The Rising of the Moon

A trio of short films about Ireland, introduced by Irish-American actor Tyrone Power, The Rising of the Moon can best be described as nice. Based on three works of Irish fiction and theater written by Frank O'Connor, Martin McHugh, and Lady Gregory, while taking its title from the original title of the third work, it's a trilogy of pastiches that try to paint the Irish character that John Ford loved. It doesn't never gets the depth of feeling or sheer entertainment value as Ford's The Quiet Man, but it's never really boring. It's just, well, it's nice.

The first is titled "The Majesty of the Law" based on the short story by O'Connor. It's about a police inspector, Dillon (Cyril Cusack), who decides to walk home from the constabulary in order to make a stop over at the house of Dan O'Flaherty (Noel Purcell) for what seems like a visit. Along the way, he meets the local moonshiner Mickey (Jack MacGowran), chastises him for what he's obviously doing, and goes into the hut where Dan lives. Dan had assaulted a fellow villager, and Dillon is there to arrest him. It's a small town environment where a local policeman knows everyone involved in a crime, and there's a deep personal history between everyone. A conversation strikes up between the three that seems to be about the nature of the Irish character, the underlying niceness and fraternity across the small town communities along with the amusing contrast of antagonism that's never all that dangerous. There's the ironic ending where the man Dan had attacked tries to pay his fine for him, but Dan will not accept it from the likes of such a man and proudly delivers himself to the jail for his sentence, since he refuses to pay the fine himself.

The second story is the most amusing of the three, and the best of them. Titled "A Minute's Wait" based on the one-act comedy by McHugh, it's the story of a train stopped at a sleepy little station that keeps getting delayed from its one minute stop by different, very Irish, things while very Irish goings on happen at the same time. There are the older acquaintances who play matchmakers for the son and niece they represent. There's the engineer who has a story about a ghost in a castle that the mousy woman who works behind the counter gets caught up in. There's an older English couple on their way to a wedding who watch it all, flabbergasted, and end up getting left behind on accident. There's the local cricket team that comes marching down the tracks and the train picks up. It's really just a collection of moments, but they're fun moments, building off of a little event portrayed in The Quiet Man of trains running late because train personnel have to hash out centuries' old arguments during stops.

The final story is titled "1921" and based on the play "The Rising of the Moon" by Lady Gregory. It tells the story of an IRA member, Sean Curran (Donal Donnelly) who is about to be hung by the English military. His fate has become a cause celebre for the Irish people as a large mass of them parade in front of the jail. A pair of nuns arrive at the jail, one of them, Sister Mary Grace (Maureen Cusack), who is Curran's sister. It's a ruse, though, and the girl, an American with an American passport, trades places with Curran and allows him to escape. He still has to get out of militarized Dublin, though, and he takes on the disguise of a ballad singer. Whenever an Irishman recognizes him for who he is, the other immediately takes up Curran's cover story and helps him along, eventually escaping after nearly coming to trouble under the watch of Sergeant O'Hara (Denis O'Dea) who only realizes who Curran is when he's gotten away.

The first and third are nice little stories, but it's the second that just goes for straight up entertaining and succeeds the most fully. The second isn't a great piece of short film, though. It's good.

The actors seem to be, except for Tyrone Power who only introduces the segments, Irish stage and screen actors living in Ireland, providing a very nice level of authenticity to the action.

Ford manages the interesting production well, but the depth is never there and the entertainment value somewhat limited. It's nice.

These three films owe their success to an ensemble cast of Irish actors most of whom cropped up again and again whenever Ireland used to be depicted in theatre, film or television.

Representing an early style of theatre acting that needed to be clearly heard at the back of the auditorium without microphones, Noel Purcell in "The Majesty of the Law" gives the tone to most of the acting in these three films by beautifully blasting the other actors with an outsized performance. Cyril Cusack offers a rare subtlety. In "A Minute's Wait" watch dozens of actors flowing back and forth on a platform in rural Ireland as the principals share performances in true ensemble fashion.

The first two films are glorious comedies with only the faintest kernel of truth. But, no matter, by suspending disbelief, you can settle down and let the blarney flow over you.

The third film "1921" which starts with a potential execution, a strange addition to the other light stories, nevertheless manages to haul in the blarney yet again in order to lighten the tone. And no one expects even this one to end badly. There is a final song even.

All three films contain plenty of comic dialogue and, best of all, are shot on location and, despite being in black and white, we get to see much of a real Ireland - even if it's mostly in the background.

1. `The Majesty of the Law' - Frank O'Connor & Frank S. Nugent.

This is the story of a proud Irish small-holder and his 'encounter' with the Law. It humorously portrays rural Irish people, the nature of village relationships, small-town disagreements, the people's attitude to the law and the officials' accommodation of those ways. Noel Purcell, as the small-farmer, and the other village people over-act in a typically stage-irish manner. ( `Is it yourself?' - `It is, to be sure.' and many, many other oirish lines that have become classics.) Cyril Cusack gives a much more subtle performance (one of his few!).

