BAM Column: Corned beef and cabbage and “Darby O’Gill and the Little People”
A scene from the Disney film “Darby O’Gill and the Little People.”
From Tuesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with a newfound affection for “Darby O’Gill”
Leprechauns are roaming, four-leaf clovers are especially lucky and everyone gets to be Irish today.
That’s right, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, and since my husband’s clan is truly Irish-American – the last name McDonnell is no accident – we’re planning a little party to mark the day. Our family traditionally dons green clothing, munches corned beef and cabbage and watches the old John Wayne-Maureen O’Hara movie “The Quiet Man.”
For the second year, our St. Patrick’s Day film celebration will be a double-feature including “Darby O’Gill and the Little People.” When I watch the 1959 Disney movie, it’s more than a quaint little tale of the Emerald Isle. It’s a personal triumph over a childhood fear. It sounds silly but it’s true.
When I was a wee lass, the trailer for “Darby O’Gill,” included on some of my favorite 1980s Disney VHS tapes, struck horror in my heart. The seemingly interminable preview included such terrors as a banshee, a ghostly death coach, a rearing evanescent horse and a leprechaun kidnapping. And you didn’t even want to get me started on Darby’s (Albert Sharpe) gross teeth, which I imagined were home to worms or other creepy-crawlers.
The trailer fostered such dread in me that I vowed as a girl never to watch “Darby O’Gill.” When my husband, Patrick, learned of my vehement desire never to see the movie, he was puzzled. He thought it was a fun family film.
Last March, Patrick and my sister convinced me to at least watch the preview again and tracked it down on YouTube. Like many things that freak us out when we’re children, the trailer wasn’t nearly as scary as I remembered.
So, I marked St. Patrick’s Day 2008 by doing something that I never would have considered as a youngster: watching “Darby O’Gill.”
Happily, I was enchanted with the fantastical tale of wily old Darby O’Gill (Sharpe), longtime friend/adversary of Brian Connors (Jimmy O’Dea), the king of the little people. Darby’s goal is to trick the clever leprechaun out of three wishes.
The film has all the perfect ingredients – young love, mythical creatures and nifty special effects that hold up shockingly well 50 years later – to serve as a tasty cinematic side dish for our annual corned beef feast.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
-BAM
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Hello Bam, I delighted you enjoyed Darby o’Gill and the little People. King Brian – Jimmy O’Dea – was my godfather and I inherited all his theatre, film , TV and radio memrobalia.Including one of the King Brian costumes! The film has been shown here in Ireland at couple of St Patricks day Festivals this year. Here in Dublin Jim Sheridan the famous Director presented the film and I was asked to give a presentation in Omagh, Co Tyrone.Everyone loves this film!! long live the leprechauns and of course King Brian! Conor Doyle, Dublin, Ireland