Peggie Castle Movies

Ernie Driscoll (John Payne) is an ex-fighter who came within seconds of winning the world championship. He's now forced to eke out a living driving a cab. A basically decent guy, he has lots of people who care about him, including Linda James (Evelyn Keyes), a slightly ditsy actress friend -- but Ernie also has a short fuse, especially where his wife Pauline (Peggie Castle) is concerned. His rage boils over when he spots her kissing another man, but her unfaithfulness turns out to be the least of his worries. The man she's seeing, Vic Rawlins (Brad Dexter), is a career criminal with both the police and his former partners after him, and he sees Ernie as the perfect fall-guy. The law and Rawlins' criminal associates are soon closing in on Ernie, while he tries desperately -- with Linda's help -- to buy the time he needs to unravel this nightmare. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In this routine possession potboiler, Peggie Castle plays a suburban housewife being slowly driven mad by the intrusive, restless spirit of her husband's first wife, whose soul has been tainted by her participation in a Satanic cult headed by high priest Father Renall (Otto Reichow). The woman's husband (Arthur Franz) and his sister (Marsha Hunt) decide to infiltrate the cult in order to put an end to its murderous practices, but it is only through the intervention of a former cultist (Marianne Stewart) that they are able to overthrow the evil master's reign of terror once and for all. The tepid screenplay by Catherine Turney is an adaptaion of her novel The Other One. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

The Buccaneer's Girl of the title, played by Yvonne de Carlo, is Deborah McCoy, an entertainer who's been around a bit. While visiting New Orleans, Deborah falls in love with aristocratic Frederick Baptiste (Philip Friend), who turns out to be a pirate. Baptiste is basically a decent fellow: his piracy is aimed exclusively at the crooked shipowner who destroyed his father. Deborah is a bit more mercenary, hoping to marry into wealth by posing as a high-born lady. By the seventh reel, however, she's perfectly content to settle down with the raffish Baptiste. Though played tongue-in-cheek, Buccaneer's Girl never resorts to "camp": it invites the audience to laugh with the film, rather than at it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A "big" western by Allied Artists standards, Cow Country is directed with his usual panache by horse-opera expert Lesley Selander. Adapted from a novel by Curtis Bishop, the film stars Edmond O'Brien as Ben Anthony, an adventurer-for-hire who casts his lot with Texas cattleman Walt Garnet (Robert H. Barrat). The villains want to drive Anthony and his fellow ranchers off their land, but Ben's six-guns prevent this, at least temporarily. Meanwhile, Linda Garnet (Helen Westcott), Walt's daughter and the fiancee of the film's chief bad guy Harry Odell (Bob Lowery), aligns herself with Ben when Odell proves to be spectacularly unfaithful with saloon chirp Melba Sykes (Peggie Castle). Barton MacLane rounds out the cast in one of his standard loud, abrasive roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Joan Davis' cinematic swan song was the slapstick farce Harem Girl. Davis plays Susie Perkins, the secretary-travelling companion of Arabian Nights princess Shareen (Peggie Castle). Evil sheik Jamal (Donald Randolph) hopes to murder Shareem and claim her oil-rich country, but Susie does her best to foil this scheme. The plot requires Susie to pose as a jeweled and veiled harem dancer, leading to a series of athletic comedy routines, most of them better suited to a 2-reel comedy than a 7-reel feature. Director Edward Bernds, a recent graduate of Columbia's Three Stooges shorts, co-scripted Harem Girl with another Stooge veteran, Ellwood Ullman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title tells all--or at least most--in I Was a Shoplifter. The title character, played by Mona Freeman, is Faye Burton, a well-off socialite suffering from kleptomania. Faye falls into the hands of a professional shoplifting ring headed by Herb Claxton (Charles Drake) and Ina Perdue (Andrea King), who want to exploit her high-society connections. It's up to undercover agent Jeff Andrews (Scott Brady) to save Faye from the villains--and from herself. Cast as a brutish henchman is one Anthony Curtis, who grew up to become you-know-who. Featured in a role so small that it wasn't listed in the studio's official credits is still another star in the making: Rock Hudson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A handful of strangers are suddenly thrown together as America goes face-to-face against the Communist threat in this curious example of Cold War exploitation. A few people are enjoying drinks in a Manhattan cocktail lounge - television reporter Vince Potter (Gerald Mohr), vacationing tractor tycoon George Sylvester (Robert Bice), cattle baron Ed Mulfory (Erik Blythe), Congressman Arthur Harroway) (Wade Crosby), aimless party girl Carla Sandford (Peggie Castle), and cheerfully dunderheaded bartender Tim (Tom Kennedy). As they discuss the state of the world and their disinterest with U.S. defense and paying taxes, one Mr. Ohman (Dan O'Herlihy) begins swirling his brandy snifter, and before long the other patrons are lulled into a hypnotic state, where they're given a sneak preview of what to expect when an unnamed Communist nation invades the West Coast. Mulfory is able to return home just in time to see his ranch flooded by enemy sabotage, armed troops take over Sylvester's factory, the Congressman watches as Reds seize power, and the suddenly patriotic Carla falls in love with Vince as he covers the brave but futile resistance dished out by our ill-equipped and poorly-prepared military forces. Spectacularly paranoid and loaded with often tattered stock footage, Invasion USA was shot in a mere seven days on a budget of $127,000, and ended up earning its producers well over a million dollars upon its initial release in 1952. Superman fans take note: Phyllis Coates and Noel Neill, both of whom played Lois Lane in the 50's television series The Adventures of Superman, appear in Invasion USA's supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The fate that brings lovers together can easily tear them apart as can be seen in this sentimental tragedy that centers on an ordinary-looking secretary's (Jane Wyman) lonely life. Other than working and spending some free time with a spinster (Eileen Heckart), who is her best friend, the woman devotes most of her time attempting to cheer up her deeply depressed, eternally grieving mother, who has never recovered from her husband's leaving her. One day the secretary is in Central Park when a cloudburst occurs and she ends up meeting a handsome young soldier from Tennessee (Van Johnson). Although they couldn't be more different, they fall deeply in love. Unfortunately, he goes overseas and gets killed. The poor secretary nearly falls apart both mentally and physically. She seems near death when one day she is walking near St. Patrick's Cathedral when a second miracle occurs, giving her the will to live again. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Billed "Jack Mahoney" for the occasion, former stunt man Jock Mahoney steps up to the plate as a leading man in this average Western originally released in an inexpensive color process. Mahoney plays Ross Granger, a railroad agent masquerading as a telegrapher and looking into a series of Comanche raids on the railroad construction near Oaktown. But as Ross quickly establishes, the raids are sponsored by local businessmen Del Stewart (William Bishop) and Broden (George Eldredge), who want to force the railroad through land they possess. Stewart, an old friend of Granger's, is in love with Ann Dennison (Peggie Castle), the daughter of the railroad surveyor, but not even he can prevent Broden from having old man Dennison (Walter Sande) killed. Jock Mahoney had recently starred on television's Range Rider series when hired by former Columbia Pictures colleague Fred Sears for this independently produced Western. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

