John Patrick Francis Mulcahy, commonly called Father Mulcahy, is a principal character from the film M*A*S*H, played by Rene Auberjonois, and the television series, played by William Christopher. He was played by George Morgan in the pilot episode of the television series, but the producers decided that a quirkier individual was needed for the role, and Christopher was cast in his place.

During the course of the television series, Father Mulcahy's name was changed from John Patrick Francis Mulcahy to Francis John Patrick Mulcahy (as he revealed in episode 7 of Season 8 when asked by a nurse he was counseling). Either form of the name is an attempt to reconcile his identification as "Father John P. Mulcahy" in the pilot episode with the name "Francis Mulcahy" established later on.

In the original film (as well as the Richard Hooker novel on which it is based), Mulcahy is familiarly known by the nickname "Dago Red" (a type of cheap wine). In an O.R. scene in the "M*A*S*H" pilot episode, Trapper can be heard addressing Mulcahy as "Red," and Hawkeye calls Mulcahy "Red" in "Dear Dad", however, the nickname was quickly phased out of the series.

Characterization in the film

The character Father John Patrick 'Dago Red' Mulcahy in the film is a US Army chaplain assigned to the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. Despite his position of respect, few of the worldly staff members take him seriously and regard him as a professor of empty religious rhetoric and meaningless morality.

Mulcahy does get one of the film's more memorable lines: When "Hot Lips" is wondering, in a very loud voice, how someone of such presumed low character as Hawkeye ever got into such an important position in the Army, Mulcahy looks up from his devotions with a wounded soldier and remarks, "He was drafted." When Radar places a hidden microphone inside her tent as she and Frank Burns make love, members of the camp listen in, and Mulcahy at first mistakes their conversation (and noises) for an episode of The Bickersons?then leaves abruptly when he realizes otherwise.

Characterization in the television series

In the television series, the character began in the same style, but evolved over the course of the series. For instance, Father Mulcahy initially had a difficult time helping in the operating room without being physically revolted at the blood and gore (he admitted later "I couldn't eat liver for a year," after watching surgery), but eventually proved an able assistant beyond his spiritual duties. In the eighth-season episode The Yalu Brick Road, much of the camp came down with food poisoning after a Thanksgiving dinner. Mulcahy (who'd been away at Sister Theresa's orphanage) threw himself into orderly duties, laundry, and caring for everyone, saying, "I've never felt more useful or needed!"

Family life

In the Richard Hooker novel that inspired the film and television series, Father Mulcahy was from San Diego. In the series, however, the character was from Philadelphia.

Mulcahy came from a rather large family who weren't close, from things he revealed throughout the series. Both his parents drank, and displayed their temper on occasion. About the only thing he and his father had in common was an interest in boxing, and his father took him to fights. Mulcahy had to share a bed with his brothers. When given the chance to send greetings to his family during a filmed interview, Mulcahy simply waved to the camera and said "Hello", adding nothing.

The only family member he spoke fondly of was his sister Catherine (who became a nun; members of the 4077th referred to her as "your sister, the Sister", when Mulcahy got mail from her). She took the name Sister Maria Angelica. Mulcahy has described her as a skilled basketball player and saxophonist, and as being very fond of children (at one point, she even considered giving up being a nun so she could have one of her own, but apparently changed her mind). She once bit his toe as a child. He corresponded with her often, most notably in the episode "Dear Sis".

Character evolution

Outside the surgery, the priest gradually gained the respect of the staff with his emerging courage and wisdom in the most difficult circumstances. This included when he had to perform an emergency tracheotomy (using a pocket knife and an eyedropper) while under enemy fire, and disarming a soldier holding him at gunpoint. (He also persuaded Corporal Klinger to hand over a live grenade, when Klinger wanted to get rid of the overbearing Major Burns, in an early episode.) Mulcahy often provided critical advice to Hawkeye, and other members of the company. Hawkeye in turn consoled Mulcahy more than once, when his spirits were down, such as when he frustratedly punched a violently resisting patient (who had struck Mulcahy beforehand). Hawkeye told him then that if it weren't for Mulcahy's ongoing decency, "I think we'd all join hands and walk into a chopper (helicopter) blade."

