Rose d'Irlande

Dennis Morgan is a perfect choice to play Chauncey Olcott, Irish songwriter in a tune-filled musical biography full of Irish folk songs and dances. All of it is filmed in luscious technicolor with a pleasant cast of supporting players--Andrea King (especially good as Lillian Russell), Alan Hale, Arlene Dahl, George Tobias, Sarah Allgood and you may be surprised to see William Frawley as an Irish singer, William Scanlon, who figures importantly in some musical sequences.

This vastly underrated film is hardly ever shown on TV (except for Turner Classic Movies) and still not available on video. Watch it if you enjoy nostalgic turn-of-the-century musicals about Irish musicians. Some of the material is pretty dated, but you have to accept that in the context of when it was made. Some of the comedy supplied by Ben Blue and George Tobias is a little on the corny side--but the film itself is still a delight for the eye and ear.

This excellent musical movie, in beautiful Technicolor, is so wonderful it's enough to make every person of Irish descent feel proud. Full of the joy and celebration of all things Irish, a fine cast, with brilliant settings and superb theatrical trappings, lovely Irish music and the superlative Irish tenor voice of star Dennis Morgan, 'tis the luck o' the Irish to have such a marvelous movie to enjoy over and over again! Not just just for St. Patty's Day, mind you, but for all year round.

One of the jewels produced by Jack L. Warner during his heyday as studio boss in Burbank in the 1940s.

Shame on Warner Brothers for not having this fine picture available on home video and DVD!

The music is wonderful; the cast is a delight; the story is charming (not a word that one hears much today!) - so why is this movie not on home video? Dennis Morgan, to quote Lillian Russell, sings 'beautifully'. This film is a gem and is one of the best musicals made. Ben Blue is hilarious, and Arlene Dahl is stunning as Rose. This movie is a joy to see. If you have never seen it - and I had not until last year - check it out when next it comes on TCM. It is better for you than 99.99999% of the idiocy on TV or at the movies.

Yes, I give it a 10 because I compare it not only to others of it's kind but also to the dreck one is bombarded with on a daily basis in what's laughably called today's "popular culture." That aside, the film is beautifully cast, as has been stated elsewhere, and gives us a fairly good look at popular theater of the late 18th and early 20th centuries. No small coincidence is that many of the plays that Olcott played in involved a similar plot: Boy meets girl, someone objects, (usually the father or some authority figure) boy struggles, boy wins girl. The was actually known at the time as a "Chauncey Olcott Act." No coincidence, too, that John Ford directed one. He called it, "The Quiet Man." And, "My Wild Irish Rose," is, in itself, a "Chauncey Olcott act." Great stuff, no? Anyway, great songs, great stuff. Enjoy.

PS - After seeing the film I'd like to know more about Bill Scanlan. I found an obit that said he quit "Mauvorneen," as a result of insanity (replaced, as in the film, by Chauncey Olcott) and died in an asylum several years later. But he had been, apparenlty, a very big star in his own right, who wrote songs and plays and had plays written for him.

Anyone know more?

I enjoyed this film very much. I found it to be very entertaining for me in that I feel that it captured the romanticism of turn of the century Irish-American culture. There's no messages. There's no violence and there's no overt sex, just wholesome 1947 style entertainment and Dennis Morgan had a chance to sing some really good songs. A really good movie.