Purely Joyful Movie!

One of my all time favorites.

not horrible nor great

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I'll be honest... my Fall Sundays are spent watching football. So when our hometown NFL team, the only game allowed to be televised at that time, began to stink more than our cat's litter box left for a couple of weeks, I flipped over to TCM. This movie was starting so I figured I would watch it. I did not expect much, but after a few minutes I was pleasantly surprised! The movie is based on a serious problem faced by so many of our soldiers and their families after WWII. This movie looks at the serious problems of family housing at universities across the country who were all too eager to collect the GI Bill money from them. Jeanne Crain plays the part of an enthusiastic wife of a student wonderfully. She is so amusing, yet serious when needed. William Holden is great as the ex-GI, student, and Father-to-be, struggling to give his family a great future while trying to survive the present. Edmund Gwenn has another great performance. I'm so glad my NFL game was a bust, or I would have missed this great movie.

An Apartment for Peggy is a surprise for anyone who comes across it---and that seems to be the only way it is re-discovered again and again. Jean Crain is a marvel and so is Edmund Gwenn and the two have many wonderful scenes together. Crain's snappy, slang-laden talk with Gwenn's resigned philosophic thoughtfulness is delightful. When they realize other post- war wives putting their husbands through college fervently desire education themselves, Peggy and the Professor organize a lecture series at the only available location---a pool hall. The way the scene unfolds, with the Professor leading the discussion of philosophy, and then the women taking over with a spirited debate of ideas is one of the best and sadly a singular occasion that shows women in this kind of intellectual exchange. It is what the recent movie Mona Lisa hoped for but failed to bring to life. And the other plot lines---research in chemistry at Harvard, with William Holden, a former chemistry-major in his first role; the difficulties of miscarriage and medicine (folic acid); and the strong bond of 'family' that developed due to unusual configurations of folks thrown together by the housing shortage; the struggles of loneliness and suicide, all are dealt with in a fresh and fascinating way. This film is one that is great to see again and find new things to appreciate and we can only hope it will be transferred to DVD someday very soon.

JEANNE CRAIN was at the height of her appeal as a demure charmer at Fox, just beginning to be more than a pretty face as far as her acting career was concerned. And here she had two splendid co-stars: WILLIAM HOLDEN as her ex-G.I. hubby and EDMUND GWENN as a little retired professor who has some housing space in his attic. When Crain finds out about the available space (during the big housing shortage at the time), she convinces Gwenn to rent the apartment to the young married couple.From there, the plot takes a few steps beyond that bare outline, always throwing a positive outlook at women who want to better themselves with an education as well as the G.I.s entitled to do so under the G.I. bill.Gene Lockhart, Griff Barnett and Betty Lynn fill the supporting roles amiably and it's probably Jeanne Crain's best film of that period, following her enormous success as MARGIE two years previously.

Jeanne Crain is a breathlessly talkative expectant mother who lives with her husband, a former soldier, in a trailer; she chances to meet retired professor Edmund Gwenn, who feels his mundane, monotone existence means retreating from this world, but he goes along with her plan to let the couple temporarily move into his attic. The perfect example of what they used to call 'whimsical comedy'; despite a clumsy start, it still seems heartfelt today, perhaps even meaningful. Gwenn conveys the most complex emotions simply by wordless expression, and Crain's exuberance grows on you (she's better though in her quieter moments). With these two front and center, William Holden ends up playing third wheel, but his solid, masculinely amiable presence is a nice counterpoint to kooky Crain and he also has some fine scenes alone with Gwenn. The gentlemen in Gwenn's musical troupe are all wonderful, and the writing and direction, while primed for audience approval, genuinely work wonders with what might've been a stale set-up. This tear-jerker is a true gem. ***1/2 from ****