Maureen O'Hara was a Hoot in this Film
Wow, talk about a role reversal for the wonderful and always-lovely Ms. Maureen O'Hara! The character of Rose Muldoon was the polar oposite of Ms. O'Hara's tender and gentle characters in such wonderful films as "The Long Gray Line" and, of course, "The Quiet Man."
In the dvd extras included with the "Only the Lonely" dvd, Ms. O'Hara related that her brother (who, I believe appeared with her in "The Quiet Man" as either the young priest or the somewhat voluble attorney) urged her to take this role.
And, coming from an Irish and Italian family myself, I thought that Rose's observations about her son's girlfriend were "wonderfully" boorish and inappropriate. Heck, Ms. O'Hara was just about like a distaff Archie Bunker in the film. As the late, great George Carlin once said to Rob "Mike-The Meathead Stivic" Reiner on "The Mike Douglas Show" many years ago: "Archie Bunker SHOULD be an Irish-Catholic" (perhaps like Rose Muldoon, I suppose).