Parnell (1937)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

John M. Stahl

Writers:

Elsie T. Schauffler (play)
John Van Druten (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

4 June 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Romance

Plot:

The life of Irish politician Charles Stewart Parnell, following from 1880 onward his struggle to free his country from English rule...

Plot Keywords:

Politician | Parliament | Trial | Heart Disease | Village

Cast

Clark Gable	...	Charles Stewart Parnell
Myrna Loy	...	Mrs. Katie O'Shea
Edna May Oliver	...	Aunt Ben Wood
Edmund Gwenn	...	Campbell, Parnell's Secretary
Alan Marshal	...	Captain William 'Willie' O'Shea
Donald Crisp	...	Michael Davitt
Billie Burke	...	Miss Clara Wood
Berton Churchill	...	The O'Gorman Mahon
Donald Meek	...	Murphy
Montagu Love	...	William Ewart Gladstone
Byron Russell	...	Timothy Healy
Brandon Tynan	...	John Redmond
Phyllis Coghlan	...	Ellen, Katie's Maid (as Phillis Coghlan)
Neil Fitzgerald	...	Richard Pigott
George Zucco	...	Sir Charles Russell

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #3145)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

To get Clark Gable and Myrna Loy in the mood for the sad ending of the movie, the director put on sad music over and over again. Gable complained to then-girlfriend Carole Lombard and the next day instead of the regular music a jazzy version of "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You" started playing.

Quotes:

[while visiting America, Parnell gives some money to a poor family]
Poor man: It's little wonder why they call him the King of Ireland.
Sheriff: The *uncrowned* King.
Poor woman: He'll get his crown in heaven.

Soundtrack:

Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms

Dreadful

Surely when this movie first appeared in 1937 somebody, (everybody?), involved must have known what a crock, (and I'm not talking gold, here), they were sitting on. "Parnell" is a turkey fat enough to feed a family of forty and like a lot of big, bad movies is, nevertheless, quite enjoyable, if for all the wrong reasons. Historically, I can't vouchsafe for its accuracy but then this isn't a film about Irish history and the struggle for Home Rule but a romantic drama about a real-life historical figure ruined by his love for a married woman and it starred two of the biggest names in movies at the time.

When this movie came out Gable had already won an Oscar and Myrna Loy was fresh from playing, superbly, in The Thin Man movies but they are both terrible here. Indeed, this isn't just Gable's worst performance but one of the monumentally bad performances in the history of the movies, (his death-bed sequence is a classic). A sterling supporting cast, (Edna May Oliver, Donald Crisp, Billie Burke, Edmund Gwenn), do offer a few crumbs of comfort but they are far from enough to redeem this sorry mess. John Stahl directed but you would never have guessed it.