Young Cassidy *** (1964, Rod Taylor, Maggie Smith, Edith Evans, Flora Robson, Michael Redgrave, Julie Christie, T P McKenna, Jack MacGowran) – Classic Movie Review 7439

John Ford was ailing and became sick while directing this 1964 autobiographical portrait of the young life of the playwright and writer Sean O’Casey (Rod Taylor, though he bears no resemblance to him) in Ireland, so Jack Cardiff took over. The talented playwright John Whiting writes the screenplay, based on Sean O’Casey’s autobiography Mirror in My House. It was nominated for two BAFTA Film Awards: Best British Actress (Maggie Smith) and Best British Costume, Colour (Margaret Furse).

Young Cassidy is a powerful drama set in 1910s Dublin, played up nicely by the top-line cast, including three dames (Maggie Smith, Edith Evans and Flora Robson as Mrs Cassidy) and a knight (Michael Redgrave as the Irish poet William Butler Yeats).

As Johnny Cassidy (evidently based on Sean O’Casey), Taylor gives a winning performance in a surprisingly effective mix of charisma and forcefulness. Julie Christie has a small but helpful and effective role as a hooker called Daisy Battles in scenes directed (uncredited) by Ford. Cardiff said that only four minutes and five seconds of Ford’s footage ended up in the finished film.

Also in the cast are T P McKenna, Jack MacGowran, Julie Ross, Robin Sumner, Philip O’Flynn, Siân Phillips, Pauline Delaney, Arthur O’Sullivan and Joe Lynch.

Young Cassidy is directed by Jack Cardiff and John Ford (uncredited), runs 109 minutes, is made by Sextant Films, is released by MGM, is written by John Whiting, based on Sean O’Casey’s autobiography Mirror in My House, is shot in Metrocolor by Ted Scaife, is produced by Robert Graff and Robert Emmett Ginna, and is scored by Sean O’Riada. It is shot in County Wicklow, Ireland, and at MGM British Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England.

Taylor said it was the favourite of his films. He was an unexpected choice for the role, which was originally offered to Sean Connery, though Ford fancied Peter O’Toole or Richard Harris, while O’ Casey suggested the less starry Donal Donnelly or Norman Rodway.

Critics hailed the riot scene as Ford’s work yet it too was shot by Cardiff, inspired by Battleship Potemkin (1925).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7439

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