The Rising of the Moon

The Rising of the Moon is a 1957 Irish anthology film directed by John Ford, consisting of three short stories of Irish life introduced on screen by Tyrone Power and played largely by actors from Dublin's Abbey Theatre.¹ The screenplay was written by Frank S. Nugent, the film was produced by Michael Killanin for Four Provinces Production, Ltd., and distributed by Warner Bros.¹ It was shot entirely on Irish locations, and Ford and Killanin intended it to help start an indigenous Irish film industry, a plan undone by the film's commercial failure.²

Production

The film was one of two pictures Ford directed immediately after The Searchers (1956), and both were highly personal projects; The Rising of the Moon let the director reconnect with his Irish heritage.⁴ Production began in early April 1956, and the film was shot entirely on Irish locations, unlike Ford's other postwar Irish films The Quiet Man (1952) and Young Cassidy (1965), which were shot partly in Hollywood or Elstree studios.^{3 • 2} Producer Michael Killanin's stated goal was to establish a film industry in Ireland, which at the time had no sound stage.¹ Ford said he was reluctant to use performers with big "names" who "might throw these delicate stories out of balance," although Maureen O'Hara and Barry Fitzgerald had agreed to appear if their schedules allowed.¹ The opening cast credits end with "and Players from the Abbey Theatre Company," Ireland's first national theater, founded by William Butler Yeats, Edward Martyn, and Lady Augusta Gregory.¹

Reception

American reviews were generally favorable, though the Hollywood Reporter noted that appreciation of the film "may be tempered by the degree to which you are Irish, by derivation or inclination," and the film was shown in the United States in art houses.¹ The New Yorker's John McCarten found the O'Connor segment the most interesting but judged that Ford had represented the Irish "as superficially as if they were all straight out of vaudeville."⁸ A New Zealand Listener review of 1958 found the production "faintly phoney," observing that it "may have been produced in Ireland, but it was conceived in Hollywood."⁹

Irish opinion was divided as well. In February 1958, D. P. Quish of Limerick County Council, unanimously supported by other council members, called the film "a vile production and a travesty of the Irish people" and urged the Justice Minister to have it withdrawn from every country where it was distributed; no official government action followed.¹ The film was a commercial failure on release, which meant that Ford's and Killanin's elaborate plans for an Irish industry centered on their company Four Provinces Films did not succeed.² Later assessments have been kinder: the critic Jonas Mekas recorded that John Ford declared it his best film, and a TCM essay calls it a modest, efficiently made picture that tells three stories in less time than most pictures take to tell one.^{5 • 4}

References

1. The Rising of the Moon (1957), AFI Catalog of Feature Films
2. John Ford's Hollywood film of the Easter Rising, RISE Journal (2018)
3. The Rising of the Moon, AFI Catalog, details and synopsis
4. David Sterritt, "The Rising of the Moon," Turner Classic Movies (2012)
5. The Rising of the Moon, Rotten Tomatoes
6. Mcdaniel Ofield, "The Rising of the Moon," The Harvard Crimson (15 October 1957)
7. The Rising of the Moon, British Railway Movie Database
8. John McCarten, "Fitful Irish Airs," The New Yorker (20 July 1957)
9. "The Rising of the Moon," New Zealand Listener, Volume 38, Issue 971 (28 March 1958)

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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