Review: Juno and the Paycock
A poor Irish family during the 1920s comes into some
money, and it doesn’t seem to bring happiness. Edward Chapman (the ‘Paycock’ of
the title) and Sara Allgood (his wife ‘Juno’) are the patriarch and matriarch
of the family respectively, the former a blathering barfly. John Laurie is
their troubled son, an IRA member.
The more of his films that I see, I’ve had to change
my tune on the worst film directed by Sir Alfred Hitchcock (“Strangers on a
Train”, “Vertigo”, “Shadow of a Doubt”). As of the time of
writing this review I have now seen all 52 of his films (with “Downhill”
being the last viewed, review to come) that are still available. So I can
safely say that this 1929 bore is easily his worst film still publicly
available. Where was the plot? It only arrives after about 30 minutes, which is
15 minutes too late. Where was the progression of said plot? Nowhere. I had
heard that the film has a creepy, unusual atmosphere but even directorially
this is mostly a point-and-shoot filmed play effort from The Master. It’s inert
and void. I know it’s the 1920s, but I needed more than a story about a poor
family that comes into money and things don’t go to plan.
And it’s so endlessly talky! It was apparently the
first Hitchcock film to use long takes…he probably shouldn’t have bothered. The
sound quality and badly employed Irish accents don’t help, either. The dialogue
is often very difficult to discern. Edward Chapman is our leading man and he’s
the most tiresome bore of a lead character you’ll come across. On a better day
Hitchcock would’ve kept these rambling, Irish drunk characters to the margins
for comic relief purposes in an otherwise more compelling narrative. If you do
decide to endure it, look out for Barry Fitzgerald making his film debut as
narrator/orator here. Sara Allgood is well-cast but not a miracle worker.
Lifeless and uninteresting silent Hitchcock, only
watch it if you’re a completist like me. Even then you’ll likely struggle. Why
should I have cared about anyone or anything here? Based on a Sean O’Casey
play, Hitchcock scripted along with his wife Alma Reville.
Rating: D-
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