His wisdom was evident when the unit found an abandoned Amerasian infant and Father Mulcahy, fully aware of how such children are mistreated in Korea, recommended she be surrendered to a reclusive monastic order which could work to eventually transfer her out of Korea. The others initially rejected that option, because of the monks' requirements of anonymity and no further contact with the child, but eventually ceded it was the only way when their repeated attempts to solicit assistance from other bodies were bluntly rebuffed.

Though a priest, Mulcahy did sometimes break the letter of the law to fulfill its spirit, such as times he obtained needed supplies for the local orphanage or medicines for the camp, via the black market. "You'd be surprised what a priest can get away with," he once remarked. He was also able to enlist help from Corporal Klinger to retrieve stolen penicillin, and Major Winchester to recover a needed case of sodium pentothal, both times winding up under enemy fire. In one episode, a helicopter pilot used a dummy as a counterweight when transporting only one patient; when Pierce and Hunnicutt stole the dummy for a prank, Mulcahy jumped into the helicopter with the pilot so that he could bring in a critically injured soldier, Mulcahy acting as the counterweight for the return flight. Colonel Potter, although reprimanding the priest for this recklessness, promised to recommend him for a medal as a reward for this bit of personal endangerment.

A boxing priest

In addition, Mulcahy eventually revealed numerous practical skills like being a champion amateur boxer, as well as numerous connections needed for helping others, including black market contacts. He also took up running as a form of exercise; getting roped into racing against the M*A*S*H 8063's champion, Mulcahy persuaded his opponent to throw the race, so the engineers would build a new roof for the orphanage. (He also paused at the finish line, refusing to cross unless the 4077th donated their winnings as well.)

By the later part of the series, Mulcahy came to be held in high esteem in the camp, as evidenced on one Christmas Eve occasion, where Hawkeye and the rest of the camp paid tribute to the chaplain with a Latin devotional hymn in his honor (Dona nobis pacem, "give us peace"). However, this respect did not extend beyond the camp, considering Mulcahy's long and frustrating struggle to gain a promotion. This took a personal appeal by Colonel Potter to the Chief of Chaplains at The Pentagon to achieve, after which Mulcahy remarked, "The meek may inherit the Earth, but it's the grumpy that get promoted."

When the 4077th was putting together a time capsule at the end of the 11th season, Mulcahy contributed an old pair of boxing gloves he had kept hanging up in his tent. His hope was that in the future, nations might be able to settle their differences through peaceful means, such as using the gloves in a fistfight.

Ministry

While the character was a devout Roman Catholic, Father Mulcahy would minister to the needs of people of all faiths as a matter of necessity (including the Methodist wedding ceremony of Houlihan), as he was the sole chaplain for the 4077th. However, it was a task he took on willingly and cheerfully out of a legitimate fascination with other faiths and their customs, of which he possessed a wide and eclectic array of knowledge. In one episode though, he admitted that he was somewhat intimidated by the Southern Baptist service. Performing Jewish duties in the series, he performed a bris in the absence of a Rabbi and also recited the Kaddish prayer over a dying Jewish soldier. Knowing many of the local people were Buddhists, he watched their ceremonies with fascination.

The television series did not present Mulcahy as a theological legalist; he did not criticize campmates about their personal moral habits, provided there was no harm to others. Instead, Mulcahy was portrayed as enjoying playing the piano (usually ragtime, although his skills weren't exactly astounding), drinking at the Officers Club, participating in camp raffles and betting pools, and playing the occasional game of poker (although he donated most of his winnings to the local orphanage). He often intervened when he saw his comrades about to do something drastic, such as when Hawkeye was about to assault a visiting General for ordering the camp cook to prepare his just-shot pheasant first, before starting to make the camp's dinner.

