Happy St. Patrick's Day

Being of Irish descent (for real, not just because it's St. Patrick's Day), I am in love with all things Irish. So I have a few recommendations for you all today.

Now, the book that was written after this movie came out is exTREMELY hard to find (as in, I can't anymore... luckily I already have it). It's not exactly an... expensively made movie. But it's fun to watch.

The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns

American businessman Jack Woods rents a cottage on the enchanted Emerald Isle which is occupied by a family of leprechauns. Leprechaun Seamus Muldoon's son and son's friends crash the fairies' costume ball and Muldoon's son falls in love with fairy Princess Jessica. Their love re-ignites a feud between the leprechauns and the fairies, which escalates into a war. The Grand Banshee warns of terrible consequences and Jack Woods is chosen to make peace. Woods interrupts his own romance with an Irish beauty to help, and becomes involved in a strange and wonderful magical adventure.

I absolutely adore Maureen O'Hara. This is next one is one of my favorite movies of hers. The trailer doesn't really do it justice. And makes John Wayne look extremely violent. Coincidentally, this is also the movie ET is watching when Elliott is in science class letting all the frogs go.

The Quiet Man

Blarney and bliss, mixed in equal proportions. John Wayne plays an American boxer who returns to the Emerald Isle, his native land. What he finds there is a fiery prospective spouse (Maureen O'Hara) and a country greener than any Ireland seen before or since--it's no surprise The Quiet Man won an Oscar for cinematography. It also won an Oscar for John Ford's direction, his fourth such award. The film was a deeply personal project for Ford (whose birth name was Sean Aloysius O'Fearna), and he lavished all of his affection for the Irish landscape and Irish people on this film. He also stages perhaps the greatest donnybrook in the history of movies, an epic fistfight between Wayne and the truculent Victor McLaglen--that's Ford's brother, Francis, as the elderly man on his deathbed who miraculously revives when he hears word of the dustup. Barry Fitzgerald, the original Irish elf, gets the movie's biggest laugh when he walks into the newlyweds' bedroom the morning after their wedding, and spots a broken bed. The look on his face says everything. The Quiet Man isn't the real Ireland, but as a delicious never-never land of Ford's imagination, it will do very nicely. --Robert Horton

Last, but certainly not least, is one of my all time favorite childhood movies. Sean Connery is divine in this movie and I love Janet Munro and Albert Sharp.

Darby O'Gill and the Little People

Take a wee bit of ancient folklore, mix in some spectacular special effects and a magical cast (including Sean Connery) -- and you've got one of the most enchanting fantasies of all time! A frisky old storyteller named Darby O'Gill is desperately seeking the proverbial pot of gold. There's just one tiny thing standing in his way: a 21-inch leprechaun named King Brian. In order to get the gold, Darby must match his wits against the shrewd little trickster -- which proves no small task, indeed! Fall under the spell of DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE for a fun-filled evening of magic, mirth, and nonstop shenanigans!

There you go! Happy St. Patrick's Day!!