Oh dear, it's March 17 again

I've commented before rather negatively on Hollywood's doe-eyed view of Irish-Americans, and Ireland in general. But, people insist on trotting these tropes out every March 17, and TCM is no exception. Perhaps the best of the day's films is The Last Hurrah, airing at 3:45 PM. It's a movie I've mentioned briefly a few times, but apparently have never done a full-length post on. In short, Spencer Tracy plays a man who's been mayor of an unspecified city with a bunch of Irish-Americans for a long time (presumably Boston, although if memory serves the city is never mentioned by name), who is trying to run for one more term. It's less romantic in its look at Irish-Americans (really, it could have been any city), and fortunately, it's available on DVD.

Perhaps TCM should do something different and a bit lazier by showing a bunch of movies with the word "Green" in the title. It's not as if there is any lack of such films, many of which are reasonably entertaining and have nothing to do with the Irish. The Corn Is Green is set in Wales, as is How Green Was My Valley. Alternatively, they could go to New Zealand with Green Dolphin Street or South America with Green Fire. That last one, at least, is in color.

And if they really wanted to go to Ireland? Well, there's always Girl With Green Eyes, which aired this past week as part of TCM's look at the British New Wave. (I didn't recommend it largely because it's not my cup of tea.)

If I wanted to be mean, I'd look for movies with the word "Orange" in the title. But it turns out there are a lot fewer of those.