Rooney (1958) User Reviews (11)

Finding And Falling

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 9 February 2012]

In his last two films Barry Fitzgerald returned to his beloved Ireland and in Rooney joined some of his fellow Abbey Theater players alumni in the cast. Fitzgerald plays a very typical role for him, a crusty grandfather who is bullied by his children and finds some comfort in his granddaughter Muriel Pavlow.

However John Gregson plays the title role of Rooney who is an amateur curling player, but earns his living in the Dublin sanitation department. Despite these humble origins, he's quite the chick magnet and wherever he lives he's eventually got to move because he believes in loving them and leaving them and does not want to be tied down.

So he moves in as a renter to June Thorburn's house where's taking care of her father Barry Fitzgerald. But Barry's practically a prisoner in his own house. Eventually he takes a liking to Gregson and so does Pavlow.

Rooney is a simple plot about two very disparate people finding and falling for each other, but those characters are as deep as something by Eugene O'Neill. Fitzgerald performs his usual scene stealing magic.

Rooney is also a nice and very gray look at Dublin of the Fifties. And I found it interesting the way in the Irish culture they like their sports heroes amateurs. Gregson is the Albert Pujols of curling, but has to work as a garbageman to pay the rent. Completely different than the USA.

Rooney is a nice film about some nice people finding and falling for each other.

the theme has always stayed with me

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 9 August 2015]

The theme tune for this film has stayed with me since I saw the film at the local Odeon.I even bought the 45rpm disc which I still have on the Top Rank label.It was sung by Michael Halliday,who died tragically young.I have now had the chance to view it on DVD and have to say that it is a very charming film. Almost the end of Barry Fitzgeralds long career he does appear as different as the character he plays. John Gregson and Muriel Pavlow,two Rank contract stars of the fifties make an engaging couple and they are supported by a lot of very familiar faces from.the era. Watching this film made me feel very nostalgic taking me back to the local Odeon all those years ago.

Well Done

[boblipton · 6/10 · 23 May 2020]

John Gregson is a dustman during the week. During the weekend, though, he plays field hockey. Local bigwig Liam Redmond spots him, and thinks he's just the man to captain his team for an important match, and lets him know about a new apartment, far from his old rooming house. There he sees the goings-on , with Barry Fitzgeralf, who's dying, owning the lease, his harridan daughter-in-law Marie Kean making everyone miserable, and his loving grand daughter, Muriel Pavlow, absolutely miserable.

It's based on a novel by Catherine Cookson, and there are hints of greatness about the movie, particularly the care with which the exteriors are shot around Dublin. Most of it, however, is a standard romantic comedy under the direction of George Pollock: always competent, well fitted out with plots and subplots and acting by Jack MacGowran, and other Abbey Players, but with nothing, alas, tointerfere with the obvious workings of the plot.

Cute little movie

[gdoempke · 17 May 2004]

I fondly remember this one from seeing it on TV in the 1960s. Nice little Cinderella story of sorts, with a bit of the Blarney thrown in for some fun laughs. Nice characters. Good human interest plot, with the running subplot of amateur athlete (Rugby?) Rooney's attracting the mature landladies, which requires him to constantly find new lodgings. New lodgings involve him with the drama of the family of the house, and therein lies the story, and the romance. John Gregson makes a good strong lead, and Barry Fitzgerald adds his usual bit of Irish magic. Good solid performances from the supporting cast. This is a classic fun movie, and it is a shame it is not available on DVD or video.

Rooney

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 10 January 2023]

John Gregson turns in quite an amiable performance here as the eponymous Dublin bin man turned athlete. By day, he collects rubbish whilst at the weekends, he plays the lethal game of the "hurley" - and it's this that draws the attention of local bigwig "Doolan" (Liam Redmond) who helps him to find better lodgings. Safely ensconced, he meets "Maire" (Muriel Pavlov) who lives with her ailing, elderly, grandfather (Barry Fitzgerald) and his rather grumpy daughter "Mrs. O"Flynn" (Marie Kean). Can he make good on his sporting promise, survive all the familial discord and get the gal? It's very un-Catherine Cookson, this - but that just demonstrates a little of the versatility of an author who could update her stories as the need called for it. Despite being as English as the Thames, Gregson - maybe not so well when drunk - is engaging as the charming Irishman and I rather liked Kean's contributions as the stern "Miss Gulch"-esque woman who certainly never has an half full glass! Sure, it's all pretty predictable, but it serves as a nice reminder of late 1950s Dublin, and offers a watchable family drama that is characterful and well paced.

Rooney

[judyd224 · 8/10 · 19 June 2008]

Great movie. Two lonely people discover each other. I always liked this film. So many times I have tried to buy it in VHS or DVD but no luck so far. I liked the Irish setting. I enjoy British/Irish films and I like the genre of the 1940s to 1950s. This movie was based on a Catherine Cookson novel of the same name. Anyone who knows the writings of Catherine Cookson knows that she creates a wonderful story. Too bad movie producers today cannot see the potential of this story in today's market. John Gregson is a great actor. The story shows the rubbish-collection industry, and how one lowly rubbish collector finds love and romance right under his nose.

If you are interested in dustbin men...

[dj_kennett · 5/10 · 20 February 2001]

This movie would be of great interest to historians and sociologists looking for a insight into Dublin in the 1950's, particularly the garbage collection business.

For the rest of us, it's a creaking story about a Dublin dustbin man who is blessed with a magnetic attraction for women and great hurling skills (the sport that is, not the bins).

There is probably something more interesting on....

A Coincidence or Not??

