Cassidy, der Rebell

"Young Cassidy" is a film about the life of the famous Irish writer and dramatist, Sean O'Casey. It follows him from around WWI to his becoming famous, of sorts, in the late 1920s. Oddly, as you watch the film you'll probably assume it all takes place over one or two years...but 15 to 20 is more like it...and the actors and time never seem to pass.

The story was originally to have been made by John Ford, which isn't surprising due to his love of all things Irish in his movies. It follows O'Casey (Rod Taylor) from working as a day laborer to his becoming a hated dramatist, as you see one of his plays being booed and attacked by many.

I gave this movie a 6 because it tries hard and offers some nice moments. But it was a hard sell to me because the film made O'Casey seem like a bit of a jerk and I really didn't have all that much interest in him and his life. I am not sure if it's because O'Casey was a jerk or just because of the screen play. I just found myself not caring much about him or his life.

Sean O'Casey was born John Casey, so a film about his early life that calls him John Cassidy makes sense in a sort of way. The film is based on his autobiographies (there are 6 volumes I believe) which are apparently quite readable but not entirely trustworthy. As a committed socialist (even a communist) and protestant O'Casey was to find he had no place in the conservative, catholic Ireland of De Valera. This is the great central irony of the man's life (and of the history of Irish literature of the time), that one of the few great Irish writers to deal directly with the Troubles was eventually driven from the country - so much so that he spent the last 35 years of his life in England and never once went back home. The film "Young Cassidy" is a pretty decent attempt to capture the man and his oddities. Rod Taylor looks nothing like the man but gives an energetic, likable performance. Other performances are OK and it is always nice to see Michael Redgrave, here as Yeats (he looks as little like the real man as Taylor does). Started by John Ford this looks like one of his Irish pictures but thankfully never descends into the blarney that films such as "The Quiet Man" did (Jack Cardiff who directed most of the film deserves more credit than he is usually given for his role). Filmed in Dublin it has a very authentic look. The main problem is in toning down O'Casey and his politics, he was far more radical than he was portrayed here and also far more of an irritant (to whatever country he lived in). In summary a decent biopic, overlooked but worth watching by Ford fans or those interested in Ireland.

I was most amused to see the credits start presenting a John Ford film and the credits ending with "directed by Jack Cardiff."

I believe John Ford was responsible for a few scenes in the film, including the scene where Rod Taylor (Sean O'Casey/Cassidy) enters the room where his mother (Dame Flora Robson) lies dead. This sequence is extraordinary--described and narrated by Taylor's monologue and actions. This does not stand up to the quality of the rest of the film, which is below average. Now Cardiff is a good cinematographer. He has to deal with a great cast assembled by Ford, who individually perform very well, and are captured well by Cardiff's visual eye but lack the vision of a great director to string the pearls together into a great necklace. The film's ending is amusing--a poor man turned rich man handing a crown to a vagrant who appreciates the worth of the money. What had the ending to do with what preceded it? If anything, the final scene is ambiguous and one begins to wonder whether the director was making a hero of Sean O'Casey or was he chastising him as are the film's oblique comments on Yeats living in sheltered house, policed by the British. The poor man turned into a rich and famous playwright is presented to us in fits and starts. The film did have a good intention but it lapses into mediocrity. Only two characters develop well--the mother (Robson) and Nora (Maggie Smith).

Julie Christie is mesmerising in any film but her character is never developed. Maggie Smith has charmed audiences over the years but this film is definitely one of her finest. Dames Robson and Evans are daunting thespians. Add to them Michael Redgrave. All great actors--including Aussie Rod Taylor. The film does not end with a bang but with a whimper.

"Young Cassidy" was to have been directed by John Ford, but he had to withdraw owing to illness about three weeks into filming, and was replaced by Jack Cardiff, who was credited as director. Had Ford completed it, it would have been his penultimate film; he was to complete one more film, "Seven Women", the following year. Ford was himself of Irish descent and occasionally made films on Irish subjects, such as "The Quiet Man".

The film is a biography based upon the life of the dramatist Sean O'Casey, here called John Cassidy. (O'Casey's original name was John Casey, although his family also used the name Cassidy. He Gaelicised his name to Seán Ó Cathasaigh and eventually settled on Sean O'Casey, a compromise between the English and Irish forms). The name may have been changed to allow the film-makers greater freedom to introduce fictional elements into O'Casey's life. For example, in 1926, the year the film ends, he would have been 46, no longer particularly "young" and more than a decade older than Rod Taylor was in 1965.

