Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959)

For nearly sixty years Walt Disney's "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" has entertained and delighted it's audiences and for me, it's still the best of it's kind. And just what is Darby O'Gill's kind? Well "leprechaun movies" of course and this movie seems to be the most authentic and most true to leprechaun lore (if that's possible on such a matter).Disney wisely opted to film Darby O'Gill in Ireland and that one simple, but important fact does much for this film in a countless amount of way's, but most importantly, it gives the film an unfaltering air of honesty and authenticity. Disney perfectly captured the bucolic, picturesque beauty of the Irish countryside and it's many rolling, green hills. In fact it looks SO picturesque that the scenery often looking like a fine oil painting. Besides it's "genuinely Irish" location filming, the films cast is of a near-perfect pedigree, with the elderly Irish actor Albert Sharpe, in the all-important lead role of Darby O'Gill; also starring is the youthful and lovely Janet Munro as Katie O'Gill (Darby's daughter) and a pre-James Bond Sean Connery in the role of Michael McBride. As it happens with those three actors, each country of the UK is covered Sharpe was Irish, Munro was English and Connery is of Scottish descent. Obviously Disney wasn't settling for anything less then a cast, that was entirely from the British Isles and judging by the results, I'd say they got it right, entirely. The films plot revolves primarily around a trio of wishes that the king of the leprechaun's will grant to whoever encounters him, in this case it's the old codger Darby O'Gill. As you'll see, these wishes have a way of complicating his life and all those who are close to him. Also in the mix is: rabbit poaching, romantic rivalries, "poteen's & dundee's", social climbing, a light sprinkling of religious BS, some story-telling (at "the pub" of course), a visually spectacular visit from the banshee - complimented by a "flying death coach" and to end it all a brawl at the pub. One of my few complaints about this movie is, I hate the way the pub brawl was edited, you see more of Albert Sharpe making a series of exaggerated expressions from across the room, then you do of the fight itself - frustrating. Another thing I noticed is that King Brian's size tends to vary a bit from scene to scene, meaning the king's scale is a tad a skewed. Aside from that Darby O'Gill and the Little People has stood the test of time brilliantly and it still stands as one the brightest moments of Disney's live-action films - one that completely lives up to the phrase "Pure Disney Magic".On a purely visual basis Darby O'Gill and the Little People is an amazingly beautiful film, with all it's lush and picturesque exterior photography and just as importantly, the leprechaun's themselves or more rather, the numerous clever effects the Disney crew employed to bring them to life. Some of the effects are just ingenious and all are virtually seamless in how they were merged with there respective master-shots - no more so then the dazzlingly imaginative leprechaun layer sequence, in a cavern, at the bottom of well, on top of "Mount Knocknasheega". Specifically some of the effects used were: puppetry, matte paintings, forced perspective photography and by the looks of it some over-sized sets and props were used - all to GREAT effect. Of which all were probably used to bring the layer of the leprechauns to life, which is easily the most visually striking sequence in the film. A scene in which Darby and a cave full of "chauns" get down, when he starts to fiddle away on a Stradivarius, specifically he play's "The Foxchase" and round and round they go! When all of this has been combined, it makes for some sparkling movie magic.Darby O'Gill and the Little People is almost as much a love story, as it is a leprechaun's tale. Connery and Munro are quite taken with each other and with the exception of one bawdy romantic rival, Connery has a clear field and by movies end, well Connery works his charm on her - if that wasn't predictable. Yet the best scenes of this classic film belong to Darby O'Gill (Albert Sharpe) especially when he's in the company of Brian Conners "The King of the Leperchauns". When these two characters share the screen, there is a near constant contest of guile and wit being exchanged and many of the movies most colorful moments occur when the two of them are riddling and rhyming and plotting against and insulting each other. It's also in these scenes that the movies dialog is at it's most colorful and judging by his hilarious lingo, it would seem that Darby O'Gill knew every single scrap of Irish slang and folklore. I find that the films wildly eccentric use of slang, combined with the casts melodic accents (if you can understand them - worry not, the DVD has sub-titles), often makes for a grandly whimsical experience - often bordering on hysteria.Then there's the typical Disney neglectfulness to speak of..... and as of December of 2016, there is no Blu-ray of Darby O'Gill on the market. I for one would be interested in seeing it get a hi-def make-over and to see it get a glorious new take on life..... also I'm keen to see Albert Sharpe's -gum disease- at a higher level of clarity and with "enhanced fine detail" and life-like realism. This is something that really brings a grin to my face. Just imagine Darby's dirty old gum's (which are often front and center), gloriously rendered in a 1080p hi-def transfer - the type of transfer that takes full advantage of modern hi-definition video's ruthlessly revealing nature - a characteristic that the Blu-ray disc is well known for AND excels at.