2. `A Minute's Wait' - Michael J. McHugh. Another funny story of rural Ireland has the Ballyscran to Dunfaill train at the station for its scheduled one minute stop. As the title suggests the story looks at the Irish attitude to time-keeping, and how in rural Ireland time could wait for man, . for prize goats, for Bishop's dinners, and most importantly, for a pint of porter (just the one, of course). A rare chance to see the great Jimmy O'Dea again - `Merciful hour!'

3. `1921' - Adapted from The Rising of the Moon by Lady Augusta Gregory. This is the more serious story of a young patriot who is to be hanged by the `Black and Tans' (a vicious paramilitary force which terrorised Ireland during the last years of British control). The story does show, and is true to, the different attitudes of the various factions at the time. The vicious Black and Tans, the more considerate British military, the double standards of the RIC Royal Irish Constables and collaborators, and the belligerence of the oppressed Irish people. While the acting is much more subtle than the previous short films, `1921' is let down by being poorly written and adapted. There are some great shots of 1950s Dublin, including the Liffy bridges and the Four Courts.

When John Ford set out to make what was to turn out to be his last completed Irish film he had high hopes of using Tyrone Power, Maureen O'Hara, and Barry Fitzgerald to star in each of the stories that make up the trilogy in The Rising Of The Moon. Unfortunately all three of them had prior commitments though I suspect in the case of O'Hara she was not getting along with Ford at the time. Read her memoirs to find out about their odd relationship.

However he did get Tyrone Power to appear and do narratives for the three stories that were filmed. The stories certainly are a rich mixture of Irish fiction from the first quarter of the last century. If you recognize the players they are from the famous Abbey Theater Company of Dublin and if you saw The Quiet Man you'll pick out many a face and voice from the cast of characters there.

The first story is the least of the three, in His Majesty The Law a police inspector played by Cyril Cusack has a distasteful duty to perform in serving a warrant on Noel Purcell, a rather proud gentleman who cold cocked a man who sold him some bad home made moonshine.

The second is entitled A Minute's Wait concerns a train bound into some country region of Ireland that is continually being held for a minute's wait while all sorts of bizarre passengers and freight are loaded on to the train. While this is going on the passengers are having one really good time in the station pub. You wouldn't think that in Ireland a train station wouldn't have a pub? Everyone just expects all these things as part of the system except for a married English couple who are the ones constantly downgraded from what passes for first class accommodations on this Irish railway. It's all quite whimsical and amusing.

The last story 1921 is set during the rebellion that year and it involves the escape of a known IRA man minutes from his date with the hangman. The escape is perpetrated by a group of Irish players not unlike the Abbey Theater. Although the audience knows well who the escapee is through his disguise that's half the fun in seeing that the occupying Black and Tan force is so clueless to what's going on around them. Donal Donnelly plays the escapee Sean Curran, a role that was intended for Tyrone Power had he been able to do it. Power was probably too old for the part in any event and the younger Donnelly was a better fit.

Yet the lack of marquee names is the reason that this film is not better known. I'm sure now that it has appeared on TCM it will be broadcast with The Quiet Man on St. Patrick's Day.

At least I hope so.

Rising of the Moon, The (1957)

** (out of 4)

Anthology film has director Ford returning to Ireland but the end results are far from those of THE QUIET MAN. In the first story, "The Majesty of the Law" has a policeman going to visit an old friend, now living desperately poor due to something in his past but it turns out he does have the money to correct his wrongdoings but refuses. The second story "One Minute's Wait" is about a train that stops off in a small station but every time it tries to leave something else comes up preventing it from doing so. The final film, "1921", is about an American nun who helps a British man escape from be hung but this just leads to more problems. This here is one of the least known works by Ford and it's easy to see why as we really don't have any well-known actors in the three stories. We do have Tyrone Power showing up for brief intros to each story but this here certainly wasn't enough to bring people to the film. This is one of those movies that I just watched without ever getting fully entertained but at the same time I was never really bored. The film, on a technical level, is quite good as you can tell in each scene that Ford has a love for the subject matter. Each scene is beautifully filmed and the cinematography certainly picks up the beauty of the land. The film also works in terms of the performances. The cast are mainly unknown actors but they do very good work and they come across as real characters. Anytime you tell "short stories" within one film then you're already fighting an uphill battle as it's hard to create one equally flowing film. It seems reviews are really mixed on which is the best story but my vote would go to the final one. In his introduction Power says it comes from a story that "all Americans would know" but I doubt that's the case. The story is a mild crime drama but it contains some interesting set-ups even if it does end out of no where. In the end, this isn't a disaster or a good film but it's a minor work that will probably appeal to those with a major love of Irish stories.