Vormancian's Full Review: Darby O'Gill and the Little People
This review is another entry in Simply_Crispy's Expunged From Their CV Write-Off. Although, the person in question here probably doesn't mind this bit of their past at all. The idea of the write-off being to expose early work of now famous people, or the later disappointing work of those once famous.
The participants, I believe, are:
artbyjude, BigJack, brodieman, d_fienberg, jankp, Lynus, Macresarf1, mfunk75, MrsNormanMaine, Simply_Crispy, skbreese, susidee34, tjmackey, Weirdo_87 and xxxxer.
1959 was a long time ago. Not exactly a revelation, I know. Bear with me. It was a long time ago, especially insofar as it wouldn’t surprise anyone to say that a movie made in 1959 had special effects that were less than stunning by today’s standards. But, that’s the sort of thing that really displays the magic that used to be Disney, because though the special effects in ‘Darby O’Gill and the Little People’ could best be described as ‘a joke’, you don’t care.
The story is a simple one, sort of. In a small village in Ireland, Darby O’Gill spins yarns to his neighbors (over a pint, naturally) about leprechauns, their magic, the many ways to know they are around, and the time he caught their King, only to lose his wishes. Of course, a few people make fun of the daft, old man. The real point is that Darby has a plan to capture the wily King of leprechauns again.
Meanwhile, his daughter Katie is getting a bit long in the tooth (by village standards) not to have a man. Conveniently, stranger to town Michael McBride, who has one small snag in that he has come to take Darby's job, seems a perfect match.
Old Darby does capture the leprechaun again, but has a hard time thinking of what to wish for. He wants Katie to be happy, but she wouldn’t be interested in a pot of gold, or other things commonly wished for. Darby wishes that McBride and Katie will fall in love, or similar, and it’s off to the races. Darby bumbles his way through one thing after another, McBride and Katie get to know each other, and we get encounter after encounter that allows us to see a lot of magic and learn a lot about Irish folklore.
Like most of the early Disney family masterpieces, the plot is pretty simple. Of course, complex plots are not what these films are about. They are about being wonderful, family adventures that show us little bits of magic, not only in the magical things that invariably happen in them, but more importantly in the interaction of the characters.
It’s hard to say that the acting is wonderful here, but it is very Disney. If you’ve seen any of these older, live-action, family movies, you know what I mean. Not entirely real, but very open, accessible, and engaging.
The sets, costume design, and overall period set-up are wonderful, if somewhat simple (hey, it was 1959). And, again, that’s the magic that Disney could create. The special effects are terrible today, but they were great then, and you don’t care. In a lesser movie you would notice how bad the effects are, but here you just allow yourself to play along without a second thought.
Darby O’Gill was played by Albert Sharpe, and it is unlikely you will know him. His last part was only a year after this, ‘The Day They Robbed the Bank of England’ (1960), and he wasn’t in that many pictures. He does a fine job here, and portrays the many moods and emotions of Darby O’Gill with great skill.
Katie was played by the unfortunate Janet Munro. Janet Munro, had it not been for a tragic personal life, might have been the ‘next big thing’. She died quite young, only ten years after this film, and had by then already been highly praised for several roles. Among her credits: ‘The Young and the Guilty’, ‘Swiss Family Robinson’, ‘Bitter Harvest’, ‘Daylight Robbery’, and ‘Sebastian’.
You may have seen good old McBride before this movie. He had already been in ‘Lilacs in Spring’ in 1955, though he wasn’t credited. Between that and this he had also been in such stunning films as: ‘Hell Drivers’, ‘Time Lock’, and the made-for-television movie ‘Women in Love’ where he played the role of ‘Jewish Pianist’. But, it wasn’t until three years after this film that he was in something you might know. That was the year he was given the starring role in a little film called ‘Dr. No’, where, that’s right Sean Connery, was Bond, James Bond.
This is also a special film for me, because it is another in the long list of Disney director extraordinaire Robert Stevenson’s credits. You probably don’t know the name, after all, who pays attention to the director of these things? Other than me. Between 1932 and 1976, Stevenson directed more than forty movies. The short list would include (working backwards): ‘The Shaggy D.A.’, ‘Herbie Rides Again’, ‘The Love Bug’, ‘That Darn Cat!’, ‘Mary Poppins’, ‘Kidnapped’ and, ‘Old Yeller’, as well as a bit of television, ‘Zorro’, ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’, and ‘Gunsmoke’.
‘Darby O’Gill and the Little People’ is a wonderful film from the ‘real’ days of Disney that serves to expose the muck that comes from them today for what it is. It’s fun, frivolous, adventurous, and truly magical, though this one does have a few moments that might scare younger audiences.
The movie opens with a message from Walt Disney appearing on the screen superimposed over our entrance to the village, in which he thanks the King and all the little people, without whom this movie wouldn’t have been possible. Now that’s Disney.
Take a wee bit of ancient folklore, mix in some spectacular special effects and a magical cast (including Sean Connery)--and you ve got one of the mos...More at Buy.com
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