In the series finale, Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen, during a mortar attack unselfishly he ran out to the POW cell and released them to the military guard, rather than leave them as "sitting ducks." During the attack, he was close to where one of the mortars landed and the resulting explosion caused him to lose most of his hearing. He begged B.J. Hunnicutt to keep the injury a secret. He elected to stay in Korea after the cease fire, to care for orphans.

After M*A*S*H

In the short lived spin-off series, After M*A*S*H, the priest decided to return to America, but suffered from depression and was drinking heavily. However, after his hearing was surgically corrected, he stopped drinking and joined Potter and Klinger at a veteran's hospital, as its chaplain.

Trivia

• In the episode "Dear Sis", he expresses concern while writing a letter over his sister's (a Catholic nun) transfer to a church named after Saint Cecilia. There is, in fact, a real Saint Cecilia church in Fox Chase, Pennsylvania, only a few blocks away from the city limits of Philadelphia, where Father Mulcahy is from.
• In many episodes, Mulcahy is seen wearing a "Loyola" hoodie.
• Father Mulcahy is a huge fan of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team.
• A running joke in the series is the delay in at least two episodes of Mulcahy not being promoted from First Lieutenant to Captain before finally attaining it.
• In one late season episode Mulcahy claims that the only life he saved was that of a drunken dog (9/2); however in 5/9 via instructions from Hawkeye Mulcahy saves the life of a choking soldier, under fire no less.
• Mulcahy is one of only two regular characters in the M*A*S*H* Franchise to be played by three actors (the other being Trapper John McIntyre), in this case Rene Auberjonois (in the movie), George Morgan in the TV pilot, and William Christopher in all subsequent television episodes.

Quotes from the TV series

"This isn't one of my sermons; I expect you to listen."

"Klinger, how'd you like the last rites...and a few lefts!"

"A chaplain in the Army has a collar on his neck/If you don't listen to him, you'll all wind up in heck." (during a camp sing-along)

"I think the world of Colonel Potter. He's a good Christian - yet hardly dull at all."

"Remember what the good book says: Love thy neighbor, or I'll punch your lights out!" (from Captains Outrageous)

"As I lay me down to sleep, a bag of peanuts at my feet, if I die before I wake, give them to my brother Jake." (From Crisis)

"Jocularity! Jocularity!" (Also used by Colonel Potter in the classic "Father Mulcahy Sound-Alike Contest.)

"I see you're a Protestant. That won't be a problem. I'm familiar with the procedures of most of the major denominations--although, I'm a little inhibited when it comes to the Southern Baptists', a little frenetic and forceful...a bit of a stretch for me, but, then again, that's my problem." (from Point of View)

"There's no one singing war songs now like people used to do;
No "Over There," no "Praise the Lord," no "Glory Hallelu";
Perhaps at last we've asked ourselves what we should have asked before;
With the pain and death this madness brings, what were we ever singing for?"
(The second Korean War Song, composed by Mulcahy in Dear Uncle Abdul)

"Amen!"

"I was anxious to get back to being in a parish and coaching boxing for the CYO, but lately I've gotten kind of interested in working with the deaf. Not doing parish work, I'll miss hearing confession, but after listening to you people for so long, I think I've just about heard it all!" (from Goodbye, Farewell & Amen)

(After being pulled out from the latrine when it collapsed on him) "Sis and I picked up these apples from under the tree. I said you can't make a pie out of crabapples and she said, I learned how in the Girl Scouts." [Hawkeye: "He's ok, just a little dazed."] "She used brown sugar and the crust was just so crispy and nice. Well, it was so good we ate it all before dinner." [Hawkeye: "Get him back to his tent, let him rest."] "Mommy came in and said, 'What the hell is going on here?' [Looks at Klinger, who is in drag.] I remember, Mommy, you know that's the first time I ever heard you swear."

External links

• Finest-Kind.net - M*A*S*H website with character profile
• Best Care Anywhere - M*A*S*H website with character profile

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