Hear My Song (1991)

I’m not sure I’d ever have had Ned Beatty down as an opera singer, but he holds that role down well in this breezy comedy. It is his Josef Locke who is on the run from HM Inland Revenue and from the doughty policeman “Abbott” (David McCallum) and so finds himself in Eire just as struggling nightclub owner “Mickey” (Adrian Dunbar) is looking for an act to breath some life into his failing business enterprise. After a few escapades involving a rather abruptly terminated sexual experience; some fraudsters and a little semi-slapstick comedy, “Mickey” manages to get to Locke but can he get him onto the stage before, well, any number of complications thwart his plan to entertain the masses, get back his gal (Tara Fitzgerald) and save his business? For some reason, I couldn’t get “Whisky Galore” out of my head watching this. Not because there is anything at all similar about the plots or characters, but because it offers a bit of Celtic whimsy. It’s entertaining in a daft, slightly surreal, manner with a denouement that’s clearly dubbed and a Dunbar who doesn’t exactly get off to a flying start, but does quite engagingly ease himself into the part. It also takes the gentlest of pings at the whole theatrical paraphernalia - epitomised here by Beatty’s white scarf and indoor fedora, and the songs are very much delivered in a rousing vein even if they are sung in a language nobody would have understood but everyone enjoyed - rapturously. It’s a light-hearted and fluffy story that I probably won’t remember, but is one of those films that the UK’s Channel Four creatively backed, is well written and it works well.