News: Free commemorative screening of the feature length documentary When Hitchcock Met O’Casey (2019) on Tuesday 10 September 2024 at the Seán O’Casey Theatre, Dublin.
News: A new production of Juno and the Paycock starring J. Smith-Cameron and Mark Rylance at London’s Gielgud Theatre, 21 September–23 November 2024.
- When the luck of the Irish ran out: the outlook is grey in the Emerald Isle
- The first all-talking film from the young director is a humorous but dark drama
- Based on a perennially popular stage play depicting 1920s Irish working class strife
- Featuring many regular Hitch players and examples of the Master’s sharp touches
- A hugely underrated film, largely because it’s very difficult to see in good quality
- Most commenters haven’t given it a fair shake, only seeing it via atrocious bootlegs
- Currently, legitimate home video options are few but they’re all detailed here
Note: this is part of an ongoing series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles; any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.
UK pressbook: this artwork adorns the sole official UK DVD and at least two bootlegs from the US and Korea. Only the UK has a yellow BBFC triangle.
Contents
- Production
- Home video releases
- The Informer (1929)
- The Informer (1935)
- Uptight (1968)
- Related articles
Production
One of Hitch’s least-known titles, this tale of poor working class folk is set in Dublin during the Irish Civil War (1922–1923). Released in the US as The Shame of Mary Boyle, it’s based on the still-popular, eponymous 1924 play by Seán O’Casey, the second of his famed “Dublin Trilogy”. O’Casey and Hitch discussed collaborating on another film based on an original screenplay titled The Park, but they reportedly fell out and it all came to naught. O’Casey’s idea was eventually published as the controversial play Within the Gates (1934) which proved unsuccessful domestically, but found greater favour in the States. Hitch, meanwhile, later based the drunk doomsayer in The Birds (“It’s the end of the world!”) on the Irish playwright, much as he later based the murderer in Rear Window on his hated former boss David O. Selznick. But he’s not one to bear a grudge, oh no.
Juno’s stage and screen cast outside the Grafton Picture House, Dublin, 1930 (source)
Sara Allgood originated the part of Juno on stage at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, along with various members of the cast drawn from the Irish Players, and reprised her role in the film, following another motherly stint in Hitch’s Blackmail the previous year. She continued to play the suffering matriarch in several major productions for at least another decade, including a 1940 Broadway run. The titular, strutting “Paycock” was played by stage actor Edward Chapman in his first film role. In fact, three of Chapman’s first four films were for Hitch: he went on to also feature in Murder! and The Skin Game. His third, Caste (1930) is preserved in the BFI Archive but sadly unavailable. Chapman had a prodigious career on film and TV but is best remembered as the long-suffering “Mr. Grimsdale!”, the butt of comedian Norman Wisdom’s many hapless misadventures.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Juno and the Paycock – Jack Morgan
In addition to regular stage revivals, commencing with Hitch’s take there have been at least 11 big and small screen adaptations of Juno. These include productions from places as far-flung as America, Austria, Canada, Norway, Spain, and one apiece from Cold War-era East and West Germany. The whereabouts of the first remake, for BBC TV in 1938, is unknown but it would make for a fascinating comparison, especially as Allgood’s real life younger sister Maire O’Neill, who made her onscreen début in Hitch’s version as Juno’s neighbour Maisie Madigan, this time played Juno herself. But not for the first time: she also took the part for several BBC radio adaptations from 1937–1951.
UK pressbook rear
Juno comes with several caveats, not least of which is that you mustn’t go in expecting a hidden Hitch masterpiece. Though there are some deft directorial touches here and there, overall there isn’t an awful lot for him to play with, and it’s never much in danger of breaking free of its stage-bound origins. Most of it is set in a single room, but this is a long way from the much bigger-budgeted gimmickry of a similar premise in Dial M for Murder.
Juno and the Paycock – Jared Wheeler
But in other respects, this is a potential gem waiting to be discovered anew. Though Juno is frequently adjudged as not adding up to much more than a very competently made early talkie, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable, engaging experience. If anything, it’s a perfect example of a ‘lesser’ Hitchcock that from anyone else of the period would be pretty much universally considered upper tier. But Hitch’s works come saddled with a grossly unfair weight of expectation that few, if any, filmmaker could possibly live up to. The greatest obstacle Juno currently faces is in the poor condition of ubiquitous bootleg copies, which is how most people come to it. In all, largely due to its current physical state, it’s perhaps more a film for fans of very early talkies or the play itself, rather than followers of Hitch per se.
As with The 39 Steps, Juno has an unreleased ending scene that was filmed but is now probably lost, although, unlike Steps, there is evidence it was included on some early prints. It features a drunken captain and Joxer returning to the former’s home, bring the narrative full circle. More details and a complete transcript of it are included in Charles Barr and Alain Kerzoncuf’s essential Hitchcock Lost and Found: The Forgotten Films (2015), the companion volume to Barr’s equally indispensable English Hitchcock (1999).
