Dublin in Brass

For those who remember that loud and obnoxious shock jock TV host of the early 90s Morton Downey, Jr. some exposure to his dad might prove a tonic. Morton Downey Sr. was a lyric Irish tenor whose highest vogue in popularity came in the early 30s.

This short subject has Irish immigrant Downey having gone to the Irish Police Academy sets sail for New York where tis rumored that one can get employed at the NYPD with his training. He finds that can't be done, but his lyric tenor does make things work out in their own way.

Some singing and dancing and a few forgettable songs marks this short subject. Downey was certainly no actor and he had a bit of a gut. That probably prevented him from ever going real Hollywood. That other Irish singer Bing Crosby fought weight problems in his prime.

At least Morton Downey's art is now immortalized courtesy of this film.

Sure and Morton Downey graduates from a police school in Ireland, Trained to become a cop in New York as soon as he can get there in this silly musical Vitaphone short, ending in a big production number with a pair of hard-knock slapstick comics. And how else might you be celebrating him who drove all the snakes out of the Ould Sod?

Downey sings a couple of songs in his tenor. He was a talented singer, and should not be confused with his namesake, Morton Downey Jr., who spent a couple of decades on television spouting right-wing nonsense in an early TV tabloid talk show.

I caught this musical comedy short on TCM.

A singing Irishman graduates from a cheesy Police School in Ireland and heads to New York City in order to join the NYPD, leaving his fiancée behind. He arrives on St. Patrick's Day, watches the parade, gets into some trouble, gets a couple of big surprises, and yet still finds a happy ending in an unexpected way. The plot is actually fairly thin for a two-reeler because the meat of the short is the singing and dancing numbers.

Morton Downey sings several songs, including two duets with Andrea Marsh and a fantasy production with leggy dancing girls on scooters. In between stock footage shots of the actual St. Patrick's Day parade we get some tap dancing policemen, dancing Irish ladies, and a rather amusing slapstick comedy routine from the little known Vaudeville group Smith, Rogers & Eddie. Most of the comedy in the non-musical sections is good natured fun poked at Irish Policeman stereotypes.

Personally, I'm not a fan of crooners, so I didn't care for the songs, but I thought the dancing and comedy segments were enjoyable. One's enjoyment of this short probably depends a lot on whether or not one likes old musicals in general and crooning in particular.

From the "I Didn't Know That" department... Morton Downey is the father of the late 80's trash TV talk show host Morton Downey Jr., and there's a good facial resemblance.

Overall... mildly entertaining yet forgettable...