Sorry, this movie sucks

As Good As It Gets

Admirable film.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Hitchcock later himself has refer to this particular film as 'photographs of people talking'. Although there are couple of nice moments, but overall 'Juno and the Paycock' is too static and somewhat uneven in tone. Lighthearted comedy changes into dark tragedy and then cheesy melodrama too suddenly. Plus, the film is simply boring. I don't mind talky films, and I really enjoy good dialogue that was occasionally present in this movie (He can't climb a ladder but he can skip into a bar.), but there were too many (and too long) empty pauses between.You may want to watch 'Juno and the Paycock' only if you need to see all the Hitchcock's movies, or if you are interested how boring movie one of the most interesting directors managed to turn out.

The film is about as dry as stale bread. It does hold my interest to a degree but it's not the greatest film nor the worst film that Hitchcock has made (in my opinion). From what I've read, not even Alfred wanted liked this film - he didn't even want to make it but he did.It's not an unwatchable film but it is not a good movie. It's more of an interest to Hitchcock fans and maybe some film students - that's about it. There might be another small crowd interested in this one, those that are interested in all things Irish.IDK what this film is missing really, maybe a bit more comedy to make it "spicy" or entertaining. A bit quicker pace couldn't hurt either.Not bad but not good - It's in the middle ground for me.Note: IMDb has this film listed as 1929 while most other sources have this film listed as 1930. 3/10

It begins with a poor Dublin family in their shabby apartment, in the hallway of which a candle burns under the statue of the Virgin Mary. There's the solid mother, Juno Boyle (Sara Allgood); the blowhard father (Edward Chapman), the impulsive and love-stricken daughter (Kathleen O'Regan), and the brooding son who has lost an arm in the service of the Irish Republican Army (John Laurie).Times are hard. Not only does the IRA and its machinations hover in the background but Mr. Boyle has run up a bar bill at Foley's that looks more like somebody's telephone number.Then -- out of the blue -- a stroke of good luck! A dislike cousin of Mr. Boyle has died and left him upwards of 1500 pounds, a fortune. Act II: Everyone is invited into the newly bedecked Boyle parlor and is given a drop to drink and a chance to listen to the gramophone. The audience has to sit through four additional songs, sung live, including "Those Endearing Young Charms." Then -- also out of the blue -- tragedy strikes. The feckless deceased cousin failed to mention Mr. Boyle by name, saying only that his fortune be distributed among his "cousins." Well, the deceased's cousins come flocking in from all corners of the globe and the money suffers the fate of the Jarndyce fortune in "Bleak House." The lawyers get it all.Everybody begins demanding back the furniture and other goods they've given Mr. Boyle on account. His best friend steals a bottle of stout and slips it into his pocket. Mr. Kelly shows up and runs off with the beautiful new suit of Mr. Boyle. Mr. Kelly, the funniest character in the story, is decidedly Jewish. "I could call you all kinds of names," he shouts at Boyle, "but I won't, you cheap, lying goniff!" The tragedy isn't at an end. Young Mary gets knocked up by her dashing English boyfriend -- "with the walking stick and the gloves." And the brooding son is revealed as an informer responsible for the death of the IRA commandant and is taken away and executed.Last scene. Mrs. Boyle is all alone, praying and weeping at the foot of the Virgin's statue. "Oh, blessed Virgin, where was your pity?" Then she staggers off stage. It's like de Unamuno said. There are no workable systems of belief. There's only faith itself.I know this is supposed to be good because, after all, it combines Alfred Hitchcock with Sean O'Casey. That means I'm bad, because I didn't think much of it and my mind drifted throughout. The performers seemed to have forgotten that they're no longer in front of a live audience because the overacting is outrageous. Sometimes, I'm certain, it was designed to be funny, and it is -- like Barry Fitzgerald's pompous orator at the opening. At other times, the cries and wild gesticulations seem to belong to a Cecil B. DeMille silent movie. And, though most of the parts are cast well enough, there is Mr. Boyle at the center and he's not funny, even when he's supposed to be. He's just unpleasant.What sparkle there is in this film comes from the poetry of everyday Irish speech. What ornate phraseology! "It blowed and it blowed and it blowed. 'Blew' is the right word, but the sailors say 'blowed.'" They can drop in a quote from Robert Burns ("man's inhumanity to man....") and it goes unnoticed.Well, the play really required a seasoned director and less old-fashioned acting and it got neither here. I'd love to have seen what Hitchcock might have done with this when he was at his peak. As it is, without quite measuring up, it resembles an episode of the Honeymooners only the sadness is real and Ralph doesn't hug Alice at the end.

Sean O'Casey's controversial stage play about a shanty Irish family caught up in the times of Ireland's fight for independence get's a rough going over in this Alfred Hitchcock screen adaptation. With it's primitive soundtrack O'Casey's eloquence and dark wit is often garbled and indecipherable. Master of suspense Hitchcock seems content to just film the stage play with about half a dozen set ups and few camera movements. Performance wise he enlists stage vets from The Vic and The Abbey who en masse chew the scenery to pieces. Trained to reach the audience in the rear of the balcony the players are ill suited to the nuance required in this new art form and they remain over the top from start to finish.Hitch does display flashes of brilliance with the new medium of sound in a couple of scenes involving the informer family member wracked with guilt and paranoia but for the most part he plays it safe, allowing his thespians to recite O'Casey's lyrical dialogue which technical bugs trample.Dated as it may be Juno and the Paycock performed on stage can be a powerful theatre going experience with its memorable characters and well balanced tragi-comic theme that rails against social hypocrisy. I'm not sure a "sophisticated" film version today would do the play the justice that it receives's within the intimacy of the stage where one gets the feeling your sitting in the Boyles parlor. Suffice to say the 1929 version leaves you in the basement looking for a light switch.