The Irish in Us Reviews

Gordon is a thick-brogued mother of three lovable Irish sons: Cagney, a sometime fight manager, O'Brien, a tough cop, and McHugh, a daffy fireman. O'Brien tumbles for de Havilland who is the police captain's daughter, but she's head over heels in love with Cagney, which causes a rift between the brothers. Cagney then becomes obsessed with promoting fighter Jenkins into a champ, a hopeless cause. On the eve of the big fight, Jenkins dives into a bottle and gets stinko, forcing Cagney to put on the gloves and climb into the ring to save face and win de Havilland's heart-- as well as the respect of brother O'Brien. This is routine but fast-paced comedy with Cagney and O'Brien interplaying beautifully. The story is all Irish blarney but, as such, is charming, with McHugh and Jenkins providing plenty of laughs. This kind of film, Cagney later stated, was called "cuff opera," since he, O'Brien, and the others added dialog to the script off-the-cuff.