The Quiet Man
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The Quiet Man
The stranger alights from the train and looks about. “Can you tell me the way to Inisfree?” he asks the station master, who is soon joined by the conductor, the engineer and several curious onlookers.
“The way to Inisfree,” he replies. “Well now, do you see that road over there?” Well, don’t take that one. It’ll do you no good.”
And, so begins the now classic film directed by John Ford, The Quiet Man, starring John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara and Barry Fitzgerald in the leads.
One of my favorite movies, The Quiet Man is, for me, a must see in March. For one thing, it provides outstanding entertainment in an otherwise oppressive month. It is my personal harbinger of spring, signaling the imminent approach of the greening of my world.
The story is told that Wayne and O’Hara had long wanted to do The Quiet Man, but other problems got in the way. They finally decided that if they didn’t do it soon, they would both be too old to play the romantic leads.
They needn’t have worried. Certainly, they were big enough names to guarantee a good box office draw. But, given the Irish propensity for marrying late in life, they picked the perfect time in their careers to make this story believable and work so well. And the actors, who were all friends, created an ensemble cast that produced a timeless classic that audiences still enjoy today.
Set in the fictional village of Inisfree, which is peopled with characters like Michaleen Flynn (Fitzgerald), Mary Kate Danaher (O’Hara), Father Lonergan (Ward Bond) and Squire Danaher (Victor McLaglen), The Quiet Man displays the cultural and social customs of a bucolic Irish village during the 1920’s. And woven throughout, like a single gold thread through a tapestry, is the subtle Irish wit, coupled with the soft but often volatile Irish temperament.
Wayne, as Sean Thornton, ex-steelworker home from America with secrets of his own, gives a remarkably restrained performance. Each time he does a scene with Flynn, the village matchmaker and gadabout, he lets the humor of this bowler-hatted leprechaun envelop then both.
“Is that real?” Thornton asks Flynn when he sees Mary Kate for the first time.
“Ah, forget her, Sean, forget her. That redhead of hers is no lie!”
And the red-headed O’Hara is perfect as Mary Kate Danaher, spinster sister of Squire Danaher. She runs his household and cooks for their farm hands with the efficiency and rigidity of a four-star general.
In one scene, while she is serving them supper, Feeney, the Squire’s foreman, gossips about Thornton. Furious with him, she drops a hot potato the size of a small boulder on his plate, calling him a ‘squint’ and ‘tattletale.’
But when Thornton engages Flynn as matchmaker to present his proposal to Mary Kate, we see the softer side of her emerge as an eager, prospective bride.
Even Flynn’s obvious tipsiness when he presents Sean’s proposal doesn’t disturb her. She offers him a drink and then begins to notice that he’s already had a few.
She asks, “Could you use a little water with that?”, to which Flynn replies expansively, “When I drink whiskey, I drink whiskey. And when I drink water, I drink water!”
Trouble, however, starts almost from the out-set when Thornton buys back his ancestral cottage, enraging Squire Danaher, who wanted the property.
Furious, Danaher warns Thornton, “I’ve got you down in my book!”
Later, at home, he throws himself into a chair and yells, “Feeney, get your book!”
“Have you written the name I gave you?” he asks.
“I have,” replies the toady Feeney.
Pouring himself a glass of whiskey, he gives Feeney yet another order.
“Well, strike a line through it!” he growls, and knocks back the drink. “That’s for him – Sean Thornton.”
Watching Victor McLaglen in this film, I marvel at his absolutely superb performance. McLaglen never disappoints his audience. He is the loudmouthed oaf, almost pathetic in his attempts to win the Widow Tillane (Mildred Natwick), and stubborn and heavy handed in his dealings with others.
All this of course, puts him on a collision course with Thornton.
With such strong actors seeming to dominate the film, it would have been easy for peripheral characters to become overshadowed. Instead, they are an integral part of the story.
Like the Rev. Dr. Playfair, who is the one man who knows Sean Thornton’s secret. The one who knows, even before Thornton does, that you can’t run away.
And so, when Sean Thornton finally makes his stand, the entire cast of the film, from the railroad station master to the inhabitants of Innisfree, join him in this rollicking finale to a tale of a man pushed too far.
La Fheile Padraig Sona Dhuit! Happy St. Patrick’s Day to You!
