Aside from some awful tinting, a lovely and fun film

MartinHafer

The DVD for this film from 20th Century-Fox is interesting because it offers you the choice of seeing it in glorious black & white or in the bizarre manner that it was originally shown--with all the sequences in Ireland (almost half the film) tinted Kool-Aid green! Now tinting was common in the silent movie days, but doing so in 1948 was odd. You may wonder why they didn't just film it in color--and there's a very good reason they couldn't do that. Just like when they filmed HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY (set in Wales), they couldn't make the film a color one because there is a lot of dirt and dry scrub in Southern California where they make films--and the film was set in a very lush green land. The wrong locale would have been VERY obvious in color films and had they used color, no one might have been convinced it was "the old country" (Ireland). However, the color tinting really wasn't very clever, as it made the film butt-ugly. I watched the DVD that way but fortunately you can choose--and I strongly suggest you try any way other than tinted!!

As for the film, it's a lovely little fantasy film about Tyrone Power getting himself a Leprechaun "helper" in the form of Cecil Kellaway--who is adorable in the film but a bit too large to be one of the little people! Still, with such a lovely acting job, this can be forgiven. In some ways, Power having this magical friend who only wants to help straighten out his life is very reminiscent of the later Burl Ives film, THE BRASS BOTTLE--though Kellaway uses far less obvious magic and the film isn't nearly as crazy as THE BRASS BOTTLE. In fact, though there is a bit of magic, most of the help Kellaway gives is in the form of advice and a small helping hand. The problem is that Power doesn't think he needs help and is blindly walking into a life he'll soon regret. Heck, everyone in the audience and all his friends in the film recognize this, but fat-headed Tyrone is too single-minded to see it for himself.

The film is clever and cute without being too obvious and too kooky. Overall, it earns a 7 for quality, though the fun factor is higher--and if I were to score how much I enjoyed the film, an 8 might be more appropriate. It's a lovely little romantic film that deserves a look--just NOT in the (yuck) tinted version--saints preserve us!

score 7/10

MartinHafer 13 January 2009

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2006867/