“Forgotten Hollywood”- Film Noir Siren Has Died…

Posted on January 2, 2018 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here… 

“`Peggy Cummins was a Welsh-born stage and screen actress who worked just a few years in Hollywood; but, left behind an indelible performance as the lethal, beret-wearing  femme-fatale in the film noir classic Gun Crazy.

“`A child actor in England, Cummins was not yet 20 when brought to the United States in 1945 by studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck to play the title character in  an adaptation of one of the decade’s raciest novels, Forever Amber. The petite blonde was passed over in favor of Linda Darnell, allegedly, because she was too young. PEGGY CUMMINS ->

“`Secretly co-written by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo,  who devised a tale of sex, violence, and love, destroyed by greed. Her co-star was John Dall. The production’s erotic energy and documentary approach eventually made it a cult classic. Admirers included French new wave directors Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.

“`David Newman and Robert Benton were trying to sell a synopsis for what became Bonnie and Clyde. Truffaut arranged a screening of Gun Crazy, and suggested it as inspiration. In 1998, the Library of Congress selected the production for preservation for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

“`She briefly dated then-aspiring politician John F. Kennedy; and, was asked out by Howard Hughes, only to have the wealthy aviator crash his plane and cancel their dinner plans. She would retire after making just a handful of movies.

“`In recent years, Cummins appeared at numerous retrospectives for Gun Crazy, calling this her favorite production, even though she insisted she was nothing like her character. Her only regret was to never play roles that resembled her Hollywood inspiration — Bette Davis.

“`Peggy Cummins was 92.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018 at 1:55 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.


Bookmark this post:
Digg Del.icio.us Reddit Furl Google Bookmarks StumbleUpon Windows Live Technorati Yahoo MyWeb



Comments are closed.