[piereauparis · 9/10 · 19 February 2023]

My mother brought me to a Dublin cinema to see this film in 1958. Aged 8, I came away with the strains of that theme tune, Rooney O in my head, only to haunt me for six decades, searching for that film until now. For anyone growing up in Dublin in the 1950s, these scenes of old Dublin will stir wonderful memories of a different time.

As an aside.... I found a comment here on IMDb in reference to the opening scene voiceover given by Barry Fitzgerald in relation to the unchanged O'Connell street scene. It had grabbed my attention also and I wondered if it had been an observation that was added in a later re-release of the film, post Nelson Pillar demise in 1966.

' - - - the dawn broke over the old city and everything was pretty much as it was the night before - and Nelson's statue still stood in O'Connell Street - - - .' The combination of B&W film footage and a simple honest story will always enhance the imagination.

Not Exactly Mills & Boon

[screenman · 5/10 · 25 August 2011]

John Gregson plays the lead role as Dublin dustman, in this quaintly cockeyed comedy romance.

He's 'the darlin' of the ladies is Rooney-oh'. Young women and landladies alike find their passion undeterred by the reek of garbage. This movie is based upon a Catherine Cookson story. She tended to write about 'reality' rather than the idealised poppycock published by Mills & Boon. No-way would a manuscript in which the hero emptied dustbins for a living pass muster amongst their publishing lists.

That's about it, really. John Gregson gives his usual decent turn and there's an adequate B/C list support cast. It's 1958, it's filmed in B&W. Even in its time it must have had limited appeal on account of its setting. I recollect the theme music - which was a jaunty song about the hero being the 'darlin' of the ladies' - became a hit at the time, which obviously helped the movie. Nowadays it's very seldom seen, even if the print still exists.

Oh - and I don't suppose I'm spoiling anything if I mention that Rooney gets the (improbably pretty) girl in the end. Or more aptly; she gets him. One suspects she'll guide him to less malodorous employment.

A charming film, and now also a time-capsule of a fondly-remembered Dublin

[philip-davies31 · 25 April 2018]

As all agree, this is an utterly charming, unpretentious film. It is helped by the acting talent of the famous Abbey Theatre, Dublin. And although the lead character of 'the Rooney' himself is played by an Englishman, John Gregson fairly inhabits his working-class Dublin character, with an accent that never jars in comparison to the real Irish actors - except perhaps he finds the test of acting tipsy while keeping the brogue a bit much for him. Of course today an English film about Irish life might seem patronising, but they did a creditably sympathetic job in 1958, perhaps helped by an Irish scriptwriter's fleshing out of Catherine Cookson's story and the wonderfully atmospheric filming of Dublin city.

A curiosity of the film is that Barry Fitzgerald's voice-over to the establishing shots of the Dublin of 1957 - the year when the filming was done - speaks complacently of the unchanging face of the old city, and references what was then a favourite landmark of all Dubliners, Nelson's Pillar, saying:

' - - - the dawn broke over the old city and everything was pretty much as it was the night before - and Nelson's statue still stood in O'Connell Street - - - .'

In retrospect, this observation has been made to seem ironical, since we know that the IRA blew the statue of Nelson atop his Pillar to smithereens shortly after 1:30 on the morning of 8 March 1966.

So the film is a nostalgic reminder of more innocent times. The official version of the reaction of Dubliners, to the destruction of this much-loved and familiar landmark, is that general gaiety broke out in the city. Certainly the Irish have an attractive penchant to make the best of anything - even a funeral. But some elderly people of that town I once spoke to were adamant that, on the whole, Dublin folk had rather 'the boyos' had left old Nelson where he was. And, when the remaining stump was blown up by the army, after the Corporation declared it 'a dangerous structure,' the good people of the Irish Capital sorely missed being able to take friends and relatives from the country up the spiral staircase, inside the Pillar, to share Nelson's unparallelled crow's-nest view of Dublin!

Part of the charm of old films is that they have become time-capsules, trapping the past as it flits through the lens, to preserve it's fluttering motion more perfectly than flies in amber!

And for lovers of unfamiliar sports, the filmed spectacle of an actual game of hurley, in which our fictional hero is presented as the star player, conveys all the ferocity of a game with ancient origins in the wild and often violent training of Irishmen for hand-to-hand combat in war - and since helmets and face-guards were still shunned at this time as badges of cowardice, one must admire the rugged ruins of many a battered face. Old Nelson's head, still lying in the Dublin City Library and Archive, is hardly the worse for wear.

John Gregson at his very best.

[davidallen-84122 · 10/10 · 10 December 2022]

I remember seeing most of John Gregson's 1950's films and enjoyed them all with "Genevieve" and "Rooney" proving to be my favourites.

''Rooney" may not have attracted the wider audience that the emerging Boulting Brothers and Carry On comedies succeeded in doing but those of us who caught it on it's initial release treasure the memory of a well-cast, very charming little British/Irish offering.

Gregson gently and assuredly wins the audience over from the outset and as we share his camaraderie with his rubbish collector mates, led by the always wonderful Noel Purcell, we quickly identify with poor Rooney's plight as he brushes up against a bevy of women of questionable motives and various charms or otherwise. When the right woman for Rooney appears, the delightful Muriel Pavlow, initially plain and down-trodden but sweet and sincere, we are urged to give Rooney a hurry-up. The final outcome brings the film to a quick but highly moving and memorable conclusion.

Special mention : everyone's favourite Irishman, Barry Fitzgerald is along for the ride too so you can't go wrong with this underrated gem.