John Fords THE QUIET MAN The Making of a Cult Classic Jordan R.

Young

JOHN FORDS THE QUIET MAN The Making of a Cult Classic

Past Times Film Close-Up Series, Vol. 3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author.

Copyright 2012 by Jordan R. Young Cover: Maureen OHara, Francis Ford and John Wayne on the set of The Quiet Man (courtesy of Larry Edmunds Bookshop) Title page: Den Tavse Mand (Dutch souvenir booklet)

Contents

Preface One Too Many Trips to the Well Cast of Characters Finding the Cast From Page to Screen For Your Consideration Trivia Selected Bibliography

Preface

When I first visited Cong, County Mayo, in the 1970s there were no guided tours of The Quiet Man locations to take, no Quiet Man Museum to visit, no Michaeleen's Manor Bed & Breakfast at which to stay. There was however, a village pub named Clarkes that was shown in the film, where they locked the door at curfew and continued serving the porter to quench a visitors terrible thirst, until the wee hours of the morning. Better yet, there were a number of people who recalled the location shooting from the summer of 1951, before the company left to film the interior scenes in California. Among others, I met a shopkeeper who told me, When John Wayne slugged Vic McLaglen in Hollywood, and he fell into the street in Congthat was the first space shot. I began researching the film in 1973 for a biography of actor Jack MacGowran, whose role as Feeney, McLaglens sidekick, helped launch him on a career as a stage and film actor of international renown. I didnt succeed in interviewing John Ford (who died that year, shortly after I sent him a letter) or John Wayne; I did, however, eventually speak with six of the principals involved in the making of the film. Thanks are due to Maureen OHara, Jack and Gloria MacGowran, Charles FitzSimons, Winton C. Hoch, Sean McClory, Eileen Crowe, Peter OToole, John Carradine, Billie Whitelaw, Michel O Briain, Keith McConnell, Des MacHale; Ned Comstock, Cinema-Television Library, Doheny Library, University of Southern California; Mike Hawks, Larry Edmunds Bookshop; Orange Public Library. Jordan R. Young August 2012

One Too Many Trips to the Well

John Ford made one too many attempts to shoot a film in Ireland. Young Cassidyan adaptation of Sean OCaseys memoirswas an attractive project nonetheless. The legendary Irish playwright had intrigued the film director for years. It was a little noncommercial project and Ford was offered a mere $50,000 to direct. Nevertheless, he jumped at the chance, said grandson-biographer Dan Ford. The part of the young OCasey was offered to Peter OToole, who turned it down. I refused the title role because the script was so bad, recalled the actor. I called Ford and suggested he get either Hugh Leonard or Paul Shyre to write the film. Ford said he wouldnt be dictated to by an Irish faggot. Producers Robert Graff and Robert Emmett Ginna then cast an unknown Scottish actor named Sean Connery in the roleonly to lose him when he was chosen for the first James Bond film, Dr. No, which would make him a major star. Connery was replaced by Australian actor Rod Taylor. When Ford flew to Dublin in 1964 to meet Graff and Ginna and scout locations, the encounter did not go well. The director felt they were neophytes, inexperienced upstarts who knew little about Ireland and less about filmmaking. Convinced they would be no help whatsoever, he began to have second thoughts about Young Cassidy, noted Dan Ford. Thirteen days into the mid-1964 shoot, Ford was replaced by cinematographer Jack Cardiff. Officially, the director was stricken with viral pneumonia. Film historian Anthony Slide contradicted the widely reported cause of his departure. Because the producers would not agree to end the film as Ford had wished, the director became conveniently ill, he stated. Peter OToole was more blunt in his assessment of what transpired. Ford didnt leave because he was ill, asserted the actor. He got out because he knew he had a piece of shit on his hands.

