Jiggs is tricked by Maggie and her unscrupulous high society friends, the Kremishaws, into getting the gang down at Dinty Moore's tavern to sign a petition to close the joint down and, what's worse, to take the pledge against drinking alcohol. Meanwhile, the Kremishaw's oily son, Junior, attempts to woo daughter Nora, much to Maggie's delight, though Nora prefers the company of Dinty's nephew, Danny, an aspiring architect. The plot is paper-thin, but serves admirably in allowing the actors to play out some of George McManus's favorite gags from the strip. Jiggs sings a chorus of "Corned Beef and Cabbage," and George McManus has a recurring cameo that lets him deliver the film's closing line. Not a great film, but one that should appeal to fans of the classic comic strip.
2 Reviews
For those who like their comedies from the pencil in your Sunday Times.
mark.waltz22 April 2017
Warning: Spoilers
So many of the great comic strips are forgotten, but some have survived thanks to either movies, TV specials, or in the case of a boy and his dog, a muscular hillbilly and a little redheaded orphan with ping pong ball eyes, a Broadway musical. For Jiggs and Maggie, they got a series of B films, difficult to find because of copyright issues, which made them for me an even bigger curiosity. So to find the first entry in the brief series made me very happy, but what I found it to be was a slight disappointment. There's far too many characters, a boring side romantic plot involving their daughter. Tim Ryan adds some amusement as Dinty Moire, with perennial drunk Jack Morton adding more, especially when he explains how he helped end prohibition.
Joe Yule and Rene Riano look like they were born to play these parts, wiry their likeness very similar to what I had seen before in my limited knowledge of the comic strip. The issue with the film is that it starts off promising, but quickly loses steam to the lack of a plot. Riano, the funniest woman ever to brandish a rolling pin, is hysterically funny, but wasted, of little use to the plot other than to boss and bully Yule's Jiggs. He is a regular customer at the 10th Avenue Irish hangout, Dinty Moore's, and becomes involved unwittingly in a plot to shut it down do to ruthless developers. In just over an hour, he sings and dances, deals with an over-starched dicky, and ducks Maggie's rolling pin several times. She's too busy off screen most of the time trying to worm her way into society, always ineffectively. A historical tie in with the comic strip at the end is a nice touch, but a bit too late.
Joe Yule and Rene Riano look like they were born to play these parts, wiry their likeness very similar to what I had seen before in my limited knowledge of the comic strip. The issue with the film is that it starts off promising, but quickly loses steam to the lack of a plot. Riano, the funniest woman ever to brandish a rolling pin, is hysterically funny, but wasted, of little use to the plot other than to boss and bully Yule's Jiggs. He is a regular customer at the 10th Avenue Irish hangout, Dinty Moore's, and becomes involved unwittingly in a plot to shut it down do to ruthless developers. In just over an hour, he sings and dances, deals with an over-starched dicky, and ducks Maggie's rolling pin several times. She's too busy off screen most of the time trying to worm her way into society, always ineffectively. A historical tie in with the comic strip at the end is a nice touch, but a bit too late.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
