The Quiet Man
March 15, 2003
In my movie soaked world holidays are immediately equated to certain films. Christmas predictably brings upon thoughts and viewings of “It’s a Wonderful Life”, “A Christmas Story”, and the 1951 British black and white version of “A Christmas Carol”. When Easter rolls around it’s hard not to watch Judy Garland in “Easter Parade” and during Halloween when not watching horror films you can also find Judy dancing on a Trolley in “Meet Me in St. Louis”.
Other holidays, less traditional, also have favorite films. Veterans day is a grand time to check out William Wyler’s great film “The Best Years of our Lives”, while “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” is an ideal film to watch on, what else, Arbor day.
But when it comes to Monday’s holiday, St. Patrick’s Day, there is only one movie that has become something of a tradition, “The Quiet Man” from 1952, directed by legendary Irish stalwart John Ford (originally Sean O’Feeney).
The film, for the populace, has become Ford’s most cherished film, with its whimsical, fairytale love story, sweeping green Irish settings, charming characters, and overall pleasing story about a Irish/American boxer returning home to Ireland to claim his boyhood property and to escape his troubled American past. Amongst critics and audiences alike, “The Quiet Man” has grown a cult following, some would say even stronger than other Ford masterworks like “Stagecoach”, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”, or his best film “The Searchers”. The great man would be proud to know his long time labor of love has grown into such a beloved classic.
The plot to “The Quiet Man”, for those who have yet to find it (and believe it or not, I actually know people who consider themselves film buffs who have yet to discover it, or John Ford for that matter) and may want to embrace a new holiday tradition goes like this. Sean Thornton (Ford regular John Wayne) arrives in the small countryside town of Innisfree by train, and comes ready to buy his childhood house from its current inhabitant, the widow Tillane.
Thornton, to get over his bad luck from the States, wants to start fresh in Innisfree, and the first thing he sees, in one of the opening shots of the film, he wants; redhead Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O’Hara). Following the tradition of the town Thornton begs to court Mary Kate at the supervision of the town matchmaker/bookie Michaeleen Flynn (Barry Fitzgerald). Mary Kate is a stunning beauty, but is repressed from living with her protecting bully of a brother “Red” Will Danaher (another Ford regular Victor McLaglen), who already has it in for Thornton for stealing away the property he was set to purchase and queering relations with the widow Tillane, who Will wants to court himself.
This sets up the major conflict of the film, Sean Thornton vs. Will Danaher over the hand of Mary Kate. Will, as the town bully would just as soon duke it out with the duke, but Thornton has vowed off fighting; he killed a man in the ring back in the States. He is the quiet man of the title, not willing to talk about or engage in fighting, for at least the bulk of the picture anyway. When the two finally do throw down near the end of the film, it’s one of the all-time great fight scenes (invariably next to John Wayne’s own epic battle with Montgomery Clift in “Red River”).
For those who haven’t seen “The Quiet Man” this is as far as I’ll go in plot description; the plot is brilliant, but ultimate charms lie not in whether or not Sean and Mary Kate marry, or if so, if Will Danaher will hand over her 3,000 dollar dowry. The charm of the film is in the sum of its parts. The characters, the acting, settings, script, humor, music and songs, and three larger than life set pieces (a horse race, a marathon trek through the lush Irish fields by Sean and Mary Kate after she runs away from him, and the final 10 minute fist fight which spans a good five miles, with an intermission at the local pub for a pint) are what make this film so special.
But why, one might ask, if it is so special, is it only talked about around St. Patrick’s day? Well, that isn’t the case, I could watch this film any time of the year, but for the sake of argument lets say it plays especially well for this holiday because it is the best “Irish” themed film ever made. Both Ford and O’Hara hailed from towns in Ireland and the film was made primarily on location in a small village called Cong, where the inhabitants (some who made it into the crowd scenes) were more than willing to accommodate the Hollywood crew.
It plays well as an Irish film because it mixes in not just the old stereotypical stuff like the green vistas (shot lavishly in Technicolor by Oscar winner Winton C. Hoch and Archie Stout), or the constant drinking and roughhousing, but also because its characters as well are more than just stereotypes.
