MovieChat Forums > Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1960) Discussion > The only real Irish / Leprechaun Fantasy...

The only real Irish / Leprechaun Fantasy Movie

posted 17 years ago by SteveM-1
7 replies | jump to latest

....and that's kind of sad.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a big fan of Darby O'Gill and I think it's darn near perfect. They worked hard to get a lot of the legends right and they used a lot of genuine Irish actors to portray the parts (with the exceptions of Sean Connery and Janet Munro, but they were both fine in this film).

But I think it's sad in that it's the ONLY one of its kind. So many of the Fantasy Movies featuring Leprechauns are slipshod half-efforts it makes me cringe. You have the "Leprechaun" horror movie franchise starring Warwick Davis which are OK, but can hardly be considered close to the legends. Then you have the more recent "Magical Legend of the Leprechauns" with Randy Quaid and Colm Meaney. It was visually appealing, but just crap in the terms of story and casting. Whoopi Goldberg as the Grand Banshee? It was bad enough that they could only cast two genuine Irish Actors in the entire movie, but a Black woman as an Irish Fairy? Just too ridiculous. Nearly all of the legends portrayed are inaccurate as well. (i.e. The Grand Banshee as leader of all the Fairy Folk and the silly animosity between "trooping" fairies and "solitary" fairies AKA Leprechauns).

I don't want a re-make of Darby O'Gill, but I think that it should be a basis for any future Irish Fantasy / Leprechaun movies. I think a movie using today's state-of-the-art effects combined with Darby O'Gill's flavor and attention to details would be a Box Office Success. I know that maybe we're getting a little over-flooded with Fantasy Movies (Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Spiderwick, etc), but I think a movie exploring Irish Culture and Folklore could be well-received.

[–] AdmiringLupin 15 years ago

I know this post goes back a bit, but I'd like to suggest The Secret of Roan Inish. Tells the story of the selkies.

Do you like my mask? Isn't it pretty? It raises the dead. - Giles

[–] tobian85 11 years ago

I know this post goes back a bit, but I'd like to suggest The Secret of Roan Inish. Tells the story of the selkies.

Yes, and even this post goes back quite a bit, since we're now in 2014...but what the hey. Today is where I found it, so today is when I'm replying to it. First of all, to get some disclaimers out of the way-- Please don't misunderstand me. TSoRI was a beautiful movie: magical, mystical, etc., etc. Evocative atmosphere, lovely score, and so forth. Everyone I know who has seen it thinks "What a wonderful movie about Irish folklore!"

There's only one problem with all that. The source material for TSoRI was Celtic, all right, but it was not Irish.

Here's a quote from C.A. Martin, an artist who, though captivated by that movie, also acknowledges a noticeable difference between the original source and its film version (bolding is mine, for emphasis):

As a child, I was completely captivated by the John Sayles film The Secret of Roan Inish. It was somber, moody, atmospheric, mysterious, moving, charming, and oh-so-very IRISH. It was beautiful in both its mythic fable-like story, as well as its muted, lustrous cinematography. Essentially everything I loved in a story then and even more so now. As an adult I discovered the book upon which it is based, the Scotland-set The Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry. The story concerns a young girl, Fiona McConville, who returns from the city to live with her grandparents on the coast of Scotland.

A link to C.A. Martin's webpage, where she discusses and displays her illustrations for her sequel to The Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry:

http://blog.slumberlandstudio.com/2013/04/return-to-ron-mor-skerry.htm l

I don't want to spoil anybody's love of a beautifully-made film; I merely want to set the record straight: the Irish are not the only Celtic people with magical and mysterious stories to tell. We Scots--along with the Welsh, the Bretons, the Galicians, the Cornish, and the Manxmen--have many such stories also.

Now (jumps off soapbox), back to our discussion of the delightful Darby O'Gill.

I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show. - R. D. Davies

[–] DannyJane 15 years ago

I'm right there with ya, Scooter.

I think that every movie since Darby that featured leprechauns has been insulting in the extreme. The Warwick Davis "Leprechaun" series, apart from being terrible, doesn't portray them as the Irish legend describes--although he does resemble a leprechaun-relative called the Fear Darrigh.

I thought the Magical Legend of the Leprechauns was absolutely horrible. The only thing they got that was close to right was the relationship between the Trooping and Solitary faerie races. However, even that was so heavy-handed as to be unwatchable.

I wouldn't mind if a sequel to Darby were made showing how his decendants fared, as long as it retained the flavor and quality of the original, while simutaneously honoring the history, tradition and folklore of the Irish people.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] DannyJane 14 years ago

Yeah, it's hard to get more Irish than Fred Astaire and Petula Clarke. Besides Tommy Steel'e leprechaun is a damn insult to the intelligence of a doorknob. The plot (plot?) makes tissue paper look substantial. The only thing worthwhile in the whole film is the music. Better to buy the recording and forget about the film. The movie's a dog.

[–] Eightythreeyearoldguy 14 years ago

Indeed, I remember being disappointed by FINIAN'S RAINBOW. Not at all in the same league as this.

Life, every now and then, behaves as though it had seen too many bad movies

[–] MystMoonstruck 10 years ago

Here's a charming film with Irish folklore in America:
Three Wise Fools (1946)
From IMDb:
It has been 40 years since Richard, James and Theodore insulted The O'Monahan and he put a vexing blessing on them. All three have obtained their dreams of grandeur, but they all live in a single house as bachelors. Into this grand house comes 7-year-old Sheila with a request that these three become her guardians. But, they do not want her and let her leave until they find that they need the property that Sheila has inherited. They then take her and O'Davern into the house with the expressed intention of relieving Sheila of her property so that they can donate it to the University in their name and buy remembrance in the future. However, Sheila cannot sell the property because of the Little People.

This is rather fanciful, with a human-size leprechaun (portrayed by the adorable Cecil Kellaway):
The Luck of the Irish (1948)
From IMDb:
While traveling in Ireland, Steven Fitzgerald, a newspaper reporter from New York, meets a leprechaun and a beautiful young woman. When he returns to his fiancee and her wealthy father's political campaign in New York, he finds that the leprechaun and the young woman are now in New York as well. Steven is torn between the wealth he might enjoy in New York or a return to his roots in Ireland.

(W)hat are we without our dreams?
Making sure our fantasies
Do not overpower our realities. ~ RC