This Other Eden

Generally speaking Leslie Phillips is best known for his comedy roles.Here he plays more of a dramatic role as the son of a British officer who had killed an Irish hero in the troubles in the 1920s.He has come back to right the wrongs of his father.However he gets rather more involved with the local populace than he would ever have imagined.It all threatens to become serious,however as with many films set in Ireland it all ends on a note of whimsy.

One of three early Ardmore Studios comedy/drama productions combining Dublin's Abbey Theater players with one or more international stars. The other two are "Sally's Irish Rogue" and "Broth Of A Boy"

Based on a successful 1950's Abbey Theater play, Patrick Kirwan's screenplay lightens the anti-clerical and anti-Nationalist tone of the original.

Brief Synopsis: Ireland, late 1950s. The erection of a statue in a small provincial town to patriot martyr Jack Carberry creates two problems: it focuses anti-British sentiment at a time when a wealthy Englishman wants to settle in the area, and causes a moral dilemma for a local high-minded young ward who learns (somewhat belatedly) that he is Carberry's illegitimate son.

The main plot of "This Other Eden" has some similarities to "The Quiet Man" - a wealthy outsider wants to settle in Ireland, falls in love with a native girl and arouses a variety of local feeling ranging from support to open hostility. The hostility, of course, is political; but some sympathy and much humor is generated by the Englishman's romantic vision of Ireland: he is willing to buy an Irish mansion because of the "Irishness" of its name, he has learned a few phrases in Gaelic (and uses them inappropriately) and much to the disconcertion of his adversaries, he admires the patriot Carberry and sympathizes with the nationalist viewpoint. In his romanticism he has much in common with those around him. The idealization of patriots - the commemorative statue, when unveiled, neatly reflects the distorted image the locals have of their hero - is only one of a plethora of themes within Patrick Kirwan's screenplay. Other themes include: the Irish antipathy towards the British, the commercial exploitation of Irish patriots, the Church's attitude towards them, conspiracies of silence - enough for several films, never mind a modest 80-minute feature! There is also too much plot; only the main plot is satisfactorily developed and resolved. Some of the sub-plots are too often hastily and unconvincingly tied up - especially the dispatching of a "bloodhound" press reporter with only a few threatening words.

However, there is much to enjoy: the story itself is continually interesting and upbeat; the characters are well-drawn and well-acted - especially Audrey Dalton as the independently-minded daughter of a wealthy local businessman. Leslie Phillips strikes a nice balance between blundering romanticism and resourceful practicality. Only Hilton Edward's snuff-taking Canon Moyle borders on caricature.

For anyone with an interest in Ireland "This Other Eden" is well worth seeing as a microcosm of that country just before attitudes began to change in the 1960s.

The Locations: the town square is in Chapelizod (near Dublin's Phoenix Park), the hotel is in Wicklow town (The Bayview) and Kilgarrig House is in the grounds of Ardmore Studios itself.

English-educated Audrey Dalton returns to her Irish home just as a statue to a revolutionary who was killed during the Troubles is being dedicated. Meanwhile, Leslie Phillips, the son of the man who killed him comes to town, determined to buy a property, marry Miss Dalton, and live among the lovely Irish people forever. When the statue to the dead revolutionary is blown up, everyone thinks he did it. But he calms them by misquoting Shakespeare's King John.

Muriel Box's movie is a romantic comedy mixed with a little satire of the mid-century Irish who look upon patriotism as a money-making profession. Phillips gets much better lines than he would in the next decade, and says them with the same fervor that kept him working for that period. Unhappily, the cast, well supplied with Abbey Players, seem to handle the humor in the script in such a rancorous fashion that it isn't terribly amusing.