The Quiet Man
Short description
Sean Thornton, an American boxer, returns to the Irish village where he was born. He falls for the strong-willed Mary Kate Danaher, whose brother Will, the local squire, has no love for the newcomer. The two men clash over a cottage Sean buys and later over Will's refusal to hand over Mary Kate's dowry, and her own pride is at stake as she watches her husband avoid a fight.
John Ford directed and co-wrote the film with Frank S. Nugent, and produced it with Merian C. Cooper and Gordon B. Forbes. It came sixteenth among the thirty-one films he directed in chronological order, between Wagon Master and Mogambo. John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara lead a cast of thirty credited players that includes Victor McLaglen, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond and Mildred Natwick. Produced by Argosy Pictures and Republic Pictures with a budget of two million dollars, the film took around four million dollars worldwide.
On IMDb it holds a critics' rating of 8.1 from 46 reviews, while on TMDB audiences give it 7.3 from more than six hundred votes. The gap suggests that reviewers rated it more highly than the wider viewing public did. Running 129 minutes, it blends comedy, drama and romance.
What's left behind the scenes
- During the filming of the scene where John Wayne's character kisses Maureen O'Hara's character for the first time, and she slaps him but he blocks the blow, the actress ended up with a broken arm during the block. The film was being shot in the order written in the script, and O'Hara could not even be given a cast.
- In the scene where John Wayne drags her through the fields toward the village, Maureen O'Hara performed her own stunts without a double, incurring numerous scrapes and bruises in the process.
- The film's budget was 1.75 million dollars, which was a huge sum for Republic Pictures. The director and screenwriter agreed to requests to reduce expenses and persuaded John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara to work for fees significantly lower than their usual rates. Typically, Wayne received his standard fee from Republic Pictures plus ten percent of all earnings, but here he agreed to film for $100,000, despite the fact that Republic Pictures founder and president Herbert J. Yates repeatedly tried to dissuade the actor, claiming that appearing in this film would inevitably affect his career in the most unfavorable way.
- About halfway through production, John Ford's nerves gave way, and he lost his self-confidence. This was due to constant arguments and clashes with Herbert J. Yates, as well as his dislike of working for a small film company. At one point, while suffering from a cold, Ford admitted to John Wayne for the first time that he had no idea which direction the plot should take. According to Wayne, he had not seen Ford in such a depressed and vulnerable state for many years. While Ford recovered from his cold, Wayne went with the second unit to film the horse racing scenes. The scenes turned out excellently and had the exact effect on Ford that Wayne had hoped for. Ford became eager to return to work, and he did so shortly thereafter.
- Filming took place in the Irish town of Cong, which filled the local residents with indescribable excitement. Many of them found work on set, including a man named Joe, whose duty was to stay constantly by John Wayne's side and hand him cigarettes. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm of the locals often led to problems, as they constantly ended up in the shot, even when their presence in a particular scene was not intended.
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