Forgotten Film Fortunes: A Double Dose of “The Luck of the Irish”

 By Michael Lyons

As St. Patrick's Day approaches, you scramble to put together your appropriately-themed watchlist.  After the appropriate, eclectic choices - The Quiet Man (1952), Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959), and Leprechaun (1993) - you may be on the lookout for other movies.  Well, you're in luck...in fact, you may have doubled your luck.

Through the years, there have been two movies with the title The Luck of the Irish, one in 1948 and another in 2001 (there was another made in 1920, but the print has been lost!).  The two movies with the same title couldn't be more different, but they both make seldom-seen seasonally-appropriate choices for St. Patrick's Day viewing.

The Luck of the Irish (1948) 

Tyrone Power plays a journalist named Stephen Fitzgerald in this film.  While on a trip to Ireland, he meets a leprechaun named Horace (Cecil Kallaway, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance) and a beautiful woman named Nora (Anne Baxter).

When Stephen returns to New York, he finds that the leprechaun and the young lady have followed him there and that his future and fortunes may change.

Sure, it's dated and doesn't move as quickly as films today, but Henry Kotter, who directed the Christmas favorite The Bishop's Wife (1947) as well as Harvey (1950), has a knack for whimsical modern-day fantasies like this.  It all makes 1948's The Luck of the Irish charming and easy to take.

The Luck of the Irish (2001)

The other movie with the same title is in no way a re-make.  This made-for-Disney-Channel-movie is about a teenager named Ryan (Kyle Johnson) who has his lucky charm stolen while attending a local Irish festival.

After he meets his long-lost grandfather (comedian Henry Gibson in a friendly, winking performance), Ryan uncovers a magical family secret.  No spoilers here...but given that it's a St. Patrick's Day movie, you can probably guess.

While it does suffer under its made-for-TV budget, 2001's The Luck of the Irish also has an innocence and earnestness that can't be denied.

 

So, there are two disparate movies with the same title that could help expand your ever-increasing St. Patrick's Day binge-ing (of film, not beer).  As you sit down to the corned beef and cabbage dinner for the only night a year you'll ever eat it, consider either or both parts of this "Lucky" pair!