Things were decidedly different when Ford visited Ireland in 1951 to film The Quiet Man. But then it was a project dear to his heart, a dream nearly two decades in the making. He initially came upon the story by Maurice Walsh when it was first published in The Saturday Evening Post in February 1933. Three years later he bought the rightsfor $10. By the time Ford invested a paltry ten-spot in what would eventually become one of the most beloved films of all time, he had been working in Hollywood for over 20 years. The child of Irish immigrants, John Feeney Jr. graduated high school in Portland, Maine, in 1913 and made a beeline for the film

capital. Here he toiled in anonymity as an assistant, prop boy and stunt double for his older brother Francis, who had taken the surname Ford and was under contract to Universal Pictures as an actorwriter-director.

Maureen OHara, Francis Ford, John Wayne, Barry Fitzgerald, Michel O Briain, Charles FitzSimons, Jack MacGowran and James Lilburn relax between takes. Cast of Characters JOHN WAYNE Sean Thornton, aka Trooper Thorn, a former boxer who returns to his birthplace in the West of Ireland. Or as writer Frank S. Nugent describes him in the shooting script dated April 30, 1951, a big man with a light tread, an easy smile and the gift of silence a Quiet Man seeking forgetfulness of all the wars of the human spirit. MAUREEN OHARA Mary Kate Danaher, a red-tressed spinster first glimpsed herding sheep, a picture of fresh, unspoiled and completely natural beauty, according to the script. BARRY FITZGERALD Michealeen Flynn, marriage broker and village bookie. Nugent characterizes him as an impish man master of all trades, none of which he follows he has his nose in everything, his heart in the right place

VICTOR McLAGLEN Red Will Danaher, a giant of a man with arms like a gorilla and fists the size of catchers mitts, says the script. We already know of him he is a skinflint, a large farmer and by some freak biologythe brother of lovely Mary Kate. WARD BOND Father Lonergan, parish priest and avid fisherman, the narrator of the film: a stern but kindly man at most times elegantly dressed. MILDRED NATWICK Mrs. Sarah Tillane, a widow of four years and, notes the script, a woman of breeding with a slightly bitter humor, great practicality and a severe manner. The script also tells us she is essentially a highly-sexed woman, though theres little in the film to indicate same. FRANCIS FORD Dan Tobin, an elderly villager with a long white beard, acquainted with Thorntons grandfather. His scripted aversion to all men in uniform, notably constables, was more apparent in footage that ended up on the cutting room floor. ARTHUR SHIELDS The Rev. Mr. Cyril Playfair, the local Protestant minister, a sports aficionado and, it turns out, a amateur pugilist in his youth. Nugent: Bears an uncanny resemblance to Boss Shields, an apparent reference to the actor for whom the role was presumably written. EILEEN CROWE Mrs. Elizabeth Playfair, a rangy woman with the brightest eye in the world, a rattling tongue, the kindest of hearts, a vast joy in living states the script. CHARLES FitzSIMONS Hugh Forbes, retired Commandant of the I.R.A. whose revolutionary role [was] completely sanitized in the final version of the film, noted self-described Quiet Maniac Des MacHale, and reduced to just a few fleeting references. JAMES LILBURN Father Paul, a young dark-eyed athletic curate, per the script. Often seen in the company of Father Lonergan. JACK MacGOWRAN Aloysius Feeney, Red Wills obnoxious, toadying sidekick, who keeps a ledger of names that displease Danaher. Per Nugent: his shadow and Greek chorus a man with all the independence of a chameleon. (And handy with a quip: Is that a bed or a parade ground?) SEAN McCLORY Owen Glynn, a pipe-smoking upper-class Irishman, and Forbes former righthand man, according to the script.

MAY CRAIG The Fishwoman, a grey-haired lady with a basket of fish first seen on the railway platform, and again when Thornton drags Mary Kate through the field. Craig also plays the disembodied spirit of Thorntons mother, heard in a voiceover during his first glimpse of Inisfree. JOSEPH ODEA Mr. Malouney, the conductor on the train. (Do you see that road over there? Well, dont take that one, itll do you no good.) ERIC GORMAN Mr. Costello, the engine driver of the train. (Ah, now, dont be sending the poor man to Knockanore sure the fishing is finished there entirely.)

