Forgotten Irish movies.

The Last of the High Kings. Had a few big names, this was during Leto's dream boat stage around the time of My so called life.

If I'm ever gifted a bottle of Flatley's whiskey - supposed to be drinkable enough - I must have a dram while watching that :)

Class film, Milo O’Shea is great as is David O’Hara. Almost as good as ‘The Closer You Get’ (2000).

The novel it was based on by John Banville won the Booker Prize, the film didn't get much traction at the time, I enjoyed it when I watched it, very low key. But the link to the book should keep it ticking over as a curiosity if nothing else.

Madame X (1981) - NBC remake of the old chestnut with Tuesday Weld. Has a ludicrous Universal backlot depiction of 60s Dublin, featuring a hotel with a child choir at Christmas, terrible accents and Jeremy Brett as a Dublin doctor. Features the black Lagoon set as rural Ireland, with the bridge from Sweet Charity.

I'll admit that the banshee scared me when I was young.

Catholics (1973) Curiously forgotten HTV/CBS coproduction set and shot in Cork and Tippeary, about a young American priest (Martin Sheen, when he was as Tarantino put it, 'the TV movie Pacino'), in a dystopian rural Catholic Irish island in the year 2000, in a world where the Church has been modernised, where priests dress like Action Men in smart-casual 70s gear (Raf Vallone's Father General dresses like a pimp) and the Church is much more hippyish, and Latin mass removed, except on this island. On this island, crowds from all over the world come to watch traditional Latin mass. Trevor Howard heads the monastery. Has a Guinness ad in the pub. Never seen Gambon so Irish and hairy, with his slightly de-Anglicised 'posh Irish actor' voice, as a priest who became a priest instead of joining the IRA.

Also with Cyril Cusack, Andrew Keir and a young Tom 'Charlie off Fair City' Jordan (looking fifty when he was 35).
Geoffrey Golden, star of the notorious RTE school drama the Spike is the island publican.
Brian Moore's novel features a BBC TV crew.

Moll Flanders (1996) with Robin Wright, Morgan Freeman, Stockard Channing, John Lynch, Brenda Fricker…

Shot at Ardmore and in Dublin, Wicklow and Bantry.

Jeremy Brett's last thing. It feels very Irish. Aside from Brett, Geraldine James and the Irish-descent Cathy Murphy, everyone in this is an Irish hire. Everytihng has the stench of producer Morgan O'Sullivan. In other words, it looks like it could be a TVM for Hallmark/Disney Channel that we were churning out here at the time. Because of this, Freeman feels like he's slumming it, especially when paired with a Billie Barry-type Irish child actress. They're all in this. Jim Sheridan (yes, really), Maria Doyle Kennedy, Ger Ryan, Alan Stanford, Eileen Reid (yes, the showband/panto star), Chris 'Fr. Jim Johnson' Curran, Rynagh 'Mary' O'Grady, Mary McEvoy, Birdy Sweeney, Jonathan Ryan (of Bosco/Twink sidekick infamy), Brendan Cauldwell, Brian de Salvo (that English-accented radio voiceover all over East Coast FM), Tom 'Charlie' Jordan, Gina Moxley, Stanley Townsend, Joe Savino, Gary Whelan off EastEnders, and billed way down... Ardal O'Hanlon (who presumably made this before Ted came out, otherwise he wouldn't have been billed so low)…

To be honest, the dreadlocked, earring-clad, tricorn-clad Freeman looks far more comfortable in period costume than any of the Fair City, Ballykissangel, Father Ted and Glenroe vets he is surrounded by. He looks fly as ****. Harry Towb in a judge's wig enlivens things, even though he's doing his Peter Goodwright accent from The Day Today. So you expect him to swear his head off. Britta Smith appears, the actress who actually had an affair with Ray McAnally, not Brenda Fricker as my Grandad believed.

Looking through the credits for people I knew, I noticed very oddly, 'Consultant to Pen Densham - Nina Foch'. What was the 40s/50s Hollywood actress doing on this film?
AND
'Music Researcher - Frank McNamara'.
Yes, the Late Late Show musical director. I've been on a bus with McNamara. I didn't talk to him cos he seemed right stuffy, and clearly hated being on public transport. Then saw him on the motorway driving his van, again looking horrified to be driving his own transport.