Juno and the Paycock (1930): Hitchcock’s Version of Irish Sean O’Casey Play–What You Need to Know

Hitchcock directed Juno and the Paycock, a 1930 sound British political melodrama, starring Barry Fitzgerald, Maire O’Neill, Edward Chapman and Sara Allgood.

Grade: C (1 1/2* out of *****)

The film was based on Seán O’Casey’s famous 1924 play of the same name, which has been filmed several times for television and is still being produced on stage.

“It had nothing to do with cinema,” Hitchcock told Francois Truffaut in a long interview about his and his wife (Alma Reville’s) adaptation of Sean O’Casey’s famous Irish play.

And, indeed, it’s hard to see what motivated Hitchcock to direct this movie, his thirteenth, about an impoverished Irish family during Dublin’s political uprisings.

Barry Fitzgerald, who played Captain Jack Boyle in the original stage production, appears as orator in the first scene, but has no other role.

Cast

Fitzgerald would go on to become one of Hollywood’s most accomplished character player, winning the 1944 Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Leo McCarey’s comedy, Going My Way.

Sara Allgood would also achieve Hollywood glory with the 1941 Best Supporting Actress Oscar for John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley.

Narrative Structure

In the slums of Dublin during the Irish Civil War, Captain Boyle (Edward Chapman) lives in a tenement flat with his wife Juno (Sara Allgood) and their two adult children Mary (Kathleen O’Regan) and Johnny (John Laurie).

Juno has labeled her husband “the Paycock” because she thinks him as useless and vain as a peacock. She works while the Captain loafs around the flat when not drinking up the family’s meagre finances at the pubs.

Daughter Mary has a job but is on strike against the exploitation of a co-worker.

Son Johnny has become a semi-invalid after losing an arm and severely injuring his hip in a fight with the Black and Tans during the Irish War of Independence.

Although Johnny has taken the Anti-Treaty side during the continuing Irish Civil War, he has recently turned in a fellow Irish Republican Army (IRA) member to the Irish Free State police who subsequently kill him.

The Paycock tells his friend Joxer (Sidney Morgan) of his disgust at the informer, unaware that it is his son. The IRA suspect Johnny and order him to report to them for questioning; he refuses, using his wounds to show his patriotism.

Meanwhile, Mary is courted by Jerry Devine (Dave Morris), whom she leaves for Charlie Bentham (John Longden) who whisks her away after telling Mary’s family the Captain is to receive an inheritance.

Elated, the Captain borrows money against the (as yet un-received) inheritance and spends it freely on new furniture and a gramophone. Family friends are invited to an impromptu party at the once shabby tenement.

The Captain soon learns the inheritance has been lost because Bentham made an error in drafting the will. The Captain keeps the bad news a secret until the creditors show up. Even Joxer turns on the Captain and gleefully informs the creditors.

As a result, the store repossesses the furniture, the tailor demands money for new clothes., and pub owner Mrs. Madigan (Maire O’Neill) takes the Victrola to cover the Captain’s bar tab.

There’s more bad news. Mary reveals her pregnancy by Charles, who has disappeared after his blunder was discovered. Her former fiancé Jerry proclaims love and offers to marry her until he learns of her pregnancy.

Johnny is arrested by the IRA and his body is later found riddled with bullets. Realizing their family has been destroyed, Mary declares, “It’s true. There is no God.”

Though completely shattered, Juno holds his faith in Christ and the Blessed Virgin in dealing with their grief, Alone, however, she laments her son’s fate, and later leaves with Mary.

Hitchcock shot a faithful reproduction of the play, using few directorial touches. He asked cinematographer Jack Cox to hold the camera for long single shots. Eager to have an outdoor scene, he got O’Casey’s permission, a pub scene was added.

Intertextuality:

O’Casey served as the inspiration for the prophet of doom in the diner scene in The Birds, in 1963.

Sara Allgood reprised her role as Juno from the play. Barry Fitzgerald made his film debut.

Jewish Touches

The tailor Mr Kelly, who repossesses Captain Boyle’s new clothes, is portrayed by a Jewish actor with heavy Germanic accent, although in the original play the character is called Nugent, and is Irish Gentile. Some criticized the use of stereotype of Jews as alien usurers, stressing the language used–“I should vorry vot you dress yourself in? Go ahead, jump in a pillowslip!”. It has been reworked to sound Jewish compared to Nugent in O’Casey’s play: “What do I care what you dhress yourself in ? You can put yourself in a bolsther cover, if you like.”

The film’s songs are sort of fake-Irish music hall, which was then popular in America, such as If You’re Irish, Come Into the Parlour, where in O’Casey’s original their meaning is other; Joxer can’t remember the words of She is Far from the Land, Thomas Moore’s plangent song in memory of his close friend Robert Emmet, another martyr of earlier revolution, and his lover Sarah Curran.

There are other differences. In the film, the daughter scolds the mother about extravagance based on her lover’s meretricious promises, while in the play Juno warns her husband.

In the film, Joxer is introduced as a secret Fenian; in the play he’s a pointless drunk with no political affiliation.

It’s one of the few Hitchcock movies that I do not like and cannot find many artistic merits in it. By Hitchcock’s standards, the film is sentimental and has more pathos than humor or wit, two attributes of the director’s later and better work.

In its initial release, however, Juno and the Paycock was both a critical and commercial success.

The original negative is held in the BFI National Archive but it has never received restoration.

Cast
Maire O’Neill as Maisie Madigan
Edward Chapman as Captain Boyle
Sidney Morgan as “Joxer” Daly
Sara Allgood as Mrs Boyle, “Juno”
John Laurie as Johnny Boyle
Dave Morris as Jerry Devine
Kathleen O’Regan as Mary Boyle
John Longden as Charles Bentham
Dennis Wyndham as The Mobiliser
Barry Fitzgerald as The Orator

Credits

Produced by John Maxwell
Screenplay: Hitchcock and Alma Reville, based on Sean O’Casey’s play
Cinematography: Jack Cox
Set design: Norman Arnold
Editing: Emilie de Ruelle

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