Darby O'Gill and the Little People

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 Directed by
 Produced by
 Written by
 Starring
Janet Munro
Sean Connery
Jimmy O'Dea
Kieron Moore
Estelle Winwood
 Music by
 Cinematography
 Edited by
 Production
company
 Distributed by
 Release date
 Running time
 Country
 Language
 Box office
$2.6 million (est. US/ Canada rentals)[2]
**1969 re-release**:
$2.3 million (US/ Canada rentals)[3]

***Darby O'Gill and the Little People*** is a 1959 American fantasy adventure film produced by Walt Disney Productions, adapted from the *Darby O'Gill* stories of Herminie Templeton Kavanagh. Directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Lawrence Edward Watkin, the film stars Albert Sharpe as O'Gill alongside Janet Munro, Sean Connery, and Jimmy O'Dea.

## Contents

* 1Plot
* 2Cast
* 3Production
* 4Reception
* 5References
* 6See also
* 7External links

## Plot[edit]

Darby O'Gill and his daughter, Katie, live together in Rathcullen, a small Irish town, where Darby is the caretaker for Lord Fitzpatrick's estate. Darby continually tries to catch a tribe of leprechauns, particularly their king, Brian Connors.

Lord Fitzpatrick retires Darby, replacing him with a young Dubliner named Michael McBride. Darby begs Michael not to tell Katie he has been replaced, and he reluctantly agrees. While chasing Fitzpatrick's horse, Cleopatra, who is actually a pooka, Darby is captured by Brian and the leprechauns and taken to their mountain lair, Knocknasheega. Brian brought Darby there to prevent Katie from learning he lost his job. Darby cannot leave Knocknasheega as a consequence.

Darby tricks the leprechauns into opening the mountain and leaving by playing "The Fox Chase" on Brian's violin. Darby escapes, and expecting Brian to pursue him, engages him in a drinking game with a jug of poitín, allowing him to capture the leprechaun at sunrise when his magic has no effect. Since Darby caught him, Brian grants him three wishes, but warns that wishing for a fourth forfeits them all. Darby's first wish is for Brian to stay by his side for two weeks or until Darby runs out of wishes. Brian tricks Darby into using his second wish to draw Katie and Michael closer together.

Pony Sugrue, the town bully, decides to take Michael's new job and Katie for himself. Pony's mother, Sheelah, tells Katie about Darby's retirement, causing Katie to angrily confront Darby and Michael. Katie discovers Cleopatra has gotten loose again and chases her to Knocknasheega. Darby later finds her stricken with a deadly fever. A banshee appears and summons the Dullahan on a death coach to transport Katie's soul. Brian sadly grants Darby's third wish to take Katie's place. Inside the death coach, Brian consoles Darby, then tricks him into wishing he would have Brian's company in the afterlife. This counts as a fourth wish and Brian voids all his others. Darby is freed from the death coach and returns to Katie, who makes a full recovery. Michael later confronts and humiliates Pony at the pub. Michael and Katie fall in love with Darby's approval.

## Cast[edit]

* Albert Sharpe as Darby O'Gill
* Janet Munro as Katie O'Gill
* Sean Connery as Michael McBride
* Jimmy O'Dea as King Brian
* Kieron Moore as Pony Sugrue
* Estelle Winwood as Widow Sheelah Sugrue
* Walter Fitzgerald as Lord Fitzpatrick
* Denis O'Dea as Father Murphy
* J.G. Devlin as Tom Kerrigan
* Jack MacGowran as Phadrig Oge (King Brian's adjutant)
* Farrell Pelly as Paddy Scanlon
* Nora O'Mahoney as Molly Malloy

## Production[edit]

Walt Disney conceived the film during a trip to Ireland with the Irish Folklore Commission in 1947.[4] The following year, Disney announced he would make a film titled *Three Wishes*, based on a script from Watkin about an Irishman battling a leprechaun, which was to involve both live action and animation. However, the script was never produced.[5][6] Disney took a second trip to Ireland in 1956 and announced a new film that October, *The Three Wishes of Darby O'Gill*, based on Kavanagh's 1903 book *Darby O'Gill and the Good People*, retaining Watkin as writer. Disney studied Gaelic folklore for three months at the Dublin Library and received input from *seanchaí* while developing the film.[7] During casting in London in February 1958, the film's title became *Darby O'Gill and the Little People*.[8]

