John Ford- The Shamrock Handicap (1926)

[ethanedwards]

THE SHAMROCK HANDICAP

DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY JOHN FORD
FOX FILM CORPORATION

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Infoprmation from IMDb

Plot Summary
Finding himself in great financial difficulties, an old Irish gentleman
is forced to sell part of his team to an American landowner,
who also takes away his best jockey.
During a race the jockey is injured and he has to contact his old master,
He arrives in America with his daughter and a filly.
To revive the fortunes of the team, he signs up for an important race,
in which his daugter rides the filly and wins first prize.
All four then return to Ireland.
Hopefully, translated from Italian by ethanedwards from rosebud6

Full Cast
Janet Gaynor ... Lady Sheila O'Hara
Leslie Fenton ... Neil Ross
Willard Louis ... Orville Finch
J. Farrell MacDonald ... Cornelius Emmet Sarsfield 'Con' O'Shea
Claire McDowell ... Molly O'Shea
Louis Payne ... Sir Miles O'Hara
George Harris ... Jockey Bennie Ginsburg (as Georgie Harris)
Andy Clark ... 'Chesty' Morgan
Ely Reynolds ... Virus Cakes
Thomas Delmar ... Michaels (uncredited)
Bill Elliott ... Well-Wishing Villager (uncredited)
Brandon Hurst ... The Procurer of Taxes (uncredited)
Eric Mayne ... Doctor (uncredited)

Writing Credits
Peter B. Kyne (story)
John Stone (scenario)
Elizabeth Pickett (titles)

Cinematography
George Schneiderman

[ethanedwards]

The Shamrock Handicap is a 1926 silent romance film
One of his few surviving silent era films, features
Janet Gaynor, Leslie Fenton
and J. Farrell MacDonald.
Beginning in Ireland and ending on the horse racetrack,
this pleasing film shows Ford’s versatility as director and storyteller.

Ford lays on the blarney in this likable but predictable melodrama-romance
that spotlights the affection between an Irish lass (Gaynor),
the lone daughter of a kindly nobleman, and a young son of Erin (Fenton)
who heads off to America to work as a jockey.
Of note for the way Ford contrasts life in Ireland and the U.S.
Based on a story by Peter B. Kyne.
Written by Leonard Maltlin

A print of the film still exists in the Museum of Modern Art film archive.

User Review

John Ford In Complete Control Of His Craft.
18 July 2004 | by rsoonsa (Mountain Mesa, California)

THE SHAMROCK HANDICAP is the first film having an Irish motif that John Ford directed, a six reel delight set in Eire's County Kildare and in the United States, with a steeplechase background, mixing charged elements of comedy and sentimental drama, benefiting from a sterling cast including Leslie Fenton, Janet Gaynor, and Ford favourite J. Farrell MacDonald. After Sir Miles O'Hara (Louis Payne) is forced to sell most of his racing horses to American Orville Finch (Willard Louis) to pay debts, Finch persuades O'Hara's trainer and rider Neil Ross (Fenton) to leave with him for America to seek fortune, causing a sad separation between Neil and Sheila (Gaynor), daughter of Miles, who wishes to wed the young horseman. Fenton becomes permanently lame from a fall during a race in the U.S. but does not write of his injury to Sheila, and when an O'Shea entourage crosses the Atlantic to visit Neil, serious complications arise, with director Ford not relying solely upon sympathy for young Ross to propel his story to its very pleasing conclusion. Ford's distinctive stylistic methods garnish the film, at the same time providing a pastoral atmosphere synchronous with his perceptive visual character keynotes, brisk pacing, and always fresh, because unexpected, humorous invention, his protagonists defined by their actions and costumes, as in classic and medieval comedy. MacDonald plays Con O'Shea, Milo's handyman and friend, with always dependable Clair McDowell as Milo's wife, each player contributing a valuable turn in this well-edited affair, based upon an original story by Peter B. Kyne, popular American writer during the beginning years of the twentieth century. An upgraded print is in the collection of New York City's Museum of Modern Art, without tinting and 66 minutes, the best one to see, and it includes composer Philip Carli's epigrammatic piano solo score that offers a wealth of tuneful conceits.