She Didn't Say No!

She Didn't Say No!
Directed byCyril Frankel
Written byT. J. Morrison
Based onWe Are Seven by Una Troy
Produced bySergei Nolbandov
StarringEileen Herlie
Perlita Neilson
Niall MacGinnis
CinematographyGilbert Taylor
Edited byCharles Hasse
Music byTristram Cary
Production
companies
Distributed byAssociated British-Pathé
Release date
  • 30 September 1958 (1958-09-30)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

She Didn't Say No! is a 1958 British comedy film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Eileen Herlie, Perlita Neilson and Niall MacGinnis.[1]

Background

She Didn't Say No! was written by T.J. Morrison based on the 1955 novel We Are Seven by Una Troy. Troy fictionalised the life of Moll McCarthy (1902–1940), who lived in an Irish village and had seven children by (at least) six fathers. Her lifestyle, in a deeply Catholic country where premarital sex and illegitimacy was strongly frowned on, attracted opprobrium and her cottage's thatched roof was destroyed by arson in 1926.[2] It was claimed that she lived by bartering sexual favours for produce and services.[3][4] Local judge Seán Troy (Una's father) refused two applications to have her children taken into an orphanage, persuaded that she was a good mother.[3] She was murdered in November 1940; a relative, Henry "Harry" Gleeson, was hanged for her murder, but was pardoned in 2013. Kieran Fagan, in 2015, published The Framing of Harry Gleeson, which claimed McCarthy was murdered by local Irish Republican Army (IRA) members suspecting that she was an informant for the local Garda sergeant, Anthony Delaney. Other possible culprits mentioned by Brendan Ó Cathaoir in 2001 were the Gardaí or the father of the seventh child.[2] Fagan's book caused controversy by naming the supposed fathers of McCarthy's children, many of them married men.[5]

Plot

In a village in County Wexford, the authorities apply for a court order to remove the unmarried Bridget Monaghan's six children, who have five different fathers. When the judge disagrees, finding them to be a happy and united family, the doctor convenes a meeting of the surviving fathers (one has died) at which, after long discussion, they agree on a plan. To remove the scandal, they will buy the Monaghans a farm over 100 miles (160 km) away.

Negotiations will be conducted by Casey, unmarried father of the eldest Monaghan boy, whom he takes to work on his own farm. The eldest Monaghan girl falls in love with a visiting painter, who wants to take her to Italy. The next Monaghan girl catches the eye of a visiting film director, who wants to take her to London. The youngest Monaghan boy wins the heart of his father's childless wife, who wants to adopt him. Two children are left when Casey is ready to move the family to their new home and, to remove scandal, he marries their mother.

Cast

Production

The film was shot at Elstree Studios and in Cornwall, using Technicolor. The film's sets were designed by the art director William Kellner.

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "All the humour to be evoked from the subject of illegitimacy is here unmercifully bludgeoned, and a jolly musical score insists what a gay affair it all is. The direction is heavily unsubtle and the playing coyly emphatic. As an entertainment, the film is mediocre as well as mildly offensive."[6]

British film critic Leslie Halliwell said: "Coyly daring comedy full of stage Oirishisms and obvious jokes, a few of which work."[7]

The Irish Film Institute commented that, "The whimsical and comedic treatment given to this serious subject matter and the moral reaction of the Irish authorities to the film’s production make it an excellent prism through which to examine changing attitudes to family structures and the way unmarried mothers and their children have been treated over time."[8]

Banning in Ireland and later history

Because of its portrayal of illegitimacy, the film was not released in Ireland[9] until a film copy was retrieved in 2001 at the Irish Film Archive.[10] It was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2005, as part of an international film preservation festival.[11] Thanks to the European initiative 'A Season of Classic Films'[12][13] of the Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE), the film has been digitised in early 2021 and made possible to release online with an introduction on the film’s preservation and history.[14]

References

  1. ↑ "She Didn't Say No!". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  2. 1 2 O Cathaoir, Brendan (27 December 2001). "Gleeson case led to campaign for abolition of capital punishment". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  3. 1 2 Fagan, Kieran (22 May 2011). "A murder, a hanged man -- and a plea of innocence from the grave - Independent.ie". Irish Independent. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  4. ↑ Fagan, Kieran (21 April 2015). "The Framing of Harry Gleeson author Kieran Fagan on how an innocent man was hanged". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  5. ↑ Clifford, Michael (18 April 2015). "Uproar as book on wrongly hanged man Harry Gleeson 'names names'". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  6. ↑ "She Didn't Say No!". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 25 (288): 91. 1 January 1958. ProQuest 1305823162.
  7. ↑ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 908. ISBN 0586088946.
  8. ↑ Wilde, Frances (15 April 2021). "SHE DIDN'T SAY NO! FROM THE ARCHIVE TO THE IFI PLAYER".
  9. ↑ "She Didn't Say No". Irish Film Institute. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  10. ↑ "She Didn't Say No".
  11. ↑ "MOMA To Screen Restored 'She Didn't Say No!'". The Irish Film & Television Network. 1 April 2005. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  12. ↑ Reizi, Paulina, ed. (2020). A Season of Classic Films: Programme Catalogue (PDF). Amsterdam, the Netherlands: ACE – Association des Cinémathèques Européennes.
  13. ↑ "A Season of Classic Films". Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE). Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  14. ↑ Reizi, Paulina. "A Season of Classic Films: She Didn't Say No!". ACE – Association des Cinémathèques Européennes. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
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