The film opens 1911 when Cassidy is working as a labourer in Dublin and chronicles the beginning of his literary career, ending with the performance of his play "The Plough and the Stars", which provokes a riot at the Abbey Theatre. The film also chronicles his relations with his family, his love life and his commitment to both socialism and Irish nationalism. Other historical figures are introduced, such as W.B. Yeats, Ireland's leading writer who hails Cassidy as an outstanding new talent, and the literary patron Lady Gregory.

The film's main weakness is perhaps summed by a critic's reaction to one of Cassidy's plays, namely that it is strong on character and weak on plot. The same could be said about the film itself. Although the various characters are well developed, there is no strongly developed plot line. There are occasional action sequences, in themselves well done, such as the scenes of the "Dublin Lock-Out" (a violent industrial dispute) of 1913, the Easter Rising of 1916 and the "Plough and the Stars" riot, in between these the film is rather static and dominated by conversation

Potentially interesting themes tend to be dealt with in a throwaway manner. Cassidy's girlfriend Nora rejects his proposal of marriage and leaves him, even though she is deeply in love with him, because she fears that marriage will have a deleterious effect on his artistic creativity. The idea of a woman sacrificing her happiness for her lover's art could have been an interesting one- could, indeed, have furnished the subject-matter for a whole film- but here it is dealt with very briefly.

Similarly the film touches on, but does not really deal with, the underlying tension between the two political causes to which Cassidy gives his allegiance- socialism, with its ideals of international brotherhood, and Irish nationalism, with its ethos of "ourselves alone" (the literal meaning of the Irish phrase Sinn Fein). It was in fact this tension which led to the "Plough and the Stars" riot, when conservative, middle-class nationalists in the audience took exception to O'Casey's more left-wing perspective and what they saw as his disrespectful attitude to the "heroes" of the Easter Rising. (They also objected to his treatment of religion and sex, especially his making one of his characters a prostitute; in the film one protesting woman exclaims that there is not a single prostitute in the whole of Ireland!)

The film does, however, also have its strong points, and its two greatest strengths are its sense of place- the Dublin of the 1910s and 1920s is brought vividly to life- and the acting. Strangely enough, few of the leading actors were actually Irish- Taylor was Australian and Maggie Smith, Julie Christie, Michael Redgrave, Edith Evans and Flora Robson were all English. (Christie received second billing even though for such a well-known actress she had a surprisingly small role, that of Cassidy's early mistress Daisy Battles). Nevertheless, the Irish accents are well done and never go over the top as sometimes happens with English actors called upon to play Irish roles. Taylor makes Cassidy a strong and rugged hero, and Robson is particularly good as Cassidy's stoical, long-suffering working-class mother.

"Young Cassidy" has its points of interest, but overall I felt that O'Casey was obviously a fascinating character, both as a man and as a writer, and that a stronger biography could have been made of him. 6/10

Stage Door Theatre, San Francisco; May 19, 1965. An East Side arthouse in a West Coast town; the perfect venue for the pictorial beauty and distinctly Irish attitude of this largely forgotten film. Superb perf by Rod Taylor, an ideal choice for the title role, in an always interesting vision of the early life and career of Irish playwright Sean O'Casey, from his autobiography. Dublin in the 1920s, with all the period feel and detail John Ford can muster. He fell ill and was replaced by Jack Cardiff, who carried on seamlessly. Ted Scaife photographed it brilliantly, in gorgeous Color, on actual locations. A splendid cast brought the days of O'Casey and the Troubles to vibrant and bitter life. Rod Taylor's best perf in many ways, though he did so many good movies and gave so many fine perfs during his heyday, it's hard for me to choose just one. Maggie Smith is marvelous as O'Casey's lost love: "I'm a small simple girl. I need a small simple life, not your terrible dreams and your anger." Smart girl, but two hearts are broken as Sean boards the boat for parts unknown. Julie Christie's a revelation as Daisy, one of three stunningly good perfs she gave in her golden year. Michael Redgrave's perfect as Yeats; and Flora Robson gets a late career lift as O'Casey's ma. The entire production takes the viewer back in time, to the setting of this exceptionally good and unfairly overlooked film.