Leo McCabe Movies
Irish actor Leo McCabe primarily performed in the theater but also occasionally appeared in feature films such as Beloved Enemy (1936) and Of Human Bondage (1964). He was born and raised in Dublin and there founded a theater group. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1966
Originally titled Blues For Lovers, Ballad in Blue was the last of actor Paul Henreid's theatrical-film directorial efforts. R&B legend Ray Charles plays himself, attempting to help a newly blinded British boy adjust to sightlessness. Charles is no actor, but he has a natural ease and grace that many "real" movie stars might envy. As a bonus, we get to hear him perform such favorites as "What'd I Say?" and "I Got a Woman". Monika Henreid, the daughter of the director, can be seen in a minor role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Charles, Tom Bell, (more)
- 1964
This third screen adaptation of Somerset Maugham's novel about the destructiveness of sexual obsession stars Laurence Harvey as Philip Carey, a club-footed artist who after two unsuccessful years in Paris decides to pursue a career in medicine instead. During his medical studies he falls in love with a waitress, Mildred Rogers (Kim Novak), who takes advantage of his attraction to her. When Mildred leaves him to marry another man, Philip falls in love with a writer (Siobhan McKenna), who encourages him to complete his studies. Under her tutelage, Philip excels in medical school. But when Mildred returns, pregnant and abandoned by her husband, Philip takes her in and cares for her, breaking off with the kind-hearted writer. Staying with Philip at his flat, Mildred has an affair with his best friend. Confronting her with her indiscretions, Mildred tells Philip how repulsed she is by his club foot and walks out on him. Philip once again throws himself into his studies, passing his examinations and taking an internship at a London hospital. There he hears Mildred has become a cheap prostitute. Philip travels to the brothel where she is living in poverty with her child and takes her under his wing once again. As before, Mildred walks out on Philip, trashing his apartment and taking to the streets. When Philip comes upon her again, he finds that her child has died and she is suffering from the advanced stages of syphilis. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kim Novak, Laurence Harvey, (more)
Brendan Behan, the quixotic, eternally sloshed Irish poet/playwright, peppered his play The Quare Fellow with plenty of "gallows humor." The film version dispenses with most the play's morbid jests, leaving us with a grim, straightforward account of a Dublin death-row prison guard (Patrick McGoohan) and his growing empathy with two condemned prisoners. One could understand the removal of the play's comic elements had the film been made in timorous Hollywood. But since Quare Fellow was financed and produced in Ireland, it seems a inappropriately glum tribute to one of the country's boldest and most brilliant talents. Quare Fellow was directed by American "B" specialist Arthur Dreifuss, who also adapted Behan's play for the screen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick McGoohan, Sylvia Syms, (more)
- 1940
In this heartwarming drama, an orphaned 5-year old is sent to live with her cold-hearted aunt who keeps her around because the girl is the only one who knows the secret of her father's will. The little girl will not even tell her big sister who is in love with an American writer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1939
Filmed in 1938, My Irish Molly was released in US in 1940 to capitalize on the popularity of Maureen O'Hara. The actress enjoys top billing in the American prints, but the film's real star is juvenile music-hall star Binkie Stuart as the titular Molly. An orphan girl, poor but plucky Molly is continually persecuted by her harridan of an aunt (Maureen Moore), who withholds the fact that the girl is an heiress. The return of emigrant Bob (Philip Reed) from New York to the Auld Sod-the better to be reunited with his sweetheart Eileen (O'Hara)--leads to Molly's rescue from her tormentor. In other words, My Irish Molly is a Shirley Temple flick without Shirley Temple. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maureen O'Hara, Binkie Stuart, (more)
- 1936
This lavishly appointed Sam Goldwyn soap opera is set in Ireland during "the troubles." Irish rebel leader Dennis Reardon (Brian Aherne) falls in love with Lady Helen Drummond (Merle Oberon), the aristocratic daughter of British diplomat Lord Athleigh (Henry Stephenson). Reardon's underground associates, not so romantically inclined, assume that their leader has sold out to the enemy, when in fact he is working tirelessly for an honorable and equitable end to the hostilities. His best friend O'Rourke (Jerome Cowan) is given the job of assassinating Reardon, leading to a tragic climax more suited to an Italian opera than an Irish political meller. Beloved Enemy was very loosely based on the exploits of Irish patriot Michael Collins, who of course was the subject of the far more accurate 1996 biopic starring Liam Neeson and Julia Roberts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne, (more)
