Darby O’Gill and the Little People. A first look after all these years
How is it possible that a six-year-old Irish Catholic kid in San Francisco who lived a block away from the movie theater across the street from his grammar school would not have seen Darby O'Gill and The Little People when it came out in the summer of 1960?
That kid is me. The movie theatre was The Irving. The school was Saint Anne of the Sunset.
Was this latest Disney movie frowned on by a Catholic Church that found leprechauns too paganistic? (Doubtful) Were my parents afraid it would give me nightmares the way Sleeping Beauty had a few months before Darby was released? (Likely)
Whatever the case, I never caught up with Darby in the intervening years. (It’s amazing how fast you outgrow Disney movies.) So, with my remaining days passing away I watched it the other night. I liked it. I wish I had seen it when I was six. I want to watch it with my two six-year-old granddaughters. (Though some special effect scenes might be a bit too much.)
Walt Disney - “I’ll always be Irish”
Coming of age in the 1950s and 1960s meant Walt Disney was part of your cultural DNA. Movies, television, the mother of all theme parks. Walt was everywhere. We could have done worse when it came to this national treasure of a storyteller who employed movie magic to make our lives more interesting. (Some will tell you we could have done better.)
Probably due to having pre-Famine Irish relatives on both sides, Disney was fascinated/obsessed with Irish folk tales. Especially when they included those trickster fairies called leprechauns. Walt loved leprechauns so much he went to Ireland in 1946 to research making a movie about them. Respected Irish folklore experts tried to convince him there were better (more serious, they meant) Irish legends fit for the big screen. All credit to Walt for doing his homework in Ireland – and it was extensive – but it was leprechauns he would make a movie about ten years after that first fact-finding trip to the Emerald Isle
Leaping leprechauns!
There’s one long scene of leprechauns dancing and bounding about in Darby that would make the wicked village crone smile instead of scowl. If you’re not going to watch the entire movie, check this out.
How did they do that?
No real little people were used in the making of this movie. Even though Disney loved the leprechauns, they disappeared from the action after jumping on little white horses and galloping away. King of the leprechauns, Brian Connell, sticks around to further tease and taunt Darby while putting away unimaginable amounts of poitin – the Irish hooch that’s 98% pure alcohol. The way director Robert Stevenson pulled the trick of making average sized men look 18 inches tall is worth checking out. Steven Spielberg loves this movie for its special effects.
Darby O'Gill Odds and Ends
Disney really wanted people to believe in leprechauns. Not only did he open Darby with the above statement, he also refused to list the names of the actors who played the little people in the credits. He didn't want anyone to think they were real actors.
One actor who did get listed would soon enough make his debut as a character they’re still making movies about. Bond. James Bond. There’s one story that Sean Connery got the 007 gig because of the way he handled himself in a barroom fight in Darby. His fierceness impressed the producers of that franchise-in-waiting. Darby O'Gill was played by Albert Sharpe, an Irishman. Since the movie was 100% made in Southern California, he’s the only well-known Irish actor in the cast.
Authentic Irish or Irish Enough?
Rather than try to summarize the plot of Darby, I’m going to refer you to this article by Neil Sharpson, an author from Dublin. His synopsis is hilarious and irreverent as hell. Overall, he’s impressed and not the least bit offended by the version of Irishness Disney put on the big screen.He writes, He writes, (The Irish folklore scholars in Dublin) "might have been disappointed that Disney didn’t broaden his depiction of Irish folklore beyond fairies or leprechauns, that’s not to say that fairies and leprechauns aren’t a massive part of Irish folklore or that Disney didn’t do his homework, because, quite evidently, he did."
This is Sheila Sugrue, one of just two evil characters in Darby. She’s the village gossip with a son named Pony who’s the neighborhood bully. Note the cups and plates. According to David O’Longaigh’s presentation at the PHS meeting on Feb. 19, they are most likely Blue Willow design from the Vodrey Pottery in Dublin. The real deal. The actress who played Sheila Sugrue went on to play the Banshee in Banshees of Inisherin. KIdding.)
This Celtic High Cross seen in the center of town (Rathskullen, Co. Kerry) looks very much like the original High Crosses in Ireland. Note the detail in the panels of the Cross. Did they ship it from Ireland to the movie set in Burbank? No. It was most likely painted on; part of the special effects techniques employed to make Darby O’Gill and the Little People more interesting as a Disney movie than as an Irish movie.