While on a fishing trip, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) and Paul Drake (William Hopper) reel in a most unusual "catch": a beautiful girl named Sally Fenner (Peggy Castle), who had jumped into the ocean while fleeing a pack of guard dogs on the island estate of George Alder (David Lewis). Naturally, Alder turns up murdered, and Sally is charged with the crime. Assuming Sally's defense in court, Perry finds that there is no shortage of people who would liked to have seen Alder dead--including someone who was very, very close to him. This episode is based on a 1950 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner, and would be refilmed in 1965 as "he Case of the Impetuous Imp". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two-bit photographer Howard Duff wins a big newspaper assignment by romancing his lady boss (Peggy Dow). Duff is sent to take a picture of criminal Brian Donlevy, who doesn't like to be captured on celluloid. Donlevy takes a liking to Duff and asks him to frame one of the crook's less cooperative henchmen (Lawrence Tierney). Duff plays both sides of the fence, informing the henchman that his boss had planned to frame him. Shortly afterward, Donlevy is killed by a car bomb, and Duff becomes famous taking a picture of the event. Eventually Duff pulls one double-cross too many and is himself killed by the surly henchman--but not before taking a snapshot of his murderer in the act. Hard to believe, but Howard Duff makes his character in Shakedown somewhat likable, so that the audience is eager to see what sort of scam he'll pull next. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this western, a forward thinking hero joins in on the promotion of camels as the perfect desert pack animals. He embarks upon a journey with a group of others. Among them is a fugitive bankrobber and his girl friend who are trying to outfox a posse. One of the hero's men recognizes the desperado and begins blackmailing him in exchange for silence. During the journey, a band of angry natives attack. Later, the group loses their water and face the prospect of dying of thirst. The picture was originally released in 3-D. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Apparently as a reward for his excellent performance in the 1954 western Drum Beat, Charles Bronson was given a leading role in this Warner Bros. programmer. The action takes place during the Korean War: a melting-pot unit of American soldiers, together with three British troopers, find themselves trapped behind enemy lines. Making their way to a hilltop that is under United Nations control, these squabbling stragglers discover that the defending soldiers have been wiped out by the Enemy. Ordered to hold the hill under reinforcements arrive, the soldiers, under the command of Lt. Flagler (Richard Conte) and Sgt. Gaspari (Charles Bronson), endeavor to do their duty without getting picked off themselves. As tension mounts, the Americans and the Brits get on each other's nerves, but it's "all for one, one for all" when it really counts. Future TV producer Aaron Spelling shows up in a bit part. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide