Line #10 Film/YoungCassidy


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/p5_0.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Young Dame Creator/MaggieSmith!]]
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4	''Young Cassidy'' is a 1965 British film directed by Jack Cardiff and an uncredited Creator/JohnFord.[[note]]Sort of uncredited. Ford gets "A John Ford film" at the beginning of the credits but Cardiff gets "Directed by Jack Cardiff" at the end.[[/note]]
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6	It is a fictionalized biography of the early life of Irish playwright Sean O'Casey, referred to as "Jack Cassidy". (In RealLife O'Casey was born "John Casey" before changing his name to the Gaelic form "Seán Ó Cathasaigh" and then splitting the difference as "Sean O'Casey".) The film begins in 1911 with Cassidy (Creator/RodTaylor) working as a manual laborer by day (he is literally digging a ditch) while writing pamphlets on behalf of a labor union at night. He also is part of an anti-British militia unit and participates in military drills, but resigns due to disputes with leadership and thus misses the [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishRevolution Easter Rising]] of 1916.
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8	Cassidy falls in love with a spirited bookstore clerk named Nora. In the meantime, despite his lack of formal education, he becomes a rising star in the literary world, with his play ''The Shadow of a Gunman'' debuting in 1923. The climax of the film comes with the premiere of his controversial 1926 play ''Theatre/ThePloughAndTheStars'', which made him famous.
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10	This film was originally supposed to be directed by John Ford but Ford fell ill and had to leave the production after two weeks (he only directed one more film before his death in 1973). It features two actresses who were both just hitting the big time in 1965: Creator/JulieChristie in a supporting role as Daisy Battles, a cheerful prostitute who enjoys a one-night stand with Cassidy, and Creator/MaggieSmith playing the female lead, Nora. Creator/MichaelRedgrave appears as Creator/WilliamButlerYeats.
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12	----
13	!!Tropes:
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15	* ArentYouGoingToRavishMe: A woman who lives in the same apartment building as Cassidy gives him some lustful glances. One night a British police raid causes her to run into Cassidy's room clad in nothing but her bedsheet. She says that "you're a good young man, and would never take advantage of a woman alone in your room at night with nothin' on but a loose tablecloth between you and this swift bit a-courtin'." Then she looks him straight in the eye and says "''Wouldn't you''?" Cassidy moves to embrace her and she happily shucks the bedsheet.
16	* AsYouKnow: Some dialogue to this effect between Cassidy and his mother about how his sister Ella married an English soldier and was eventually abandoned by him, leaving her with a bunch of kids.
17	* BasedOnATrueStory: Based on the early life and literary career of Sean O'Casey. There really was a riot at an early performance of ''The Plough and the Stars''. (On the other hand, the real Sean O'Casey was a bespectacled, short-statured fellow, not particularly resembling Rod Taylor's husky brawler.)
18	* BittersweetEnding: Cassidy's relationship with his old friend Mick ends decisively after Mick gets very very angry over a negative caricature of himself in ''The Plough and the Stars''. Shortly after this Nora breaks up with him, believing that Cassidy is headed to international fame and that she would not belong in that world and would hold him back. Cassidy despairs that he's losing everything--but he ''is'' becoming internationally famous, as symbolized in the last scene where he's taking a boat to London.
19	* DrowningMySorrows: Cassidy gets very drunk in a bar after his mother dies, then grabs and drunkenly kisses Nora on his way home.
20	* FightingIrish: A performance of ''The Plough and the Stars'' devolves into chaos as an angry audience hoots and jeers and [[ProducePelting throws vegetables]] at the actors. As Cassidy waits nervously in the lobby, two drunk men stumble in from the street, literally looking for a fight. When Cassidy says the men want to create a disturbance, one grins and says "Maybe just addin' to it." Cassidy promptly punches both of them out.
21	* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Cassidy innocently wonders how Daisy affords an apartment as an only sporadically-employed chorus girl. She lets him know that she is either a kept woman or a full-on call girl by saying "I have an uncle as well," and giving him a MeaningfulLook; [[https://productioncode.dhwritings.com/multipleframes_productioncode.php Section II of the Hays Code forbade such things]].
22	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Jack Cassidy himself, as a fictionalized version of Sean O'Casey. Also, Dublin theater director Creator/WilliamButlerYeats, who really did confront a mob to defend O'Casey's play, and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta,_Lady_Gregory Lady Gregory]], writer and theater director.
23	* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Cassidy's mother coughs, and excuses herself to go to bed, saying she has "a bit of cold." In the very next scene Jack finds her at home, dead.
24	* LargeHam: Cassidy's brother Archie, who is an actor, demonstrates for the family an amazingly over-the-top rendition of the opening lines from ''Theatre/RichardIII''.
25	* MeadowRun: Well, it's Nora and Jack running together through a grassy meadow, not at each other, but it's the same romantic vibe.
26	* MeetCute: Nora the bookstore clerk catches Jack trying to steal some books from the store, namely a couple of literary books as well as the book on military drill that Jack needs to train recruits to the Irish Citizen Army. She later sends those books to him as a gift.
27	* MythologyGag: The LoveInterest in ''Theatre/ThePloughAndTheStars'' is named Nora.
28	* ProducePelting: The outraged audience at a performance of ''The Plough and the Stars'' flings garbage and what looks like heads of lettuce at the actors.
29	* ShamingTheMob: The audience at ''The Plough and the Stars'' flings garbage and boos the actors and a couple of people actually try to get on the stage and fight them. Finally a pissed-off W.B. Yeats stomps out to center stage and yells at them, shouting "You have disgraced yourself again!" (The "again" is a reference to a similar riot at a 1907 performance of ''Theatre/ThePlayboyOfTheWesternWorld''.)
30	* SpitefulSpit: Daisy spits at a saber-wielding British soldier on horseback. She nearly gets slashed with that saber before Cassidy jumps in and saves her.
31	* TitleDrop: Yeats tells Jack that he'll have to mature as a writer by saying "you are young, Cassidy, and that makes your passion effortless and artless."

Context Film / YoungCassidy