Based on Juno and the Paycock by Sean O’Casey, this movie follows Captain Boyle (Edward Chapman) living in a two-room tenement flat with his wife, Juno (Sara Allgood), and their children, Mary (Kathleen O’Regan) and Johnny (John Laurie). Juno has dubbed her husband The Paycock because he does nothing but drink. Mary has a job, but she’s on strike; Johnny has lost an arm and broken his hip during a fight, as this takes place during the Irish War of Independence. He’s also turned in a fellow IRA member, a crime that Boyle tells his drinking buddies is a horrible sin.
As for Mary, she leaves Jerry Devine (Dave Morris) for Charlie Bentham (John Longden), who tells Boyle that he’s due for an inheritance. If it ever happens, he’s already spent that. And it doesn’t, because Charles is a bad lawyer and person, as he leaves Mary pregnant before the wedding. Luckily, Jerry is happy to marry her, just in time for them to find out that Johnny has been shot to death.
Mary says, “It‘s true. There is no God.”
It’s no wonder that Hitchcock used playwright O’Casey as his inspiration for the prophet in the diner in The Birds. This is dark, even when it’s attempting to be a comedy.
You can download this from the Internet Archive.
