Three Famous Irish Movies

Three movies of recent times encapsulate the Irish character and also incorporate that ever present element of Irish life -- music.

The oldest -- and perhaps most famous was John Wayne's "The Quiet Man". Wayne, himself of Irish descent, teamed up with his old director, John Ford, and his regular opposite number in movies, Victor McLaglen ("She Wore A Yellow Ribbon"), to make this rousing movie about rural Ireland in the early 1900s. Although the political troubles of that era, which gave rise to the Irish Free State, are only mentioned obliquely, they are part of the authenticity of the setting. The most improbable part of the movie is the plot itself, where Wayne , having made his fortune as a prize fighter in America, but killing an opponent in the ring in the process, retires from the ring and returns to the village of his birth, in  Ireland, to buy his old family home from under the very nose of the local "Squire" -- one Will Danaher (most memorable line: "He'll regret it for the rest of his life -- if he lives that long").

If that wasn't enough, Wayne then takes a shine to Danaher's unmarried sister and one of the funniest moments is the sight of John Wayne -- he of "Eldorado" and all those other macho western movies -- being chaperoned whilst courting the sister dressed in a sober ill-fitting suit and wearing a bowler hat.

When Danaher discovers the local priest and other worthies have tricked him into letting Wayne marry his sister, all hell breaks loose, and the matter is only settled by one of the most spectacular and long ranging fist fights ever seen in a movie. A fight which Squire Will himself describes as, ". . . a fight I'd come a long way to see".

Needless to say, peace and harmony are restored and all the loose ends are tied up, including fooling the Church of Ireland Bishop into letting the local Church of Ireland vicar stay on, despite not having a single parishioner of that persuasion.

The next most recent film "Hear My Song", draws its inspiration from an incident in the life of famous Irish tenor, Josef Locke. This concerns a period when he was at the height of his fame in the late 1950s. At that time he was doing summer seasons in England and appearing regularly on the Royal Command Performances, in front of Queen Elizabeth II. Unfortunately, he and the Inland Revenue could not agree on the amount of tax he should pay, so Josef departed back to Ireland.

In real life, these differences were settled, but that's no basis for a movie plot. So, in the film, Josef Locke is portrayed as a wanted man who has to be located and brought back to England for one last concert. Naturally, the powers that be get wind of this and there then follows a spectacular climax in the theatre with Josef singing one of his most famous songs, "Goodbye" from the operetta "The White Horse Inn" and then making his escape by swapping places with a look alike.

The last of this trio of comedies, "Saving Ned", concerns the Irish Lottery. The story concerns the winning of a vast jackpot on the lottery, by one of the residents of a small coastal village, Ned Divine, who -- immediately on learning of his massive win -- dies of shock!

Undaunted, the whole village conspire to fool the lottery officials into paying out the money to a villager masquerading as the real winner. Despite a few narrow escapes -- including when the lottery official arrives in the middle of Ned Devine's funeral -- the payout is agreed and all is well.

That is, until the nastiest person in the village, having failed to blackmail the villagers into giving her a more than equal share decides to spill the beans to the lottery organisers!

If you haven't seen this movie yet, I won't give away the end. Suffice to say, it's well worth seeing if only for the site of a naked David Kelly, clad only in a motor cycle helmet, racing on a motorbike to get to Ned Devine's cottage (to pose as "Ned") before the lottery official arrives. He manages to make it with seconds to spare, but is oblivious of the streak of mud all up his back, thrown up by the motor bike's rear wheel.

Copyright 2007 Joseph Donegal and www.The-Best-Of-Ireland.com