BoardChiri
Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay
Billie Morin
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
Staci Frederick
Blistering performances.
Dalbert Pringle
Ah, yes! - The luck of the Irish, their curios superstitions, their wee, magical leprechauns, and (get this!) a Scottish Sean Connery being passed off as an Irishman (all rolled up into one movie).Though this 1959 Fantasy/Romance/Comedy film from Disney Studios was far from being top-notch entertainment - It was certainly notable for starring a young and very virile-looking Sean Connery (3 years before he first starred as James Bond in 1962's "Dr. No").Anyway - Besides Connery's appearance in this decidedly quirky picture - I also thought that the "little people" pre-CG effects were actually quite impressive, considering that this film is now 60 years old.All-in-all - I'd say that "Darby O'Gill" (and all of its merry, Irish shenanigans) was definitely well-worth a view, in the long run.
johnstonjames
Glad to see so many people here who love 'Darby'. i've grown up with this incredible film and it always seemed like nobody else had ever heard of it. it certainly requires more attention than it's got in the past because it's just great.when i was a little kid i saw this film in the theater back in 1970 or so, and it scared the hell out of me. the shock cut of the banshee coming through the door still makes me jump if i'm not alert. this is by far Disney's scariest movie. probably the only film that Walt himself made that could be called a horror film. it's definitely as scary as any of the 'Hammer' horror flicks of the 50's and 60's.film critic Leonard Maltin called this one of the finest fantasy films ever made. he couldn't be more right. and yes, that is obviously Connery and Munro doing their own singing.
sharkey197
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.
bkoganbing
As a lad I well remember the kind of campaigns Walt Disney used to publicize his films. He used all the available outlets he had such as his Mickey Mouse Club show or the Walt Disney Wonderful World of Color television shows. If Walt Disney could have worked it out, he'd have plugged Darby O'Gill and the Little People on Zorro.I remember Disney on one of his shows having a formal meeting with King Brian of Knocknasheega to sign over screen rights to the story of the leprechauns. It was all done with a kind of serious pomp that would impress a kid with Disney and Jimmy O'Dea who played the leprechaun king, Brian Conners.According to the Films of Walt Disney by Leonard Maltin, Disney had it in mind to do an Irish story for over 15 years before Darby O'Gill was released. In fact when he saw the original Broadway production of Finian's Rainbow, he had his leading man in mind in the person of Albert Sharpe. Sharpe's Darby O'Gill is a gamekeeper on the grounds of Lord Fitzpatrick who in his declining years spends more time at the local pub, regaling the patrons with his tales of encounters with the leprechauns. As Walter Fitzgerald who plays Lord Fitzpatrick says, Darby retired a couple of years ago without telling me. So he's hired himself a young new gamekeeper, an outsider from Dublin named Michael McBride played by a pre-James Bond Sean Connery. Connery's a decent chap though and he'll give Sharpe time enough to vacate the gamekeeper's gate cottage. Besides Connery's taken a liking to Darby's daughter Katie in the person of winsome Janet Munro.The film alternates and then blends the story of Connery's courtship of Munro with the person of her other suitor, the town bully played by Kieron Moore and Sharpe's adventures with the leprechauns. King Brian tricks him a couple of times, but Darby captures him by getting him drunk and keeping him out until daylight when he has no powers.If Darby O'Gill had been made by someone other than Disney probably Barry Fitzgerald would have played Darby. Sharpe certainly has the elfin charm of Fitzgerald's Michaeleen O'Flynn from The Quiet Man. And because he was not a movie name, he worked a lot cheaper for Disney, always a consideration in The Magic Kingdom.The special effects are really good here considering this was the age before computer generated graphics. Enough to give even a twelve year old a fright with the appearance of the banshee and the costa bower, the death coach.The answer to a movie trivia question is this film if it is ever asked whether Sean Connery sang in a movie. It's in fact him singing, My Little Irish Girl, both he and Janet Munro sing it alone and duet it for the finale. No dubbing, in fact Sean Connery cut a 45 rpm record of it back in the day. Probably worth a fortune if you could find one. Janet Munro did a few films for Disney. She was a wholesome lass in his films, very appealing and her death at too young and age was a real tragedy. Either Disney didn't spot anything in Sean Connery or Connery was too smart to be tied down to a long term contract to that studio. Connery after Dr. No premiered spent the next dozen years or so trying to prove both artistically and financially that he was capable of more than James Bond. But it sure would be fascinating to speculate on what turn Sean Connery's career would have taken if I had starred in a half a dozen or so Disney features. Can you imagine him trying to escape that kind of typecasting?Darby O'Gill and the Little People is a children's film and I think it still has charm a-plenty even for today's generation who might be skeptical about leprechauns.
