Darby O'Gill And The Little People

Top o’ the morning! Well, I missed the opportunity to have 1959’s Darby O'Gill and the Little People reviewed and posted by St. Patrick’s Day (the HiddenPrincess ensured that no movie was even to be watched that night,) but as they say in the Emerald Isle, better late than never. I’m sure they say that there … they should … they say that everywhere.


Magically delicious

As the film starts, we see some lovely scenes of the wee Irish town of Rathcullen, provided mostly by the ingenious matte paintings of the great Peter Ellenshaw and his team. The following on-screen message appears after the opening credits, showing that anyone can go overboard when imbibing the spirits o’ Ireland:


You're drunk, Walt - go home.

Right away, I’d like to get the Sean Connery bit out of the way: Sean Connery’s in this movie. There.

One of the few things you seem to hear about this movie these days (besides LEPRECHAUNS) is that a young, singing Sean Connery features (whether or not his singing was dubbed seems to be a matter of some controversy.) And yes, Ultimate Scotsman Connery’s here playing “Dublin man” Michael McBride three years before he’d become a household name as Bond, James Bond. It was this film, in fact, that brought him to the attention of 007 film producer Albert R. Broccoli. No doubt the “donnybrook” fight scene at the end of the film between McBride and local bully (and Gaston prototype) Pony Sugrue, played by Kieron Moore, helped him in landing the role of the legendary spy. I have to admit that I’m just too used to seeing Connery at this age in the Bond films; when he’s approached in a field by Janet Munro with a basket of food, I kept expecting Connery to push the basket aside and start unfastening her skirt.

Put down that bashket and kissh my blarney shtone. Och!

Speaking of Janet Munro, her Katie O’Gill is a fun-to-watch firebrand, and she was never lovelier than in this movie. Her strong performance certainly helps one look past the fact that most of her character motivation is said to fuel from being “a girl of a certain age” and whatnot. Munro appeared in three films for Disney (Third Man On The Mountain and Swiss Family Robinson, besides this one,) and tragically died at age 38, from a heart attack caused by chronic ischemic heart disease in 1972. She is now, as she was then, dearly missed; at least we have her wonderful film performances to always remember her by.

My pretty Irish English girl...

The star of the film, Albert Sharpe, truly deserves that distinction, as his wily Darby grows on you immediately. Beyond the whimsical accent and loveable-old-man shtick, Sharpe brings a very honest and understated world-weary pathos to the role. The disappointment in his eyes when his boss, Lord Fitzpatrick (played by Walter Fitzgerald,) informs him that the young Michael will be replacing him as caretaker of his estate is heartbreaking – as is his sorrow and regret when his daughter lies dying towards the films’ end (um, SPOILERS.) One totally buys into his futile battle with the approaching banshee in the following scenes, in what would otherwise come across as an actor flailing his arms at a silly special effect. Such are Sharpe’s scenes with Jimmy O’Dea’s leprechaun King Brian, where the very believable rapport between the actors makes one see passed the forced-perspective effects occurring onscreen.

I'm sorry, fellas, but it's last call.

Even now, it’s clear that this was Disney’s big effects picture of the year (between this and Sleeping Beauty, Disney really “put the money on screen” in ’59,) and the scenes within the leprechaun’s kingdom still impress with their seamless integration of rotoscope, forced perspective and matte-painting. Plus, if you happen to be watching with half a bottle of wine in you, the bits where Darby furiously plays his fiddle while dozens of tiny leprechaun-extras dance and leap around in a crazy sped-up fever, then suddenly appear riding tiny horses (tiny freaking horses!?!) around and around, the effect can be … alarmingly disorienting.

What the hell is going on!?

Regardless, I can’t recommend this film enough to anyone, whether as a St. Patrick’s tradition or as a whimsical family film for those wishing a break from the usual animated fare - which leads nicely to our review of the rather unusual animated short which accompanied Darby O’Gill at the cinema…


Im'ma rent me a backhoe and uproot that tree...