Young Cassidy

A fictionalized account of the early life of playwright Sean O’Casey (Rod Taylor).

Due to director John Ford falling ill during production, Young Cassidy has some interesting on-screen credits. The film is introduced as “a film by John Ford” but the direction credit goes to Jack Cardiff, the notable cinematographer of films such as John Huston’s The African Queen.

Though Ford reportedly only directed two scenes, the bar fight and the funeral, this feels very much like a Ford picture, with the lived-in, yet vibrant, working-class world that Ford always seemed so comfortable in. Rod Taylor’s great in the lead. Physically large and rugged, yet emotionally frustrated and raging, Taylor looks and feels like the collision of working man and artist that character embodies.

Maggie Smith is also good as Taylor’s character’s love interest. She underplays the mousey, reserved bookseller yielding good results.

That said, the film isn’t perfect. Some of the melodrama is overdone and the pacing drags from time to time, but, for the most part, this is a solid drama that serves as good exposure for one of Ireland’s forgotten voices. It also, unfortunately, turned out to be John Ford’s penultimate film.