Dundee Evening Telegraph, 7 March 1930
Note the above review’s final paragraph:
“On the whole, this is beautifully photographed by J.C. Cox, who is one of Britain’s best cameramen and seems to get fresh inspiration when he is working under Mr Hitchcock.
Beautifully recorded talking gives one an illusion of reality so that you can shut your eyes to listen and imagine that the players are there in the flesh.”
That mouth-watering technical quality is sadly not currently apparent anywhere other than on a single DVD. But even that could be improved much further as the BFI Archive holds a cache of film materials on this title going right back to the original negative, which is 8,510 feet (94:33 minutes) in length.
Hitchcock’s Ireland: The Performance of Irish Identity in Juno and the Paycock and Under Capricorn/alt – James Morrison
Home video releases
Hitch (centre) was to have a cameo as a barman in the pub seen at the start of the film, but it was ultimately abandoned as he felt it wasn’t realistic enough.
If you want to see Juno for yourself, there are just three official DVDs:
- UK: Film First DVD (2010) eBay
- Italy: Eagle 2on1 DVD w/The Ring, also in 8-DVD/15-film AH Portrait (2005)
- France: Journaux.fr DVD (2007)
- Universal 2on1 DVD (2006, reissued 2013) w/The Man Who Knew Too Much, also in these box sets
Film First’s UK DVD is by far and away your best bet, as it features a very clear, BFI-sourced print that has had some A/V clean-up and is streets ahead of anything else in circulation. There’s a caveat though: the image has been mastered slightly squashed, though this can easily be corrected if playing back via a computer drive with VLC or similar. It’s region 0, runs for 91:00 with 4% PAL speed-up and there are no subtitles or extras. If only it had been coded NTSC, it’d be a truly universal disc but Film first were a tiny independent outfit who only put out a handful of releases and are still selling some remaining stock of other titles. As Carol, one of the producers, told me, “We did try to do the best we could with limited resources.” The other problem with this release is that there were only limited numbers pressed and it’s generally quite expensive when copies do come up for sale, so if you see one going cheap, especially on eBay, grab it!
Spanish Suevia Films bootleg DVD: Sara Allgood, Edward Chapman and Sidney Morgan
French Universal DVD: transfer is exactly the same as the preceding boot
UK Film First DVD; the only good quality transfer available, albeit slightly squashed
All other circulating copies are derived from a single US 16mm reduction print which yielded a zoomed-in, dupey and muffled transfer. It literally looks and sounds as if it was videoed directly off a projection screen with an external mike to pick up the audio; I’ve seen far better kinescopes. In fact, appearance-wise it’s on a par with poor old Easy Virtue but unlike that film, Juno is at least complete. Said transfer originated on DVD with Whirlwind Media’s boot (2000) and that, as is standard practise, has been much copied itself ever since. A further demerit is that most PAL discs, being lifted directly from the US boots, have an unconverted NTSC-PAL transfer.
With the remaining licensed discs, it’s the opposite of the situation with Waltzes from Vienna’s DVDs: this time, rather than the UK, the French and Italian Juno discs offer up a vastly inferior transfer. Studiocanal, the copyright owners, don’t possess a suitable master of any type for the film and have been negligent in going to the time and expense of creating one. Therefore, they also slyly copied it from a bootleg, complete with NTSC-PAL deficiencies! Even the most recent round of Studiocanal-Hitchcock re-releases, from Kino Lorber in the US, have notably omitted Juno yet again, indicating their lack of a decent master. The bottom line is all DVDs bar the UK are pretty atrocious and quite a chore to sit through. The invaluable Hitchcock Zone has numerous comparative screenshots for your edification – and mortification.
French Universal DVD: Phyllis Konstam, John Longden and Sara Allgood
UK Film First DVD
So do avoid all bootlegs, but if shopping for the UK Film First DVD, especially ensure you don’t mistakenly pick up any of at least half a dozen boots featuring variations on the same original pressbook artwork but with the usual shoddy transfer. Just ensure you get one with the art and BBFC logo, and definitely avoid the most common UK boot, from Waterfall Home Entertainment; artwork below. Incidentally, there is a second French Universal 2on1 DVD of Waltzes from Vienna whose sleeve claims it contains Juno as a bonus but it’s just a repackage of the first, so actually has Downhill. Oops.
French Universal DVD
UK Film First DVD
Of all Hitch’s British talkies, Juno is the hardest to see in good condition and its reputation is badly harmed by this. It may not be his most dynamic film in terms of action, but there’s a great story here that skilfully veers back and forth from slapstick humour to dark tragedy. But that narrative relies heavily on the acting and dialogue, which are all too often compromised. It’s unfortunately inevitable that most people will only get to see it via the bootleg transfers but with them, heads are constantly cut off, leaving disembodied voices floating in the crackly air. And as speech is all articulated in thick Irish brogue, it’s often impossible to follow exactly what’s being said with no subtitles and the already muffled soundtrack suffering numerous drop-outs. Again, Film First’s DVD is a huge improvement in this regard and though with it the spirit of the story always comes across clearly enough, it certainly helps to read (or see!) the play first, as the dialogue is much more intelligible after seeing it in print.
Edward Chapman, Sara Allgood, Sidney Morgan and Maire O’Neal in a rendition of the irrepressibly catchy “If You’re Irish Come into the Parlour”. Diegetic music such as this is all that appears in the film.
As we’ve seen elsewhere, even the Hitchcock 9, far better-known works than Juno, have struggled to acquire home video release since their costly, high profile restoration. Despite the BFI’s fine Juno holdings, the chances of a high quality release of this most obscure of Hitch’s films is very slim as Studiocanal have literally never done anything with it; Film First’s DVD was an independent enterprise. Likewise, funding for a HD scan and clean-up or even full restoration would likely have to come from a source that had little expectation of seeing an immediate return on its investment. But with such a rich, fascinating background to the historical milieu, play and film itself, there is great potential for a pristine quality release with much added contextual material.
In summary, Juno is no missing masterpiece, to be sure, but in its own right it’s a very well executed early talkie that wouldn’t come in for such a consistent drubbing were it by anyone other than Hitch. But then, if that was the case it would be even less often seen, if at all, so catch-22. Nonetheless, as with other oft-derided Hitchcocks like Jamaica Inn, despite its shortcomings his mark is still unmistakably all over Juno and every serious fan should see it at least once in optimum condition.
This artwork has appeared on various bootlegs, including UK and Scandinavian DVDs (Waterfall Home Entertainment/WHE); and Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes and YouTube streams (The Orchard).
The Informer (1929)
BFI National Archive holdings | Timeline of Historical Film Colors: tinted silent and sound nitrate prints
Without a doubt, Juno’s Irish setting and its window into a very troubled time in that country’s history could be capitalised upon in future. After all, the BFI did a fantastic job of restoring both the silent and sound versions of The Informer, based on the 1925 novel of the same name by Liam O’Flaherty. It’s a superb, similarly-themed film, like Juno also shot at Elstree Studios by British International Pictures. The BFI then featured it in an excellent programme of events and screenings, ultimately resulting in a superlative Blu-ray/DVD release.
It’s time for one of the great British silent films to get its due: The Informer – Bryony Dixon
Among The Informer’s extras are eight evocative Topical Budget newsreels of the period; these and the silent version are beautifully scored by a group of mostly Celtic musicians led by composer Garth Knox. Unlike Juno, there are no technical caveats with this film: both of its versions move at a cracking pace, and have great sound and visuals. In addition to those, the BFI discs include a featurette on the new score (10min), the eight newsreels, a restoration demo (5min) and an informative, illustrated 36-page booklet. Sadly, due to licensing reasons the US Kino discs lose all extras bar the demo. In lieu of a special edition release of Juno, the BFI’s Informer package, with its wealth of contextual material, makes a fine companion piece to the Film First DVD.
- UK: BFI region 0 BD/R2 DVD set (2017)
- US: Kino region A BD and R1 DVD (2019)
The Informer (1935)
US lobby card
Sticking with The Informer, of course John Ford’s quadruple Oscar winning 1935 US remake also comes very highly recommended and can be had on various official DVDs, and streaming in the US:
- US: Warner DVD-R reissue (2016, region-free), original R1 disc in 5-DVD John Ford Film Collection (2006)
- UK: Universal DVD (2008)
- Italy: Mondo DVD (2004)
- France: Éditions Montparnasse DVD (2002)
- Éditions Montparnasse DVD (2005)
The 2002 French “Edition Collector” DVD includes copious English-language extras and a 16-page booklet, but both French discs have slightly inferior NTSC-PAL transfers. Beware the bootlegs: this time they’re from Italy (DNA), Spain (Manga Films/reissue, LaCasaDelCineParaTodos, Layons) and others. There’s even an anonymous Spanish BD-R, likely from über-pirates Resen, ripped straight from DVD. Feckin’ eejits.
Two decades later, the film’s star Victor McLaglen reprised his most successful role alongside Hitch fave Herbert Marshall, for an episode of NBC Radio Theater broadcast on October 11, 1955.
Uptight (1968)
US poster
Renowned screenwriter-producer-actor Jules Dassin’s updated, retitled remake has an all-black cast and is set against the tumultuous backdrop of the urban civil rights movement. Though it made money, reviews were mixed from favourable to poor; nonetheless it also spawned a hit soundtrack album by Booker T. & the M.G.’s. As timely in its own way as the previous incarnations of O’Flaherty’s story, so far Uptight has only seen region-locked physical US releases:
- US: Olive BD and DVD (2012)
- UK: Prime Video HD
- Germany: Prime Video HD
Related articles
This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.