Sure little Barry Fitzgerald as Michaeleen has the voice of a leprechaun, likes to tip back a few, and carries around a shalale, but he has genuine heart and cares for Sean and Mary Kate and is a morally conscious character, despite being a drunk and a gambler.
Sean Thornton is one of John Wayne’s best roles, a character that allowed the duke to show his romantic side, and charming nature without battling Indians or wearing the yellow and blue of the U.S. Calvary uniform. There is real chemistry between Thornton and Mary Kate. The famous sequence in a cemetery where the studio-induced raindrops soak through his white shirt before he kisses her for the first time is terribly romantic.
Steven Spielberg, who idolized John Ford uses the sequence directly following the cemetery scene in “E.T.”, during the famous scene where E.T. gets drunk watching “The Quiet Man” and telepathically sends his feelings to Eliot in science class.
Wayne smolders passion and you can see it in his eyes when on their wedding night, after she turns him out, he rages, in the films most famous line, “There will be no locks or bolts between us Mary Kate-except those in your own mercenary little heart.” It’s moments, serious moments like these balanced throughout the spectacles, like the horse race, or the whimsy of, say, the Ward Bond character Father Lonergan grappling with a giant fish on the line while Mary Kate cries out to him in Gaelic, that make Fords film such a winner.
It’s a perfectly realized script by Frank S. Nuget (with some touch up work by “How Green Was My Valley” author Richard Llewellyn), that was lovingly directed by “Pappy” Ford, that was, in every sense of the phrase, a labor of love.
The making of and events leading up to its shooting are now legend. John Ford had read the 1933 Maurice Walsh story in The Saturday Evening Post, and immediately knew he had to film it, preferably in Ireland as an homage to his birth country. He bought the rights for ten dollars in 1936, and it sat unproduced for years as Ford made his studio contract films. He was becoming a huge figure in Hollywood, by ’42 he had won three Oscars (“The Informer” (’35), “How Green Was My Valley” (’41) beating out Orson Welles and “Citizen Kane”, and “The Grapes of Wrath” (’40)) but was still a contract man and the studios kept passing on the story.
He had a verbal agreement with O’Hara to play Mary Kate when finally, half a decade later, he found a studio, Republic Pictures, with which Wayne was a contract player making “B” westerns. Republic boss Herbert J. Yates wanted his studio to get out of “B” picture territory and start producing “A” material, so he told Ford and his partner at Argosy Productions Merian C. Cooper, he’d finance “The Quiet Man” if he and his team would make a black and white western first. That resulted in a huge hit, “Rio Grande”, which proved Wayne and O’Hara had real chemistry on screen, and made enough money they would be able to send the whole crew, families included, to Ireland and shoot with the big, expensive Technicolor cameras.
For the summer of ’51, in the village of Cong, they were a big extended family. It’s no wonder the product came out to be so magical. Wayne had his entire family with him, O’Hara her two brothers, Ford his elder brother Francis (a former silent film matinee idol), and they all came out with bit parts in the film. Victor McLaglen’s son Andrew even served as second assistant director to his dads close friend. When finally the 1.2 million dollar production became too much for the village the production went home and shot all the interior shots on the lot of Republic.
The films legacy is now rock solid. Ford won his fourth and final Best Director Oscar for his effort, and today Cong is a major tourist attraction, where you can see the original settings, and The Quiet Man Heritage Museum.
For me, it’s one of those movies, like “Citizen Kane”, “Casablanca” or “The Apartment” that when it shows on television I have to watch at least a good half hour; it’s engrossing and hooks you with its whimsy and charm, essentially, it’s timeless. In the canon of Ford’s career, it stands only behind “The Grapes of Wrath” as his best non-western film.
As much as corn beef and green beer, “The Quiet Man” is a St. Patrick’s Day tradition, seek it out, sit back and enjoy John Ford’s Gaelic comedy masterpiece.
by Adam Suraf