Said O'Reilly to McNab

Gainsborough Pictures was still trying to crack the American market with this movie, in which American swindler Will Mahoney goes to England, where his son has just gotten engaged to the daughter of retired Scots businessman Will Fyfe. They wrangle and much of the film is wasted with what is supposed to be a humorous golf match. Eventually they go into business manufacturing nostrum reducing pills.

The leads were a couple of stage performers and it isn't until just past the hour mark, when they perform their routines that the film becomes something more interesting than the sort of stock ethnic jokes that had been going on since Year One. Director William Beaudine does a competent job with a standard script and a few bucks in the budget, However, it's easy to see why this film fizzled in the US and Gainsborough decided to abandon their New World ambitions.

Although much of the movie is standard, the stage routines are very good. Mahoney does an eccentric, high-speed tap dance and Fyfe, who was famous for his music hall renditions of "I Belong to Glasgow" -- he hailed from Dundee -- also does a sword dance.

`Said O'Reilly to McNab' is an enjoyable comedy with enough laughs to satisfy me. The plot is nothing new, a young couple want to marry but their Dads don't like each other, just about sums it up. But the casting is the thing. Will Fyffe, an old Music Hall comedian, plays a mean Scotsman as he often had before and does it so well. O'Reilly is an Irish-American confidence trickster and the less-experienced Will Mahoney brings him off with some panache. The exchanges between the two Wills are highlights of the film.

Despite being a generously built man Fyffe gives us a most dainty sword dance before Mahoney, not to be outdone, performs an expert tap-dance. Fyffe also sings very pleasantly an appropriately Scottish tune `New Years Day'. Then there's a golf game with much use of the niblick (an old-fashioned 9-iron, I believe) and the usual cheating.

This vintage movie is well worth seeking out; it ran a neat 80 minutes in the beautifully clear print that I saw.