Studio: Famous Studios
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Produced by: Sam Buchwald
Short Synopsis
In an Irish village a kindly old shoemaker, poor and behind on his rent, is about to be turned out by a greedy landlord. The leprechauns of the neighbourhood, led by Paddy, have been watching him, and when the old man falls asleep at his bench they come out of the woodwork and set to, making shoes by the dozen through the night and singing as they work, in the manner of the Grimm tale of the elves and the shoemaker. In the morning the shop is full of shoes, the customers come, and the rent is paid. The landlord, seeing where the shoes come from, tries to catch a leprechaun for his pot of gold, and the wee men lead him a dance through the village before sending him packing. The film ends with the shoemaker prosperous and the leprechauns back in hiding.
Why It Matters
- It is one of the Noveltoons directed by Bill Tytla, the great Disney animator of Stromboli, Chernabog and Dumbo, who worked at Famous Studios after the 1941 Disney strike, and the leprechauns' night of work is the kind of character animation he could still bring to a modest studio; at ten minutes it is longer than the usual Noveltoon and was planned as a special.
- The film is in the public domain in the United States, its copyright among the pre-1950 Noveltoons that National Telefilm Associates let lapse, and it was reissued in October 1953; a sequel, Leprechauns Gold, followed in 1949 with the same character.
Notes and Trivia
- Buddy Kaye and Dick Manning, who wrote the songs, were Tin Pan Alley professionals; Manning later co-wrote "Fascination".
- Paddy the Leprechaun was voiced in an Irish brogue of the Hollywood kind.
- See also: The Bored Cuckoo (1948), The Mite Makes Right (1948).