Irish Film Institute -International Film Directory – Film Listing

Broth of a Boy

    • Director

      George Pollock

    • Credits

      Producer: Alex Snowden. Writers: Patrick Kirwan, Blanaid Irvine

    • Principal Cast

      Barry Fitzgerald, June Thorbum, Eddie Golden, Godfrey Quigley, Denis Brennan, Geoffrey Golden, Tony Wright

  • Category

    Feature
    Classic

Absurdities mount up in this freewheeling 1950s comedy about impulsive TV producer Tony (Tony Wright) and his efforts to produce a show about Patrick Farrell (Barry Fitzgerald), a man who claims to be the oldest person in the world Much of the town is delighted by the prospect of a television crew, and the money fame might bring, coming to town, but complications ensue as nefarious local businessman Desmond Philips (Godfrey Quigley) threatens the venture. Adapted from Hugh Leonard’s play The Big Birthday, Broth of a Boy is delightfully farcical, with a plot that bounces from public meetings to courthouses.  This was one of a series of productions from the recently established National Film Studios and serves as an entertaining vehicle for a fine cast of Abbey Theatre regulars – notably Marie Keane, Philip O’Flynn, Godfrey Quigley and Harry Brogan. Significantly it was also veteran actor Barry Fitzgerald’s, star of films such as The Quiet Man and How Green Was My Valley, last film, and is a fitting capstone to a standout career.

77 minutes, Ireland, 1959, B&W

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