Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

"Juno and the Paycock" is not a Hitchcock film, this is a film that 'happens to be' directed by Hitchcock. The difference is simple: the film is such a faithful adaptation of Sean O'Casey's successful play of the same title that he can stand as the film's honorific director. This is not to discount Hitchcock's contribution but the Master had his three-decade streak coming so this can be seen as an early warm-up with the then-rising sound technology, but the film is as close to Hitch' universe as Walt Disney is to Russ Meyer.The story is about a dysfunctional family, the Boyles, the father is a loafer who spends time drinking with his friend (and efficient comic-relief) Joxer and talking about his 'glorious' naval past (he's nicknamed Captain, but his tendency to exaggerate his stories doesn't fool anyone). And there's Juno, the responsible and mature housewife, played by Sara Allgood, she was the matriarch in "How Green Was my Valley" but this is where the comparison ends. While John Ford's nostalgic journey in the Welsh country was painted with the beatifying light of nostalgia, "Juno and the Paycock" is a challenge to all the stereotypes about the Irish Family that movies have been nurturing for years, no kids that can be counted by the dozen, no Catholic overzealous devotion, no noble-hearted poor and no men of virtue.For some strange reason, we tend to idealize the past, confident that it was a time where men were men, and women women, time where people fulfilled their duties. We also tend to idealize the spirit of poor people, as if the lack of money was compensated by the gold in their heart. Rubbish, mediocrity is timeless and has no social barriers, the poorer, the more bitter these people get. And the least Captain Boyle works the least he wants to work again and only counts on his woman to carry the house. Sean O'Casey makes a play of high sociological value, setting the story in one of these brownish tenements our memories usually borrow from Jim Sheridan's movie or sketches about Irish community. And the dysfunctional aspect of the family, that slap in the face, also extends to the Irish context.The film is set in the midst of the Civil War and it's not just a colorful detail as it opens with a long oration from Barry Fitzgerald praising the people's courage. This is where Hitchcock's sense of humor shows its head, the many close-ups on the ugly mugs shows a funny contrast between the speech and the reality, and then the reaction from the gunfights says a lot about these men's spirit. The opening sets the tone: this is a film set in a world where men have ceased to prove their value and woman carries the cross. The only seemingly positive male character is Johnny; the son who just lost his arm in a fight yet seems to hide a more painful wound. Another man is courting Mary, the daughter, but she's in love with a young solicitor named Bentham and he's got good news for the Boyles.The second act deals with the inheritance, a cousin leaves his fortune to Boyle whose reflex is to immediately snub his buddy, if money can't buy love, it can't bring much dignity. The Boyles start buying fancy furniture, show off their fortune, enjoys the music from their gramophone and while a funeral procession pass near their house, even Juno can't empathize with a mother mourning her son, also killed in the war. It says a lot about the way wealth conditions our behavior and clouds our empathy. The Boyles discuss with Bentham matters of religion, wondering what can exactly fascinate people in this. For all the Catholic faith we supposed Irish people are impregnated with, here is an Irish playwright giving us a glimpse of how malleable their faith are, like everyone's.Even while recalling his pasts on the boat, Boyle remembers the question he used to ask himself "what brings the stars?" God doesn't strike as an obvious answer, a loser is likely to lose his faith … and loses it more when luck strikes. Naturally, the third act will change everything, a mistake from Bentham will prevent them from getting the money, out of shame, he'll leave Mary pregnant, as for Johnny, he'll be taken away for reasons explaining his torment all through the film. Boyle is treated like dirt by the tailor and the female neighbor, both come to take the stuff he bought by credit, and when he goes to buy his last drink with Joxer, as if nothing happened, only Juno stays with Mary, instead of one father, she'll have two mothers, and this is one of the greatest quotes I've ever heard in a film.The film ends on the poignant eulogy of faith, in an empty room emphasizing the isolation of men when adversity becomes too hard to handle, and this is the irony of faith, too much troubles make us question it, and sometimes, we're so desperate, we need something to hook on, not to drown in an ocean of desperateness. Mary doesn't believe in God, but Juno has a good answer "what can God do with men's stupidity?" one might think if God is so powerful, he should prevent it, but even Einstein had a few wise words about the unlimited aspect of men's stupidity."Juno and the Paycock" was a revelation to me, a real slap in the face. It has nothing to do with Hitch' canon yet the fact that it is associated with Hitchcock's name is the film's ironic blessing because this is exactly why most movie buffs will be curious enough to discover one of 'Hitchcock's earlier films, so maybe apart from Irish or British people, thanks to Hitchcock, the work of Sean O'Casey will never totally sink into oblivion.

