Smiling Irish Eyes

Smiling Irish Eyes is a 1929 American sound (All-Talking) pre-Code Vitaphone musical film with Technicolor sequences.^[1] The film is now considered a lost film. However, the Vitaphone audio discs still exist.^[2]

Smiling Irish Eyes
Advertisement for the film in the July, 1929 edition of Screenland
Directed by	William A. Seiter
Written by	Thomas J. Geraghty (story, screenplay, titles)
Produced by	John McCormick
Starring	Colleen Moore James Hall Robert Homans Claude Gillingwater
Cinematography	Henry Freulich Sidney Hickox
Edited by	Alexander Hall
Music by	Louis Silvers
Production companies	First National Pictures The Vitaphone Corp.
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Release dates	July 28, 1929 (1929-07-28) (sound version) September 22, 1929 (1929-09-22) (silent version)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

Rory O'More leaves his sweetheart Kathleen O'Connor back in the old country while he travels to America to establish himself. He is a musician, and hopes to make it big. Kathleen grows tired of waiting and travels to America, only to find him on stage performing "their" song and kissing another woman. Kathleen returns to Ireland, followed by Rory, who explains everything. In the end they wed and return to America.

Cast

• Colleen Moore as Kathleen O'Connor
• James Hall as Rory O'More
• Robert Homans as Shamus O'Connor
• Claude Gillingwater as Michael O'Connor
• Tom O'Brien as Barney "Black Barney"
• Robert Emmett O'Connor as Sir Timothy
• Aggie Herring as Granny O'More
• Betty Francisco as Frankie West
• Julanne Johnston as Goldie Devore
• Edward Earle as Ralph Prescott
• Fred Kelsey as County Fair Manager
• Barney Gilmore as County Fair Manager's Assistant
• Charles McHugh as County Fair Manager's Assistant
• Madam Bosocki as Fortune Teller
• George 'Gabby' Hayes as Taxi Driver
• Anne Schaefer as Landlady
• John Beck as Sir Timothy's Butler
• Oscar Apfel as Max North
• Otto Lederer as Izzy Levi
• William H. Strauss as Moe Levi
• David Thursby as "Scotch" Barker
• Dan Crimmins as The Trouble Maker

Background

Smiling Irish Eyes was Colleen Moore's first musical role, and only her first sound film. Produced by her husband at the time, John McCormick (1893-1961), the film featured Moore as Kathleen O'Connor, an Irish woman who follows her musician sweetheart Rory O'More (James Hall) to New York City.^[3][4]

This film is similar to an earlier film Moore made for Samuel Goldwyn, Come On Over (1922), directed by Rupert Hughes. As in Smiling Irish Eyes, Colleen played an Irish girl whose betrothed crosses the ocean to start a new life in America before sending for her. In both films, the boyfriends do not send for her right away, in both she travels to America only to find the boyfriend seemingly besotted by another girl. In both, cases this is a misunderstanding. In Come On Over, Colleen's character reluctantly remains in America where she learns that her boyfriend is actually helping the father of the "other woman" quit drinking. In Smiling Irish Eyes, Colleen's character returns to Ireland, followed by the boyfriend, who convinces her back in Ireland that it was a misunderstanding. They marry and return to America. Following this film, Moore made another film directed by Seiter, Footlights and Fools (1929). This latter film also had Technicolor sequences, and is now considered a lost film, although the Vitaphone discs survive.

Soundtrack

• "Smiling Irish Eyes" (Theme Song)

by Herman Ruby and Ray Perkins

Sung by Colleen Moore and James Hall

• "A Wee Bit o' Love"

by Herman Ruby and Norman Spencer

Sung by Colleen Moore

• "Then I Can Ride Home With You"

by Herman Ruby and Norman Spencer

Sung by Colleen Moore

• "Old Killarney Fair"

by Herman Ruby and Norman Spencer

Sung by Colleen Moore

See also

• List of lost films
• List of early color feature films
• List of early sound feature films (1926–1929)