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.

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.

Such movies enhanced imagination, was six then, now 53!!! WOW!!! the name never left me like Walt's Bambi. :) but then, we do have many new ones, latest ones are also very good, they have got better machines to do the graphics and visual effects, however, making in those days when there was so much limitations to production and Fox effects, it enchanted a person with a grand imagination. Treasure Island was one of the wonderful ones, journey to the center of the earth was another which amazed and the list goes on and on, the classics were also made films but without belittling today, excellent cartoons are made today, the colors were amazing. Hope so the art continues to give audience wonderful thoughts. Thanks.

When we think of a film about Ireland and its people, culture and the masterful use of the English language, which is so widely displayed there; we most often think of mostly the same list of films. Starting off with John Ford's THE QUIET MAN (Argosy Productions/Republic, 1952); with John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Victor McLaglen. Barry Fitzgerald and an All-Star cast. It's a film which always seems to head everyone's lists; but, we progress into some much grimmer and far more serious of a fare.AND by grimmer and more serious we mean the Irish Revolution, the April Rising and the I.R.A. or Irish Republican Army (no Schultz, not Individual Retirement Account).The first film that comes to mind is another John Ford Masterpiece in THE INFORMER (RKO Radio Pictures, 1935). This was the second adaptation of the novel by Liam O'Flaherty and it starred Victor McLaglen, who garnered Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor for his interpretation of dimwitted giant, Gypo Nolan.Other pictures featuring stories of the Irish Struggle include: ODD MAN OUT (Two Cities Films/General Film Distributions (UK) & Universal Pictures (USA), 1947) with James Mason; SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL (Pennebaker Prod./ Troy Films/United Artists, 1959) with Mr. Jimmy Cagney (Himself!); and the more recent MICHAEL COLLINS (Geffen Pictures/Warner Brothers, 1996) with Liam Neeson and Julia Roberts.(FLASH!! NEWS BULLETIN: We have just got ourselves educated into knowing there are tons more titles involving the Irish Revolt and the I.R.A.; but that's another story, Schultz!) In a real change of moods and genre, we have Walt Disney's DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE (Walt Disney Prod./Buena Vista, 1959). It is a whimsical fantasy based on a series of stories one H.T. Kavanaugh about an old braggart, Darby O'Gill (Albert Sharpe), who claims to have been in contact with the Leprechauns; including having been abducted by them and had audience with their King Brian (Jimmy O'Dea). These fantastic encounters are very well staged and, considering that this was 1959, the Special Effects are outstanding. This was long, long before computer imagery; and at this time a Univac Computer would be probably be as big as half of your house and require enough Air Conditioning for you and all the neighbors on your block! The cast was excellent and featured a lot of Irish Actors from the Abbey Theatre Players in Dublin and one young Scotsman Actor and former Mr. Universe Physique Competitor named Sean Connery in a Pre-007 role. The fine Irish players included: Denis O'Dea, Kieron Moore, J.G. Devlin and Jack McGowran*. Brits Janet Munro, Estelle Winwood, Walter Fitzgerald and Reginald Newell.The story, which alternates some serious day-to-day life in rural Ireland and the struggles of widower, father of the fairest Colleen in the whole County (Miss Janet Munro) and game keeper (I think) for some Lord's Huge Estate; with the excellent depictions of Darby's outlandish, tall tales. And those episodes featuring the Leprechauns and Darby are skillfully constructed so as to always to be at a time when Mr. O'Gill was by himself. Hence, the viewer is left to decide if all of this dealing with "the Little People" was real, or did it occur within the bounds of Darby's highly fertile imagination. It could work well either way.MUCH like all other Disney Pictures' Features, be they Animated or Live Action, DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE had some very scary, even terrifying scenes to contrast to the peaceful, humorous and idyllic storyline that is established throughout the rest of the film.** In this case the spooky sequences are provided with those scenes featuring an animated, yet most effectively disturbing Banshee and the use of that traditional Irish black shrouded Carriage that is said to take the Deceased off to Eternity and his Reward or whatever.NOTE: * Irish Actor, Jack McGowran was trained on the Stage of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and came to international recognition and renown with his role of "Red" Will Danaher's (Victor McLaglen) stooge, Feeney, in THE QUIET MAN.NOTE: ** This use of some brief scaring of the audiences is virtually a Disney hallmark. Just look up and down any list of Disney Films to see; for example BAMBI (his Mother killed by Hunters), SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (the wicked Witches transformation), DUMBO (his Mother's being shackled and caged), LADY AND THE TRAMP (Trusty run down by Horse Drawn Wagon), THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW (that Headless Horseman sequence) and many others. Check 'em out! That's your assignment for our next session.