Irish America magazine - Oct/Nov '05 issue: Mo Mowlam, Eileen Collins, Changes in Irish America, 20 Great Interviews, 20 Moments In History, 20 Best Movies About Irish-Americans, Beer, Patrick Fitzgerald, Billy Bob Thornton
This little-known silent gem (with musical accompaniment) from the master
Irish-American director John Ford surfaced a few years ago on the American
Movie Classics cable channel when it presented a Ford retrospective. Ford
regular J. Farrell MacDonald, already old and bald by 1928, is delightful
as an unorthodox Irish cop who has never made an arrest in his twenty years
on the New York City police force. The opening title gives Riley’s philosophy:
“YOU CAN TELL A GOOD COP BY THE ARRESTS HE DOESN’T MAKE.” After seeing MacDonald
in innumerable colourful bit parts for Ford, it’s a treat to see him as
the warmhearted father figure at the centre of this film, which brims over
with amusing human touches about life in a multiethnic neighbourhood. Riley’s
romantic interlude in Germany with a spirited fräulein (comedienne Louise
Fazenda) is Fordian comedy at its most endearing. This tribute to the familiar
Irish-American archetype of the gruff but lovable cop shows the director’s
ability to turn what could be a clichéd figure into a three-dimensional
character, one who expresses Ford’s anarchically Irish view of law enforcement.
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