Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

A Masterpiece!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is an amusing and charming Irish fairy tale. A reporter and columnist, Steven Fitzgerald (Tyrone Power) gets lost on a visit to Ireland and finds himself at a country inn run by Nora (Ann Baxter) and her father. He bumps into a leprechaun (Cecil Calloway), forces him to offer up his pot of gold, and, thinking the little guy is some kind of fruitcake, gives it back to him. Calloway promises eternal gratitude and gives him a Spanish doubloon as a good luck piece. Power and Baxter are attracted to one another but Power has other plans in New York and takes his leave.In New York, he's been hired at a high salary to write speeches and essays in support of a politician, Lee J. Cobb. Cobb's influential, rich, and powerful daughter (Jayne Meadows) goes with the job. But Power and Cobb have their disagreements. On top of that, a "man" shows up, claiming to have been sent by the agency, to take care of Powers' modern new apartment. He bears a suspicious resemblance to the leprechaun and is played by the same actor. Baxter shows up in New York to attend a kinsman's wedding and meets Power by accident on a crowded subway. Powers' dissatisfaction with his new responsibilities grows until he finally leaves his fiancée and his job, marries Baxter, and returns to Ireland to work.The first half hour and the last few minutes are set in the Irish village and they're as charming as a child's fairy tale. The much longer center section is a morality tale with serious overtones, and I'm afraid it turns into a story of a man who discovers his life is empty and decides to change it radically. (Power has done this trip before, in "The Razor's Edge.") The "peasants" are pretty generic. So are the cold-hearted cosmopolites back in New York. The former all have large families, are fun loving, cheerful, a little careless about punctuality, believe in legends, know how to drink, have dances and play lots of music, and put away big meals, and don't much worry about money. This is true of all generic peasants. It doesn't matter whether they're Irish or Jewish or Italian or Polish or Greek or anything else. Zorba the Mick.But that doesn't matter much. It's still fun. There are some people in Ireland who believe that Americans have a fairy-tale view of the Auld Sod, but although H. L. Mencken argued that nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people, I think we're all smart enough to know a fairy tale when we see one. Why are all such Irish fantasies set in a green countryside, with stone walls, rolling hills, patches of woodland, and softly flowing brooks? Partly because so much of the country actually looks like that, and partly because the cities do not. Anyone for Belfast? Power is handsome. Baxter and Calloway all do respectable Irish accents. Rod Serling probably would have enjoyed adapting this for a Twilight Zone episode. Overall, it's quite enjoyable.

I saw this movie back in the mid 80's on AMC when they had the great host who introduced films(before TCM stole all their flicks) and he mentioned that the movie had not been seen in years because of legal things in the estates of some or one of the actors.I was pleasantly surprised when I watched it but it is one of those movies that seems to be shown once in a blue moon.Considering the major actors involved it's hard to comprehend the movie isn't on more often.Tyrone Power wasn't often in comic movies but he does well here and though I have read this movie is from a novel I can't help but think of Brigadoon whenever I think of it.

The Luck of the Irish has Tyrone Power on holiday in the country of his ancestors. He meets a sprightly colleen in Anne Baxter and happens to capture a leprechaun's treasure. But the leprechaun pulls a whole drama scene on him and feeling sorry for him, he lets the leprechaun keep the treasure. The leprechaun played by Cecil Kellaway wishes him good luck and travels back to America to see that Power gets it or at least what Kellaway considers good fortune. Kellaway is a bit of a scamp, but it turns out he's got a wise old Irish head on his shoulders.This may very well have been Cecil Kellaway's career role. He rips off the film from the leads especially Tyrone Power who he has most of his scenes with. Kellaway got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.Supposedly when first released the Irish scenes had a green sepia tint to them. Not on the print I saw, it was straight black and white. One wonders why Darryl Zanuck didn't bother to do the whole thing in color for his favorite star, Tyrone Power.Other performances of note are Lee J. Cobb as the publishing magnate whose political views Power is diametrically opposed to, but who accepts a position with him. Also Jayne Meadows who is Cobb's daughter and purportedly one of the perks that goes along with the job. She's got her eyes set on Power as a husband.Money and the comforts of life that can be bought with it are not easy things to turn down, especially if one has a taste for them. It's led to many a good person's downfall. It's the dilemma Power is faced with and I think you can figure out how he resolves it.The Luck of the Irish is a nice whimsical film and it's good family entertainment.

I am a voracious channel surfer. I freely admit that. And when I was laid up with a heating pad applied to a sore neck one morning, the poor remote control was nearly smoking from the furious usage. But I stopped in my tracks as AMC portrayed Anne Baxter as Nora. She looked like the Mira Sorvino of her generation, right down to the delicate brow wrinkles of concern. Then the story drew me in. I didn't move for the next two hours. The leprechaun faded as a cultural image and became instead a vehicle of introspection and divine influence. The character played by Tyrone Power is ageless - men in the workplace are forever torn between following the dreams of their heart, or selling out to "the man" for stability and comfort. For Tyrone, the cost would have included his morality and honesty, which in today's world are sacrificed too easily and too often in the business arena. One comment worth making about the character of Nora; I was pleasantly surprised by how she never tried to manipulate situations to gain what she longed for. She accepted outcomes in a strong and self-assured manner, when it would have been easy to fall back on feminine wiles to turn things her way. A timeless film containing many lessons worth learning!