Colpo proibito

I usually enjoyed the old WB comedies for their great supporting casts, but although THE IRISH IN US is nicely paced with a good cast, there is too much of Frank McHugh for my taste. McHugh is given lots of low comedy scenes that he plays for laughs but makes the comedy seem much too forced at times. Much more bearable is Allen Jenkins as a punch-drunk fighter who goes crazy every time he hears a bell ringing.

As for the star trio, Cagney, de Havilland and O'Brien, they've all done better work in other Warner programmers. Here they are stuck with rather routine assignments which they carry off with customary charm and skill. De Havilland is considerably toned down from her first role in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and shows that she caught on quickly to the more restrained acting technique required by the screen.

Mary Gordon does a nice job as the warm-hearted Irish mother of Jimmy and Pat, anxious to have her sons on good behavior when Pat's girlfriend, Olivia, pays a visit. She and de Havilland have a warm element in their performances that helps the comedy glow.

All in all, an entertaining, if routine Warner comedy with the usual stock players doing their best.

The Irish in Us has Mary Gordon as a buxom Irish-American mother with three proud sons. Pat O'Brien a cop, Frank McHugh a fireman, and James Cagney a man with big ideas. The O'Hara family is built along the lines of the Beebe family in three years later in Paramount's Sing You Sinners that had Elizabeth Patterson as Mrs. Beebe with her three sons, Fred MacMurray, Donald O'Connor, and Bing Crosby. The only difference between the O'Haras and the Beebes is that the O'Haras aren't musical.

But they are a charming bunch even though Olivia DeHavilland comes between Cagney and O'Brien. As in the Crosby and Hope films, guess who she winds up with in the end?

Cagney's latest idea is to be a boxing promoter and he's got this punch drunk fighter played very endearingly by Allen Jenkins on whom he pins his hopes. Cagney's done a little boxing in the past himself, a fact that stands him in good stead at the climax.

This is the only time in the Cagney/O'Brien series of films that the two of them ever were blood relations and they even get Frank McHugh in there as well. Olivia DeHavilland has very little to do in this film, but sit around and look pretty. She does that very well, but it was films like this for her that made her fight for better parts that she knew she was capable of. This film while entertaining is strictly a testosterone affair.

The Irish In Us if it ever comes out on VHS and/or DVD should be seen back to back with Sing You Sinners if that ever comes out on VHS or DVD. You can't go wrong with either.

Quintessential Irish-American movie mother Mary Gordon lives in a hectic apartment with her three "boys":

Pat O'Brien is a cop, Frank McHugh is a fireman, and James Cagney— well, Cagney has no real job apparently but he fancies himself a fight manager and is his mother's favorite.

It's a sentimental and predictable setup and while the dialog early on is certainly not great, the actors hang in there and make it work —particularly O'Brien and Cagney, who show a knack for taking exchanges that look absolutely awful on the page and giving them real bite:

O'Brien: "Say, let me tell you something, there's lots worse things than being a cop." Cagney: "But I don't wanna be a cop!"

The plot eventually adds Allen Jenkins as a streetcar conductor Cagney tries to turn into a boxer. Olivia de Havilland is fine as a police commissioner's daughter—she catches O'Brien's eye but Cagney catches hers, causing family complications.

It's all pretty dated, I guess, but the picture does pick up steam as Cagney spends more time on the screen, and you'd have to be a hardboiled viewer indeed not to enjoy seeing Cagney suit up and step into the ring himself as an emergency sub when Jenkins gets drunk just before the big fight....

Not a classic but the cast certainly makes this one worthwhile. Also, Allen Jenkins' character has a truly great name: Carbarn Hammerschlog.

Years ago, I read James Cagney's autobiography. In it he talked about 'the Irish mafia'--a group of very close friends he had on and off camera. This is a rare case where all four members of this group were together in the same film--Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Frank McHugh and Allan Jenkins (fine, I don't think Jenkins was Irish--but he was still a member of this group of friends). It looks like the friends had a lovely time making the film but it is an awfully lightweight and rather brainless film. Enjoyable...but brainless.

Ma O'Hara (Mary Gordon) has three grown sons that live with her: Danny (Cagney), Pat (O'Brien) and Mike (McHugh). While Pat and Mike respectable jobs, Danny, the youngest, is a bit of a dreamer and hopes to make his fortune managing boxers. However, he has nothing to show for his efforts and Ma is hoping he'll soon follow in his brothers' footsteps.

Into this family come two people. First, a brainless boxer named 'Carbarn' (Jenkins)--and he's the least likely looking boxer I can recall having seen in film. Second, Pat brings home Lucille (Olivia de Havilland) and plans on marrying her. However, they barely know each other and Pat is seriously premature. To make it worse, Lucille has already met Danny...and is quite interested. So what's to become of all these characters? Well, it all comes to a head at one of the most ridiculous boxing matches on film where a first-time fighter gets to fight the champ!!!

The whole picture is ridiculous and mindless...but also kind of fun. It's a turn your brain off and enjoy sort of time-passer. Agreeable but very, very slight due to the fluff-like plot that never seems the least bit real. What saves it is the likability of the actors...period.

Lifetime best friends James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Frank Mchugh and other good buddy Allen Jenkins hook up in this rather far fetched punchless comedy about an Irish mother and her three unmarried boys still living at home. I can only imagine the fun the guys had making this picture together, it's a shame it doesn't transfer to the screen.

Two of Ma O'Hara's (Mary Gordon) sons have secure jobs as a fireman (McHugh) and cop (O'Brien) while a third (Cagney) is trying to make it as a fight manager with a screw loose pug (Jenkins). When a woman (Olivia DeHaviland) comes between Cagney and O'Brien, the former moves out causing Ma, to fret.

The boys all predictably do what's expected of them; Cagney is energized and fast talking, O'Brien brooding and introspective, McHugh elfin, Jenkins punchy. The plot moves from silly to absurd fast and the sentimental tug with strains of When Irish Eyes are Smiling always near by is blatant. DeHaviland as a confident, modern woman seems almost out of place with her cool rational compared to the entire O'Hara clan in a film so dedicated to a target audience the closing credit plays over a shamrock. The Irish in Us is one bowl of lukewarm blarney.