Leave It to the Irish (1944)

Great Film overall

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

This film from Monogram Pictures was the last film done by James Dunn before his Oscar winning role in A Tree Grows In Brooklyn and for his old studio of 20th Century Fox. Dunn's problems with alchohol had brought him down to poverty row Monogram. Still with the effortless Irish charm for which he was known for Dunn breezes through Leave It To The Irish as a private detective going out with Wanda McKay a police detective's daughter.Arthur Loft plays McKay's father and he'd much rather see his daughter involved with Dick Purcell his detective sidekick. Marrying a PI would bring disgrace on the family name.That gets exacerbated when Dunn is hired by Barbara Woodell to look into her husband's murder. The husband was involved in a heist racket with club owner Jack LaRue.Dunn saunters through the part, one he had done many times over at Fox and other studios. Still with Monogram's lack of production values the film looks as cheap as it is.James Dunn's career would get a kick start with that great Oscar winning performance in A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. But sadly enough it didn't last for him. Leave It To The Irish is an easy to take film which Dunn carries with charm.

LEAVE IT TO THE IRISH – 1944MONOGRAM STUDIO's strikes out again with this low-rent attempt at comedy. James Dunn headlines as Private Investigator Terry Moran. His girl, Wanda McKay, is the daughter of the local Irish American Chief of Police, Art Loft. Also getting screen time is long time screen villain, Jack La Rue. (playing a gangster of course) Dick Purcell plays another Irish cop and rounding out the cast are, Vince Barnett as Dunn's friendly bar keep, and Barbara Woodell.The film starts off with Dunn trying to pawn his pistol for a bit of cash. He is broke, and wants to take his squeeze, McKay out for a dinner and drinks. Instead of a night out, Dunn is hired by Barbara Woodell to look into the death of her husband. The penny-less P.I. is soon on the case when Woodell flashes a few bills in-front of his nose.There are plenty of red herrings thrown at the viewer. Unfortunately, for the film's producers, none of these fool the viewer for an instant. The plot is easy to follow and rather boring. Worse than the mediocre story are the terrible so called comedy bits. Not a laugh in the entire runtime. Stolen furs hidden in empty booze cases, bad guys bumping each other off, Dunn getting arrested by his future father in-law etc. The director of this thankfully short mess, (64 Min) was William "One Shot" Beaudine. Beaudine was a popular director for bottom end producers like MONOGRAM and P.R.C. as he seldom ever did retakes. This saved the studios money on negative costs. Oscar winner, James Dunn, (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) had a long career in film and television spanning from 1929 to 1968.

You can't expect much from films from Monogram or PRC, but on occasion, you will get more than you bargained for. Here, in this comedy/mystery, it is fairly obvious "who done it", but getting there is the fun part. The film starts off with two adults playing with what looks like a rubber crab that moves on its own with just the flick of a finger, then heads into a very funny scene with leading man James Dunn in a pawn shop. Dunn, a private investigator involved with Wanda McCay, one of the participants in the rubber crab game, has planned to take her out for the evening, but gets waylayed in mystery by a beautiful woman whose husband has either died accidentally or been murdered. From there, Dunn has no choice but to involve McKay who insists on tagging along after Dunn's gun is taken away and he is framed for murder. McKay ironically is the daughter of the police chief who objects to Dunn being involved in the investigation. There's not much more than this, but in just a running time over an hour, there are enough pleasant comedy bits to forgive the obvious predictability, and the pace speeds along quite fast.

This typically short (61 minutes) Monogram private detective movie stars James Dunn in a fast-talking role, directed by that legendary director of bad movies, "One Shot" William Beaudine.Beaudine, like many another leading silent director, hid out in the Bs for the rest of his career, where he specialized in cranking 'em out fast and cheap -- he is reported to have said, when told that some studio executives wanted the rushes on a Bowery Boys picture "You mean there's someone who wants to see this c**p?" James Dunn had a decent career, hampered by a drinking problem and is best known for supporting Shirley Temple in a couple of her early features and atypically winning an Oscar for his role in A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN the year following this picture. But really, he had become typecast as a leading man when he was more suited for supporting roles, even when he had to get the parts in Poverty Row productions. Here he exercises his talents by speaking his lines very fast to indicate a gift of gab.There's not much to be said about this movie except that it won't take up too much time and if it is never particularly good, it's short enough to sustain its length.