Although seeing a young, dark haired Sean Connery singing "My Pretty Irish Girl" while breaking a glow cutting down weeds with a scythe is good for any girl with a little Irish in her blood, his role as the handsome newcomer on the scene is hardly the reason to watch this film. It is the facial expressions of Irishman, Albert Sharpe that make this movie worth watching again and again. (Well, that and the sped-up dancing maneuvers of the leprechauns as the leap into the wine glass.)Sharpe, who plays Darby O'Gill, is so expressive, that Disney was able to carry out an entire fight scene without showing more than a few seconds of the fight. This may have gone a long way with the ratings board and the "family friendly" G-rating at the time... or not. Perhaps, Director Robert Stevenson recognized an acting genius - a man who could tell the entire story in a twitch of his nose or a downturned brow - and wanted to document it for generations to come.
Tonight, I reintroduced my family to Darby. The youngest two of the clan had never seen it and thought King Bryan was a "silly" and the banshee absolutely petrifying. (Neither of them moved while the banshee cried.)
Oh, I wish all the movies could be a bit like Darby
they'd be a bit cheesy, but they'd entertain my army...
Okay. It was a half-drunken sounding rhyme. I know. But, I was really defeated before I began. After all, who could beat King Bryan's "McKluskey and Whuskey"?
I love that you love this movie. It's been one of my favorites since I was a kid. "Oh she is my dear, my darlin' one..." Love it! And who wouldn't love the young Sean Connery running through the fields, chasing a pretty Irish girl?
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