette Taylor (who also starred in a silent version in 1922), the play was already dated when Davies made this film in 1933, but Davies was one of the best comics in Hollywood and creates a funny, charming heroine in Peg. And as in her work in the earlier MARIANNE, Davies proves she was one of the best with accents.

Hearst had pushed for Davies to win an Oscar nomination for this MGM film (there were only three nominee that year), and I think she was worthy. Always underrated and overlooked, Marion Davies was a total delight in every comedy film I've ever seen her in, and this is her best.

Also good is J. Farrell MacDonald as her doting father. Onslow Stevens is surprisingly good here as Gerald and is quite charming. Juliette Compton (as the mean Ethel), Robert Greig, Irene Browne, Alan Mowbray, Tyrrell Davis, Nora Cecil, and Doris Lloyd are all fine too. Michael the dog is fun.

Old fashioned? Sure. But charming and funny and a wonderful film all-round.