Top o’ the Movie to Ya!

Maureen O'Hara and the wearin' o' the
green (in black and white)

For most people these days, St. Patrick’s Day is an excuse to dress in silly green outfits, wear oversized leprechaun hats, and drink excessive amounts of cheap beer.

But a couple generations ago, when America’s European immigrant groups were more clearly delineated along ethnic lines, it was not uncommon for movies to be made about those groups and particular aspects of their culture.

From the colorful characters with their brogues to rousing songs, the Irish had a special place in Hollywood’s heart. And with so many actors of Irish descent in the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s, it’s no surprise that many movies celebrated stereotypical Irish blarney.

Whether you’re Irish or not, here are seven fun Hollywood films you can enjoy with a nice cold green beer:

The three O'Hara brothers demonstrate
the Irish in them

The Irish in Us (1935) – No classic, but how can you beat a movie starring James Cagney and Pat O’Brien, two of Hollywood’s original paddies. It’s a very simple story about the O’Hara brothers: Danny (James Cagney) is a boxing promoter; Pat (Pat O’Brien) is a cop; and Mike (Frank McHugh) is a fireman. They fuss and feud in a big Irish way, as Ma O’Hara yearns for Danny to get out of the boxing biz and get a respectable job. Meanwhile, Danny and Pat each try to win the affections of lovely Lucille (20-year-old Olivia de Havilland). This is a fun time capsule that captures working class Irish flavor of the mid-1930s.

Irish Eyes Are Smiling (1944) – When you add music and Technicolor to a movie about the Irish, you get a special treat. This is a splashy, corny musical biography of Ernest Roland Ball (Monty Wooley), a composer of popular sentimental Irish songs, many of which we still enjoy today. (Spoiler alert: Ball wasn’t actually Irish.) The film is bright fun that captures the vaudeville stage world of the 1910s and features 1940s favorites June Haver and big band crooner Dick Haymes. Ball often collaborated with Chauncey Olcott, who is the subject of the next of our Irish films.

A fine singer and
pleasant personality

My Wild Irish Rose (1947) – Chauncey Olcott wrote many of the classic Irish-themed songs we still know today. In this biography, Olcott is played by the handsome Dennis Morgan, who was an excellent singer in his own right. He co-stars opposite smashing redhead Arlene Dahl, who looks great in 1910s garb and doesn't have to do much else. Like many biographies of this Hollywood era, a lot of leeway has been taken with the facts, but the point of Technicolor musicals was to entertain, in this case featuring classic Irish songs and punching up the nostalgia for audiences weary of the world war that had ended just a couple years before. Hollywood has always had a sentimental tendency to sugarcoat the past, and no period was more ripe for that than the early 1900s, a more insular, innocent time in America.

Top o' the movie to ya!

Top o’ the Morning (1947) – Barry Fitzgerald was Hollywood’s resident old Irish curmudgeon, and he had it down pat. He and Bing Crosby had already made a few movies together, including “Going My Way” in 1944, so they were a dependable movie team for such corny little comedies as this one. Crosby is Joe Mulqueen, an insurance agent who travels to Ireland to investigate the supposed theft of the actual Blarney Stone. Along the way, he romances Conn McNaughton (Ann Blyth), the daughter of Seargent Briny McNaughton (Fitzgerald). The film is easy to take and captures the Irish flavor that these types of films did so well. (Even if they really only focus on the stereotypical, if not apocryphal, aspects of what it means to be Irish.)

Tyrone Power

Luck of the Irish (1948) – After breaking out of a pattern of redundant 1930s romantic comedies, Tyrone Power successfully proved himself a good dramatic actor over the next decade (while also serving in WWII). His greatest dramatic triumph was especially the trenchant film adaptation of Somerset Maugham's “The Razor’s Edge.” But in 1948, Power returned to light form in this sweet romantic fantasy-comedy. Here he plays Stephen Fitzgerald (no relation to Barry), a reporter who travels to Ireland and meets Nora (“Razor’s Edge” co-star Anne Baxter) and a mischievous leprechaun named Horace (Cecil Kellaway). Stephen, smitten with Nora, reluctantly returns to New York, where he is torn between marrying his wealthy fiancée Frances (Jayne Meadows) or following his heart back to Ireland. Horace works his leprechaun’s magic to help Stephen make up his mind.

Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne
fight their way to true love.

The Quiet Man (1952) – No Irish movie collection would be complete without this bonafide classic from director John Ford, who knew from Irish. Here, John Wayne is former boxer Sean Thornton, who travels from Pittsburgh in the 1920s to reclaim his birthplace in the (fictional) village of Innisfree, in Ireland. When he sees the ravishing redhead Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O'Hara), it is love at first site. But before he can win her hand, he has to get through her brash bully of a brother Will (Victor McLaglen). Will wants Sean’s family farm and is bitter that Sean outbid him for the property. The film is a soaring romance, but it’s also an examination of the clash of cultures, as Sean is oblivious to Irish customs and is determined to do things the American way. With themes of pride, personal identity, and respect; the remarkable chemistry between Wayne and O’Hara (who were never better); a gallery of great character actors (including Barry Fitzgerald in a hilarious supporting part); and the gorgeous on-location color photography of the Irish countryside, this film can’t be beat.

Darby commiserates with the king of
the leprechauns

Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959) – In the pantheon of Walt Disney movies, for some reason this gem has been overlooked. Made at the height of Disney’s foray into live-action films, this glorious entertainment features Albert Sharpe as Darby O’Gill, the caretaker of an estate in the Irish town of Rathcullen. Darby is getting on in years, so the estate’s owner, Lord Fitzpatrick (Walter Fitzgerald—again, no relation to Barry), gives the caretaker job to Michael McBride (a very young and handsome Sean Connery). Darby’s Irish pride insists that he request Michael not tell his daughter Katie (Janet Munro) about his forced retirement. 

Michael agrees, but that night, Darby is captured by leprechauns who live on the top of the fairy mountain Knocknasheega. When Darby escapes, he suffers the wrath of the king of the leprechauns; and when she finds out her father has lied, he suffers Katie’s wrath as well. When she falls from Knocknasheega, the dreaded (and terrifying) banshee sends The Death Coach to carry Katie's soul off to the land of the dead. Darby does everything he can to be taken in her place—but the story doesn’t end so sadly as that. This is fantastic Irish folklore brought to vivid life, with outstanding special effects. (The screaming banshee is one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen in the movies.) But the frights are balanced with pure charm, and you even get to hear Connery sing in a film made just a few years before he became James Bond.

Hopefully these unabashedly corny movies will be the pot o' movie gold you're looking for as you celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Enjoy!