When John Ford fell ill, Jack Cardiff took over to direct Rod Taylor in the title role of this story loosely based on Irish writer Sean O'Casey's autobiography. Although O'Casey was a small slight man with poor eyesight that wore glasses, screenwriter John Whiting fleshed out a robust protagonist - John Cassidy - for Taylor to play, and it's one of the actor's best roles.
John or 'Johnny' - as everyone but his mother (Flora Robson) and benefactor Lady Gregory (Edith Evans) calls him - is a man's man, a tough Irishman who tangles with the British occupier-policemen as a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, participating in the Dublin Lockout of 1913. But whereas the real O'Casey was more politically active and wrote with an agenda, this film's Young Cassidy is from poorer roots and writes about his working class experiences.
Frequently shirtless Johnny is popular with the ladies as well: bedding the equally lively Daisy Battles (Julie Christie) - an 'actress'- kept woman, attracting the attention of a married apartment dweller, and romancing a wallflower librarian named Nora (Maggie Smith), who encourages his writing but is too afraid of his anger and his future to join Johnny when his prospects grow.
Michael Redgrave plays the famous poet W.B. Yeats, who's also an Irish Free State Senator that helps Johnny refine his craft and - along with Lady Gregory - encourages and supports him as founders of the Abbey Theater, where Johnny's first play The Shadow of a Gunman opened in 1923. No mention is made of his subsequent piece Juno and the Paycock, which Alfred Hitchcock and wife Alma Reville would adapt into the 1930 film featuring Barry Fitzgerald and Sara Allgood. However, his controversial play The Plough and The Stars - and the theatergoers reaction to it - is faithfully represented.
Also notable, Jack MacGowran plays Johnny's elder brother-actor Archie.
John or 'Johnny' - as everyone but his mother (Flora Robson) and benefactor Lady Gregory (Edith Evans) calls him - is a man's man, a tough Irishman who tangles with the British occupier-policemen as a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, participating in the Dublin Lockout of 1913. But whereas the real O'Casey was more politically active and wrote with an agenda, this film's Young Cassidy is from poorer roots and writes about his working class experiences.
Frequently shirtless Johnny is popular with the ladies as well: bedding the equally lively Daisy Battles (Julie Christie) - an 'actress'- kept woman, attracting the attention of a married apartment dweller, and romancing a wallflower librarian named Nora (Maggie Smith), who encourages his writing but is too afraid of his anger and his future to join Johnny when his prospects grow.
Michael Redgrave plays the famous poet W.B. Yeats, who's also an Irish Free State Senator that helps Johnny refine his craft and - along with Lady Gregory - encourages and supports him as founders of the Abbey Theater, where Johnny's first play The Shadow of a Gunman opened in 1923. No mention is made of his subsequent piece Juno and the Paycock, which Alfred Hitchcock and wife Alma Reville would adapt into the 1930 film featuring Barry Fitzgerald and Sara Allgood. However, his controversial play The Plough and The Stars - and the theatergoers reaction to it - is faithfully represented.
Also notable, Jack MacGowran plays Johnny's elder brother-actor Archie.