I haven't seen this movie in nearly 15 years, and I remembered only the terrifying banshee scaring the hell out of me as a child. So now that I'm 25, I felt like I could overcome my childhood fears and finally give it another go.Watching it now, I realise that this is purely Walt Disney at his best. The special effects wowed me beyond anything I've seen in the last few years (and this came out in 1959). These guys were geniuses. Nowadays when you see effects, you can tell almost immediately they're computer graphics. But with Darby O'Gill, and anything predating the mid 80s, you had to guess how they did these effects. They look brilliant and there's NO computers whatsoever.The story is quite good as are the actors, including Sean Connery in his first movie role ever."Darby O'Gill" is now among my favourite films of all time due to those two things above and the joy that I had watching it all these years later.

Certainly not Mr. Disney. I loved this film as a child and today saw it for the first time in maybe 25 years. I was astonished at how good the special effects were. The Little People were totally believable! The DVD had a wonderful making of which explained the forced perspective technique and showed exactly how it was done. It also finally cleared up any confusion on how matte painting is used and from a technical viewpoint, this film is remarkable. Disney always went the extra mile. That's why he was such a master of film making. I was also delighted with the accents and the use of real Gaelic terms and Irish expressions and could only wonder if they had confused me as a child until I read that this movie had had two soundtracks and one had been dubbed on after the accents were deemed too difficult for American audiences. Fortunately, the original is on the DVD. With captioning, it's not hard to follow at all. And how Disney, to have a rider where he "thanks" the leprechauns for helping him make this picture! Of course, the looked so real, you could actually believe it.

I first saw this film when I was about 9 years old and it scared the hell out of me, (when the banshee appeared I was under the seat). Over the years, as a self-respecting Irishman, I should have put this cod stage-Oirish nonsense behind me, (as indeed any self-respecting Irishman should put "The Quiet Man" behind him). But the magic this film casts is hard to shake off. I still get misty-eyed every time I see "Darby O'Gill" and wonder is it nostalgia, (for my childhood? for a 'mythological' Ireland or just an Ireland from a happier time?), or is it simply because this is a wonderful film, a great piece of story-telling, beautifully directed by the under-valued Robert Stevenson and splendidly played by a great cast, some of whom weren't Irish at all. (The young Sean Connery at his most handsome and showing the promise of what was to come; Janet Munro as Darby's daughter).The great Albert Sharpe, (the kind of role that comes along once in a lifetime), is Darby, the old gate-keeper about to be put out to pasture by 'his lordship' and Connery is the younger man about to take his place. What plot there is has Darby capturing King Brian of the Leprechauns, (the wonderful Jimmy O'Dea, and the special effects are pretty marvelous, too). It's the kind of yarn that would make a good story around a turf fire of a Winter's night and all the better for downing several glasses of poteen but then we wouldn't have those wonderful effects, (the dancing leprechauns, a banshee out of any child's worst nightmare, the death-coach), and a cast that also includes the magnificent Estelle Winwood as the bad-hearted widow and Kieron Moore as her gombeen of a son. It's a classic and outside of Ireland it really ought to be better known.