Watch Apartment for Peggy For Free

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

What a beautiful, little-known piece this is. It deserves several viewings to appreciate all the nuances. Pay close attention to all that fast dialogue at the beginning, because the light banter turns to deep philosophical musing soon enough.What is there left to live for if you are far into retirement and your most beloved family members have predeceased you? How important are friendships in this case, inter-generational or otherwise? Is education a pointless luxury if you're down-and-out, expectant parents struggling even to get a roof over your heads?One key scene, for me, was the one in which the adopted Grandpa and Dad-to-be struggle to assemble some IKEA-type baby furniture together. Here we have the older generation, that had known pre-mass consumerism, when you sent off to the local craftsman for bespoke pieces. The prefab furniture here seems to symbolize the ever-widening cracks in the small, tight-knit communities that once existed. The younger generation is just as confused as the elder, trying to follow the cookie-cutter guide and match dowel RB to hole LT with screw B1. It's a touching tableau depicting young and old struggling to help each other make sense of a confusing, new reality.

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.

(Filmed in 1948) Just imagine: You're a young newly-wed woman named Peggy, married to a veteran named Jason, he's just recently returned from the Navy after World War II. He has gone through some very rough experiences. He's going to the University and housing there is greatly in demand. This scenario happened to many vets who tried to get back into civilian life after up to 4 years of war (1941 to 1945).What's a wife to do? Especially when she's pregnant with their first child and the trailer they are now occupying will soon be reoccupied by the former tenants who are away having their own baby.In Peggy's case she is lucky enough to meet retired Professor Henry Barnes in a campus park. His desire is to be left alone as he feeds the birds, contemplates his loneliness, uselessness and desires to commit suicide. Her desire is to talk, tell him her troubles and see if he can help or knows anyone who can...and use lots of not so reliable statistics.Professor Barnes makes the mistake of mentioning the name of a friend, a fellow professor who had been in charge of campus housing at one time. He's hoping to distract Peggy and send her on her way. Which works, sort of.Imagine the Professor's surprise when Peggy shows up on his doorstep wanting to see his attic because she has been told it was used as housing for single men on campus at one time? This is just his good friend's way of getting even for being put on the spot like that. And he, also, realizes that his friend, Henry, is lonely and needs some distraction.It takes awhile but she talks herself past him and up the stairs. Then with more fast talking, warm smiles and lots of interest in 'Pops' (as Peggy has decided to call him), she wins him over. She and Jason get the attic.After Peggy and Jason move in Henry begins to feel more useful. He has family. But he...no, I won't tell you what he's up to...get the movie!Peggy involves 'Pops' and his band of retired cohorts in many projects where they use their educational training with others in mind. She is a fountain of thoughts and suggestions. They are willing vessels.Then a series of situations happen that turn all their lives around. Get it, see it, enjoy it!The cast alone makes it worthwhile. It stars Jeanne Crain as Peggy; William Holden as Jason; Edmund Gwen as Professer Henry (Pops) Barnes with the lovable Gene Lockhart (Cratchett in the original "Christmas Carol"), Griff Barnett and a cast of several young and old.

This movie gives a heartwarming story about a young couple who move into an attic of an old man who is contemplating killing himself. The funny thing is that this situation would seem in any other movie to be very melodramatic but it is handled with the utmost care in this movie. Edmund Gwenn is so good in the movie. He was Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street. Jeanne Crain was very refreshing as the wife.