Friday, May 13, 2016

The Quiet Man (1952)

Director: John Ford

Writers: Frank S. Nugent, Maurice Walsh

Composer: Victor Young

Starring: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond, Victor McLaglen, Mildred Natwick, Francis Ford, Eileen Crowe, May Craig, Arthur Shields

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Action...Excitement...Romance...Fill the Screen!

Plot: A retired American boxer returns to the village of his birth in Ireland, where he finds love.



My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.

Here's the John Wayne movie for people who don't care for John Wayne.  It is weird NOT seeing him in a Western or war film.  There's no action (except for the fist fight at the end) and there's very little macho Duke (until the end).  I really enjoyed it.  It's a light drama so there's some funny thrown in from time to time. Barry Fitzgerald was hilarious as Michaleen Oge Flynn, the matchmaker/puppet master that helps Sean (Wayne) get Mary (O'Hara).  Victor McLaglen plays her brother, Red.  He does look way too old to be her brother but it's not something that you think about much.  Just roll with it.  It's also strange seeing Wayne in a foreign country.  The Irish locations are gorgeous.  But then they contrast it with the really cheap looking backdrops for the sets in Hollywood.  Some of them are just awful.  I've known about this picture since I was a kid 40 years ago but I've only just now gotten around to watching it.  I'm sure in another thirty years I'll come across it again and slap it in the holodeck or VR or whatever format the kids are using then. 




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