Peggy Wynne Movies

Meredith Wilson's hit 1957 Broadway musical was transferred to the screen in larger-than-life fashion in 1962. Robert Preston repeats his legendary stage performance as fast-talking con man Harold Hill, who goes from town to town selling citizens on starting a "boy's band," then extracts money from them by ordering instruments and uniforms, with the promise that he'll teach the kids how to be musicians. Once he's collected his bankroll, Hill skips town, leaving the kids in the lurch. Looking for new suckers in Iowa, Hill arrives in River City, where he declares that the only way to save the youth of River City from the lure of the poolroom is to organize a boy's band. He charms the mayor's wife Eulalie (Hermione Gingold) into forming a "ladies' dance committee" and sets his sights on winning over local music teacher Marian Paroo (Shirley Jones). Marian rightly considers Hill a fraud, especially when he espouses the "Think System" of learning music: if you think a tune, he claims, you can play it. But Marian becomes Hill's staunchest ally when her young brother Winthrop (Ronny Howard), sullen and withdrawn since the death of his father, exuberantly comes out of his shell at the prospect of joining Hill's band; and Marian's budding romance with the charming but unreliable Hill ultimately brings her out of her own shell as well. Marion Hargrove's script uses most of the original play, with a handful of amusing expansions, especially in the roles played by Gingold and by Buddy Hackett as Hill's comic sidekick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The sexual dysfunction of a married couple provides the basis of this thought-provoking drama that was originally released in 1950 and was then re-released 11 years later with a prologue tacked on. In the prologue, the couple begin attending a group therapy session helmed by a prominent doctor. Neither the husband and wife are able to enjoy sex. The doctor then tells them a story and this story is the original 1950 film of a sexually repressed and unresponsive bride who ends up trying to kill herself. Fortunately, a psychiatrist helps her to see that her overbearing mother is the cause of her difficulty. This story inspires the first couple to keep working on their problem. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A rapidly maturing Gloria Jean is the star of the Columbia musical Manhattan Angel. She's cast at Madison Avenue copywriter Gloria Cole, at present striving to save a youth center for underprivileged children from being demolished to make way for a factory. Complications arise when Everett H. Burton (Thurston Hall), the elderly and irascible tycoon responsible for the factory project, develops a crush on our heroine. Ross Ford, later steadily employed as a TV and movie character actor, is the film's nominal leading man. Among the songs heard in Manhattan Angel is "I'll Take Romance," one of a handful of hit tunes owned outright by Columbia and thus royalty-free for "B"-movie redeployment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Desperadoes of Dodge City is set guess where, and stars the muscular Allan "Rocky" Lane. When a group of homesteaders are plagued by a series of bloody outlaw raids, Lane tries to help out with the assistance of the U.S. Cavalry. Unfortunately, Lane's military orders are stolen by the villain, leaving Our Hero with no proof as to his identity or mission. He spends the next four reels tracking down the bad guys, retrieving the valuable documents, and clearing his name. Billed second in Desperadoes of Dodge City is Lane's "wonder horse" Blackjack, thereby relegating leading lady Mildred Coles to fourth place in the cast list, just under comic sidekick Eddy Waller. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Albert Dekker plays a crooked investment agent who embezzles a large sum from an estate, hoping to cover his crime by marrying the estate's heiress (Catherine Craig). The girl is already engaged, so Dekker arranges to have the fiance killed. The hit man's only means of identifying the victim-to-be is his picture in the society columns. But the girl changes her mind and agrees to marry Dekker--meaning that it is his picture that will appear in the columns, thereby condemning him to death. Desperately trying to contact the hit man, Dekker discovers that the man is dead...but the assassin's successor is still at large. A cheap but tidy "hoist on his own petard" melodrama, The Pretender was produced and directed by W. Lee Wilder, brother of the more famous (and frankly more talented) Billy Wilder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a bookish kid sister reads a psychology book and comes to believe that, according to the book, she is finally "grown up." To demonstrate her new maturity she begins chasing her big sister's fiance. She then winds up locked in her room during a party held in the fiance's honor. She manages to escape and begins impersonating a maid. She soon meets a handsome burglar who mistakenly believes that she is a moll. They end up attempting to burgle the fiance's home. Mayhem ensues until the young girl finally manages to steal the fiance's heart for herself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide