The Fighting Prince of Donegal
Like Rob Roy trying to unite the Scottish clans against the
English, Hugh O'Donnell, The Fighting Prince of Donegal, tries to unite the
Irish clans against the English. He is
making his tour around Ireland when he is invited to dine in an English vessel
outside the castle of Lord McSweeney. In his attempt to be a diplomat believing
that the English are inviting him back to their ship in the harbor for wine and
crumpets he is taken prisoner and thrown into Dublin castle. Queen Elizabeth
believes some prophecy which states that when Hugh is on the throne, English
rule will end in Ireland and the people will have freedom. Can’t be having that happen now can we.
He tries to escape with the help of another prisoner Sean O'Toole
who managed to make a stone in the prison wall loose and able to come out. He makes a good attempt but gets captured
again. Later on he escapes with the help of some local Irish guy working for
the English. They strike up a friendship over the pet mice the prisoners have
put in the corner of the dungeon cell. Along with Hugh for the Big Escape is Henry
O'Neill, whom is among the clans he is campaigning to join in the united Irish
band. Earlier in the movie they had a wrestling match concerning this very
issue. During the course of their escape they come across a family of beautiful
Irish lasses whom O’Neill tries to get to baby him as he lies injured with a
sore leg. The wise widowed mother of the girls knows a playboy when she sees
him and cuts his flirtation short. As the English comes looking for the escaped
Irish prisoners, they gather around the bed of the girl’s dead mother, which is
O’Neill in disguise. Hugh and O’Neill
also pose as women earlier on to escape the English. Posing as women dead or
alive is a great tactic in avoiding English soldiers.
During the course of the movie the Fighting Prince gets to fight
Irish hating Captain Leeds twice. The first time it was while he was prisoner and
Leeds wanted to show off to the other soldiers about how bad ass he was, only to
get his butt kicked as a result. Instead of being a good sport about it , after
he provoked the fight, he puts shackles on Hugh. Later on they fight again as the
FPOD tries to take back the Dangal castle Leeds has invaded. A lot of the
action and political intrigue take place in several castles. Castles are plentiful
in Ireland. Visited King John’s Castle when I went there with me wife on
holiday. You can see old English ruins
while driving down the twisting, turning and winding roads of Galway and Mayo
and on that N17: Stone Walls and the Grass is Green. Irish songs….
It is also worth noting that Hugh and the beautiful daughter of
Lord McSweeney, Kathleen McSweeney, have a thing for each other. He even gets
to kiss her at least once during the movie. A good looking lass like that should
have been kissed a lot more then once. Peter McEnery (the Fighting Prince) according
to Wikipedia was noted for having given Hayley Mills her first
"grown-up" screen kiss in the 1964 Disney film The Moon-Spinners.
Although I remember him clearly not kissing her and thinking what a wasted
moment that was. My wife thought Kathleen,
the name of her twin by the way) was Barbara Eden from ‘I Dream of Jeanie’,
when in reality it is Susan Hampshire as Molly MacDonald from the BBC TV series
Monarch of the Glen, a show which my wife really likes. I wish I had more to
say about this character other then she is really pretty and feisty.
Overall, the movie is not terribly great, nor terribly bad. My wife and some film critics think it lacks a
general audience. Too boring for kids and too hooky for adults. I thought it
was just sort of there, like the Irish ruins scattered around limerick. My wife
was annoyed by the lack of Irish accents in a movie that took place in Ireland.
It was directed by a born Irishman, Michael O'Herlihy, so why the lack of Irish
brogues? He also directed a few other Disney flicks and also episodes of Star
Trek and The A-Team. The movie was based
on the novel Red Hugh: Prince of Donegal by Robert T. Reilly.
Still if you’re a Disney enthusiast, it’s not a bad film to watch,
at least once.
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