Barry Fitzgerald was Disney's first choice to play both Darby and Brian.[7] Sharpe and O'Dea were instead cast in the lead roles after Disney spotted O'Dea in a pantomime.[9] Munro was cast in March after Disney signed her for a five-year contract, while Connery was borrowed from 20th Century Fox, where he was then under contract.[10] Filming started on the Disney backlot in May 1958, though some location work was done at Albertson Ranch in the San Fernando Valley.[11]

Munro and Connery sing a duet in the film titled "Pretty Irish Girl",[12] apparently dubbing over vocals by Brendan O'Dowda and Ruby Murray,[13][14] which was released in the UK as a single in 1959. Connery recorded the song solo for the 1992 compilation *The Music of Disney: A Legacy of Song*.[15]

Dell Comics produced a comic book adaptation of the film in August 1959.[16][17]

## Reception[edit]

Writing for *The New York Times*, A. H. Weiler praised the cast but described Connery as "merely tall, dark, and handsome", and called the film an "overpoweringly charming concoction of standard Gaelic tall stories, fantasy and romance."[18] *Variety* called the film a "rollicking Gaelic fantasy" with "meticulously painstaking production" and "a gem" of a performance from Sharpe, though Connery was called "artificial" and "the weakest link in Robert Stevenson's otherwise distinguished direction."[19] Charles Stinson of the *Los Angeles Times* wrote, "Being a Disney product, it is as technically perfect a job as can be had: the Technicolor, the camera work, the special effects, the Irish music and all are a rich feast for anyone's eye and ear."[20] *The Monthly Film Bulletin* called the special effects "brilliantly executed" but found that "all attempts at Irish charm seem pretty synthetic, a notable exception being the playing of Jimmy O'Dea, who makes King Brian the most likeable and beguiling leprechaun yet to appear on the screen."[21]

Leonard Maltin praises the film in his book *The Disney Films*, calling it "not only one of Disney's best films, but is certainly one of the best fantasies ever put on film."[22] In a later article he included it among a list of outstanding lesser-known Disney films.

The film has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 15 reviews, with an average grade of 7 out of 10.[23]

Munro won the 1960 Golden Globe for New Star of the Year for her performance in the film.[24]

## See also[edit]

* Disney films
* Irish mythology in popular culture
* Lists of films released by Disney
* List of films featuring miniature people

## External links[edit]

* Official website
* *Darby O'Gill and the Little People* at IMDb
* *Darby O'Gill and the Little People* at Rotten Tomatoes
* *Darby O'Gill and the Little People* at the TCM Movie Database

* v
* t
* e

* *Falling for You* (1933)
* *Tudor Rose* (1936)
* *The Man Who Changed His Mind* (1936)
* *Jack of All Trades* (1936)
* *King Solomon's Mines* (1937)
* *Non-Stop New York* (1937)
* *Owd Bob* (1938)
* *The Ware Case* (1938)
* *Young Man's Fancy* (1939)
* *Return to Yesterday* (1940)
* *Tom Brown's School Days* (1940)
* *Back Street* (1941)
* *Joan of Paris* (1942)
* *Forever and a Day* (1943)
* *Jane Eyre* (1943)
* *Dishonored Lady* (1947)
* *To the Ends of the Earth* (1948)
* *The Woman on Pier 13* (1949)
* *Walk Softly, Stranger* (1950)
* *My Forbidden Past* (1951)
* *The Las Vegas Story* (1952)
* *Johnny Tremain* (1957)
* *Old Yeller* (1957)
* *Darby O'Gill and the Little People* (1959)
* *Kidnapped* (1960)
* *The Absent-Minded Professor* (1961)
* *In Search of the Castaways* (1962)
* *Son of Flubber* (1963)
* *The Misadventures of Merlin Jones* (1964)
* *Mary Poppins* (1964)
* *The Monkey's Uncle* (1965)
* *That Darn Cat!* (1965)
* *The Gnome-Mobile* (1967)
* *Blackbeard's Ghost* (1968)
* *The Love Bug* (1968)
* *Bedknobs and Broomsticks* (1971)
* *Herbie Rides Again* (1974)
* *The Island at the Top of the World* (1974)
* *One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing* (1975)
* *The Shaggy D.A.* (1976)

Categories:

* 1959 films
* English-language films
* 1950s fantasy adventure films
* American children's adventure films
* American children's fantasy films
* American films
* American fantasy adventure films
* American romantic fantasy films
* Walt Disney Pictures films
* Films adapted into comics
* Films directed by Robert Stevenson
* Films produced by Walt Disney
* Films set in Ireland
* Films shot in Ireland
* Films scored by Oliver Wallace
* Leprechaun films
* Films using stop-motion animation
* Films with live action and animation
* Films about royalty