High Spirits ** (1988, Peter O’Toole, Steve Guttenberg, Daryl Hannah, Beverly d’Angelo, Jennifer Tilly, Liam Neeson, Peter Gallagher, Ray McAnally) – Classic Movie Review 3360

High Spirits is a gleeful chunk of Irish blarney from the usually heavyweight writer-director Neil Jordan. The critical success of Jordan’s early movies led him from Ireland to Hollywood, where he directed High Spirits and We’re No Angels, both of which were critical and financial disasters, damaging his clout till the surprise success of The Crying Game (1992), for which he won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Peter O’Toole overacts impressively as the hero Peter Plunkett who desperately tries to attract American tourists to his remote Irish ancestral home at a dilapidated castle called Dromore Castle, Co. Limerick, by saying that it is a haunted house.

He runs it as a bed and breakfast, but, when he owes money to an American businessman, Plunkett has the idea to turn the castle into ‘the most haunted castle in Europe’ to attarct the tourist trade. And of course the American guests do come and soon find that it really is spooky when the castle starts to come to life with ghosts and spirits.

This high-spirited 1988 fantasy comedy didn’t get many takers and was greatly sniffed at – and still is – even by most fans of the cultish director. Nevertheless, it can be quite a lot of daft fun, and the performances are truly spirited, making up for any lulls or defects in Jordan’s screenplay.

Anyway, it’s all very harmless, silly, lightweight and likeable escapist entertainment, though there is some swearing and sexual themes.

The other stars in a nice cast are Steve Guttenberg, Daryl Hannah, Beverly d’Angelo, Jennifer Tilly, Liam Neeson, Peter Gallagher, Ray McAnally and Donal McCann.

Also in the cast are Mary Coughlan, Liz Smith, Tom Hickey, Tony Rohr, Hilary Reynolds, Isolde Cazelet, Little John, Martin Ferrero, Connie Booth, Krista Hornish, Paul O’Sullivan, Aimée Delamain, Ruby Buchanan and Preston Lockwood.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3360

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