This is a very early sound movie; therefore, many of the technical aspects are very primitive, so you must use a bit of patience. But, some of the acting is top-notch, and of course, the play is a classic of the Irish stage. The two standouts as actors is the man who played the outlandish sponge and hanger-on, Jockster, and Sara Algood (sp?) always a dynamite character actor--as Juno, she shines. All in all, this Hitchcock adaption of the play is well done. "Juno and the Paycock" eventually goes in a direction that you would not expect, but in any event, the way in which it looks at Dublin's poor is rather unflinching.

It begins with a poor Dublin family in their shabby apartment, in the hallway of which a candle burns under the statue of the Virgin Mary. There's the solid mother, Juno Boyle (Sara Allgood); the blowhard father (Edward Chapman), the impulsive and love-stricken daughter (Kathleen O'Regan), and the brooding son who has lost an arm in the service of the Irish Republican Army (John Laurie).Times are hard. Not only does the IRA and its machinations hover in the background but Mr. Boyle has run up a bar bill at Foley's that looks more like somebody's telephone number.Then -- out of the blue -- a stroke of good luck! A dislike cousin of Mr. Boyle has died and left him upwards of 1500 pounds, a fortune. Act II: Everyone is invited into the newly bedecked Boyle parlor and is given a drop to drink and a chance to listen to the gramophone. The audience has to sit through four additional songs, sung live, including "Those Endearing Young Charms." Then -- also out of the blue -- tragedy strikes. The feckless deceased cousin failed to mention Mr. Boyle by name, saying only that his fortune be distributed among his "cousins." Well, the deceased's cousins come flocking in from all corners of the globe and the money suffers the fate of the Jarndyce fortune in "Bleak House." The lawyers get it all.Everybody begins demanding back the furniture and other goods they've given Mr. Boyle on account. His best friend steals a bottle of stout and slips it into his pocket. Mr. Kelly shows up and runs off with the beautiful new suit of Mr. Boyle. Mr. Kelly, the funniest character in the story, is decidedly Jewish. "I could call you all kinds of names," he shouts at Boyle, "but I won't, you cheap, lying goniff!" The tragedy isn't at an end. Young Mary gets knocked up by her dashing English boyfriend -- "with the walking stick and the gloves." And the brooding son is revealed as an informer responsible for the death of the IRA commandant and is taken away and executed.Last scene. Mrs. Boyle is all alone, praying and weeping at the foot of the Virgin's statue. "Oh, blessed Virgin, where was your pity?" Then she staggers off stage. It's like de Unamuno said. There are no workable systems of belief. There's only faith itself.I know this is supposed to be good because, after all, it combines Alfred Hitchcock with Sean O'Casey. That means I'm bad, because I didn't think much of it and my mind drifted throughout. The performers seemed to have forgotten that they're no longer in front of a live audience because the overacting is outrageous. Sometimes, I'm certain, it was designed to be funny, and it is -- like Barry Fitzgerald's pompous orator at the opening. At other times, the cries and wild gesticulations seem to belong to a Cecil B. DeMille silent movie. And, though most of the parts are cast well enough, there is Mr. Boyle at the center and he's not funny, even when he's supposed to be. He's just unpleasant.What sparkle there is in this film comes from the poetry of everyday Irish speech. What ornate phraseology! "It blowed and it blowed and it blowed. 'Blew' is the right word, but the sailors say 'blowed.'" They can drop in a quote from Robert Burns ("man's inhumanity to man....") and it goes unnoticed.Well, the play really required a seasoned director and less old-fashioned acting and it got neither here. I'd love to have seen what Hitchcock might have done with this when he was at his peak. As it is, without quite measuring up, it resembles an episode of the Honeymooners only the sadness is real and Ralph doesn't hug Alice at the end.

This is a work of socialist realism, showing the lives of the working-class from the worker's point of view. It is shocking and raw, but contains a great deal wit and humor. It is certainly a surprise to see Hitchcock handling such overtly political material. He does it with a great deal of sensitivity. He allows Sean O'Casey's wonderful dialogue to carry the film and does not allow any cinematic tricks to get in the way. This is a must-see film. For those who think that Hitchcock is all technique and no ideological substance, it will be a surprise and a revelation.Only "The Skin Game" matches it for overtly Marxist political drama.