- 1936
At the time of its release, Polo Joe was critically lambasted as the worst Joe E. Brown starrer to date. Compared to his later non-Warners efforts, however, it's not so bad: the biggest criticism that can be levelled against it is that it's virtually indistinguishable from Brown's other 1930s vehicles. The plot and comedy of the film can be summed up in a single sentence: Joe Bolton (Brown) is terrified of horses, but joins a polo team to impress his sweetheart Mary (Carol Hughes). The climax borrows a page from Brown's 1935 baseball flick Alibi Ike, with the villains holding Joe prisoner so that he can't ride in a polo championship. As always, Brown does all his own stunts in Polo Joe, a fact that is more impressive than amusing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Carolyn Hughes, (more)
The Informer, Liam O'Flaherty's novel of the the Irish "troubles" of the early 1920s, was first filmed in England in 1929, with Cyril McLaglen in the lead. When director John Ford remade The Informer in 1935, the role of the tragic Irish roisterer Gypo Nolan went to Cyril's brother Victor McLaglen. The scene is Dublin, during the Sinn Fein rebellion. Gypo has tried to join the IRA, but has been bounced because he lacked full commitment to the cause. Gypo's best friend is Frankie McPhillip (Wallace Ford) a fugitive from the British "Black and Tans" with a price on his head. Hoping to start a new life with his streetwalker girlfriend Katie Madden (Margot Grahame), Gypo informs on Frankie, collecting the twenty-pound reward. Frankie is cornered and killed by the British troops; Gypo briefly suffers the pangs of conscience, but is too simple-minded to grasp the full impact of his betrayal. Suspecting that Gypo has turned in Frankie, IRA commander Gallegher (Preston Foster) orders his men to keep tabs on the big lout. As Gypo stupidly squanders his money on food, drink and entertainment, Gallegher's lieutenants keep tab of every penny spent. Finally dragged before the rebel court, Gypo tries to bluff his way out of trouble, fingering another man (Donald Meek) as the informer, but this subterfuge quickly falls apart. Sobbingly, Gypo confesses his treachery. Before his execution can be carried out, he escapes, but his hiding place is given away inadvertently by Katie. Regretfully, because they realize Gypo is too childish to be fully responsible for his actions, the IRA members shoot the man down. With his last ounce of strength, Gypo drags himself into the church where Frankie's mother (Una O'Connor) prays for his son's soul. "Twas I informed on your son, Mrs. McPhillip," Gypo weeps, "Forgive me." "Ah, Gypo, I forgive you," the grieving mother replies. "You didn't know what you were doing." Exultantly, Gypo looks heavenward, and, just before succumbing to his wounds, bellows "Frankie! Frankie! Your mother forgives me!" The Informer earned Victor McLaglen an Oscar, as well as several other nominations; the film did poorly at the box office, but John Ford had anticipated this reaction, reportedly waiving his considerable salary just to make certain that picture--a labor of love for the director, who was himself a native of Ireland--would be completed. The film was remade in 1968, relocated to the black ghetto of Los Angeles and retitled Uptight!. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor McLaglen, Heather Angel, (more)
- 1934
George Arliss plays Nathan Rothschild, the head of a family of celebrated 19th century Jewish bankers. Despite the anti-semitic efforts of a powerful politico (Boris Karloff), Rothschild moves in the best European social circles. He is ultimately knighted for his services to the English crown, which include the financing of the Duke of Wellington's battle against Napoleon at Waterloo. This being a Hollywood picture, the political and financial intrigues have to be offset by romance--in this case the love affair between Rothschild's daughter (Loretta Young) and a handsome military officer (Robert Young). The final scene was photographed in the newly perfected three-strip Technicolor process, though for many years the TV distributors either removed this sequence or reprinted it in black and white. Designed in part as an attack against the burgeoning anti-semitism movement in Hitler's Germany, House of Rothschild was ironically exploited by Nazi functionary Joseph Goebbels, who redubbed and re-edited the film to serve as anti-Jewish propaganda! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Arliss, Boris Karloff, (more)
