This film from Monogram Pictures was the last film done by James Dunn before his Oscar winning role in A Tree Grows In Brooklyn and for his old studio of 20th Century Fox. Dunn's problems with alchohol had brought him down to poverty row Monogram. Still with the effortless Irish charm for which he was known for Dunn breezes through Leave It To The Irish as a private detective going out with Wanda McKay a police detective's daughter.Arthur Loft plays McKay's father and he'd much rather see his daughter involved with Dick Purcell his detective sidekick. Marrying a PI would bring disgrace on the family name.That gets exacerbated when Dunn is hired by Barbara Woodell to look into her husband's murder. The husband was involved in a heist racket with club owner Jack LaRue.Dunn saunters through the part, one he had done many times over at Fox and other studios. Still with Monogram's lack of production values the film looks as cheap as it is.James Dunn's career would get a kick start with that great Oscar winning performance in A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. But sadly enough it didn't last for him. Leave It To The Irish is an easy to take film which Dunn carries with charm.

LEAVE IT TO THE IRISH is one of hundreds of cheapie, hour-long productions put out by poverty row producers Monogram Pictures and directed by the notorious William Beaudine, nicknamed 'One Shot' due to his talent for never shooting a second tape. This one's a familiar detective story in which a private investigator goes up against a liquor smuggling operation, and it has a noticeably lighter touch than usual insofar as it tries to be funny throughout, even though it never really achieves that goal. The paucity of the budget is apparent from beginning to end.

You can't expect much from films from Monogram or PRC, but on occasion, you will get more than you bargained for. Here, in this comedy/mystery, it is fairly obvious "who done it", but getting there is the fun part. The film starts off with two adults playing with what looks like a rubber crab that moves on its own with just the flick of a finger, then heads into a very funny scene with leading man James Dunn in a pawn shop. Dunn, a private investigator involved with Wanda McCay, one of the participants in the rubber crab game, has planned to take her out for the evening, but gets waylayed in mystery by a beautiful woman whose husband has either died accidentally or been murdered. From there, Dunn has no choice but to involve McKay who insists on tagging along after Dunn's gun is taken away and he is framed for murder. McKay ironically is the daughter of the police chief who objects to Dunn being involved in the investigation. There's not much more than this, but in just a running time over an hour, there are enough pleasant comedy bits to forgive the obvious predictability, and the pace speeds along quite fast.

This typically short (61 minutes) Monogram private detective movie stars James Dunn in a fast-talking role, directed by that legendary director of bad movies, "One Shot" William Beaudine.Beaudine, like many another leading silent director, hid out in the Bs for the rest of his career, where he specialized in cranking 'em out fast and cheap -- he is reported to have said, when told that some studio executives wanted the rushes on a Bowery Boys picture "You mean there's someone who wants to see this c**p?" James Dunn had a decent career, hampered by a drinking problem and is best known for supporting Shirley Temple in a couple of her early features and atypically winning an Oscar for his role in A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN the year following this picture. But really, he had become typecast as a leading man when he was more suited for supporting roles, even when he had to get the parts in Poverty Row productions. Here he exercises his talents by speaking his lines very fast to indicate a gift of gab.There's not much to be said about this movie except that it won't take up too much time and if it is never particularly good, it's short enough to sustain its length.