Pre-Hollywood Hitchcock scuttled by terminal European angst and outdated caricatures.

          For all its humor and colorful characters, Juno and the Paycock closes with a downer ending which makes one wonder if the poor, suffering mass of Humanity might not all be better off dead.  It's less of a tearjerker than a suicidal depression-jerker and really must be seen to be believed.

          To be fair, Juno and the Paycock is a faithful adaptation of a play by Sean O' Casey, so the ending was preordained.  And again, to be fair, it must be said that some people might consider the play in question to be a fine play, true to its subject, full of absolutely "hilarious" Irish stereotypes. The story certainly includes many timely dramatic twists intended to keep the audience interested and entertained the whole way through.  The actors in Hitchcock's version are competent (except, perhaps, for John Laurie as the amputee son).  And, of course, there's that ending, which could never be accused of bowing to feel-good sentimentality, not by a light-year.

Now, on to the plot.

          Juno (Sara Allgood) is the long-suffering wife of Captain Boyle (played with relish by Edward Chapman) who fancies himself a sea-captain but who is, in reality, a lazy, unemployed drunken-Irishman ["you know the type", the play seems to say].  With Juno and the Captain live their still-available daughter Mary (Kathleen O' Regan) and their amputee/stool pigeon son Johnny (John Laurie).

          Drunken-Irishman that he is, the Captain struts around like a peacock as he strives to (a) avoid gainful employment and (b) acquire another drink.  Naturally, he dreams that someday a great sum of money will fall into his lap [as does every Irish simpleton, the story seems to infer].

          Then one day, upon the death of a never-seen relative the Captain's dream comes true.  The family borrows heavily in advance of The Big Check in order that they might move right on up into a more comfortable middle-class lifestyle.  [No patience, those Irish, the script seems to suggest.]  Some time later the family discovers that the Big Check won't be coming after all, after which things go from bad to worse to just plain God-awful.

          Oh, well --so much for the luck of the Irish.