Charles Barr, Moore Institute Visiting Fellow

Filming O’Casey

Venue: Huston School Main Room

Sean O’Casey never had much respect for commercial cinema, even though he worked with two of its greatest directors. Alfred Hitchcock filmed Juno and the Paycock in England in 1929; John Ford filmed The Plough and the Stars in Hollywood in 1937. Both directors had sincere respect for the plays, and for the Abbey Theatre actors whom they took care to use in many key roles, but critics have agreed with O’Casey in disliking the results. This talk, illustrated with documents as well as extracts, examines the reasons for this hostility, while making a revisionist case for the value of both films. Hitchcock’s, as an early-sound record of, especially, Sarah Allgood’s definitive performance as Juno; Ford’s, as a legitimate, and historically fascinating, reworking of O’Casey from his own more romantic perspective on the Easter Rising of 1916. Young Cassidy (1965) provides a footnote: a loose and lively biopic of O’Casey, part-directed by Ford, partly in Dublin, towards the end of Ford’s career and of O’Casey’s life. Charles Barr has taught in the past at the Huston School as an Adjunct Professor, and is back in Galway thanks to a research grant from the Moore Institute. His talk draws on collections held in the library. He has published extensively both on Ford and on Hitchcock; his new book, co-authored for the University of Kentucky Press with the Parisian scholar Alain Kerzoncuf, is Hitchcock, Lost and Found – the Forgotten Films. There are two events at Filmbase in Dublin on the afternoon of 27th May, to discuss Educating Film-makers and to launch Charles Barr’s Hitchcock Lost and Found – The Forgotten Films: ‘Cultivating Film-makers’ Hitchcock Lost and Found

For more information please contact rod.stoneman@nuigalway.ie