Finding the Cast

John Wayne, Victor McLaglen, Barry Fitzgerald and myself had a shake-hand contract to do the picture with Ford in 1944, stated Maureen OHara. The films leading woman was the last of The Quiet Mans principal players to enter the directors orbit. One by one, they came to his attention over the decades.

Victor McLaglen (Danaher) and Jack MacGowran (Feeney). The fledgling filmmaker didnt make many masterpieces in the 1920s, but Jack Ford was furiously busy learning his craft. As fate would have it, three major components of The Quiet Man cast fell into place during the decade. Ford directed Victor McLaglen for the first time in The Fighting Heart, one of six silent films he made in 1925. The ex-prize fighterwho would become one of the most reliable members of Fords stock company, and win an Oscar under his direction for The Informer a decade latergot a taste of the directors sly technique in his first scene, opposite George OBrien, when John tried to bait his two actors into fighting for real, said Dan Ford. They began to spar and dance around the ring, according to a prearranged routine. After they had run through it, John yelled through his megaphone, Cut, cut. Cut. What the hell do you think this is, a

dance? Give me some goddamned ACTION. Ford wasnt satisfied until theyd gone four rounds and McLaglens eye was bleeding and swollen shut. A 1928 film about Ireland called Mother Macree, which featured McLaglen, served as Fords introduction to an ambitious young man named Marion Morrison, who worked as a prop boy on the film and appeared as an unbilled extra. Ford took a liking to the University of Southern California football player who would soon change his name to John Wayne, and gave him a bit part in Hangmans House, another picture he made that year. He was the most awkward prop man we ever had. Hed drop lights and knot up cables and ruin takes, but he was a nice big kid, and tried hard to please. I liked Dukes style from the very first time I met him, recalled the director. Sure he was callow and untutored but he had something that jumped right off the screen at me. I guess you could call it star power. I wanted to keep an eye on him. Ford knew a little about football, and that created an admiration in me, said Wayne. Finally I realized this was the first artist Id known. I studied him like a hawk. Id never seen a genius at work before, but I knew I was seeing one now. The man was a perfectionist, and I wanted to be like him. In 1929 Ford asked Wayne to recruit ballplayers for his film Salute. Wardell Bond, a USC acquaintance Wayne considered a big loudmouth who thinks he can play football, was not one of them. Bond muscled his way into the job despite his associates assessment that he was too ugly to be in the movies. They became lifelong friends. You couldnt help but notice Ward in a crowd, observed Wayne. He was always getting himself in trouble by opening his mouth before he knew what he was going to say. But he was really fun, and right away Jack kinda took to him.

Barry Fitzgerald (nee Will Shields) visits Arthur Shields on the set of Gallant Journey. When Ford filmed Sean OCaseys The Plough and the Stars (1937), he not only had to fight RKO to make the film, he had to fight to bring the celebrated Abbey Players to Hollywood. Chief among them were Barry Fitzgerald, reprising the role of Fluther Good he had created at Dublins Abbey Theatre a decade earlier, his younger brother Arthur Shields, and Eileen Crowe. The film, however, was a fiasco, and Ford reportedly refused to view the finished product. Fitzgerald. Shields and Crowe had appeared in the 1924 Abbey premiere of OCaseys Juno and the Paycock, and often worked together over the years. Fitzgerald, whom OCasey dubbed the greatest comic actor in the world, went on to become the movies quintessential Irishman. Shields (who kept the family name) was held in equal if not higher esteem by some of their Abbey associates, though he made less of a splash in Hollywood. The brothers matriculated as reliable members of the directors stock company; Crowes husband, F. J. McCormick, widely considered to be the finest Irish actor of his time, was soured on Hollywood and cinema by the experience of his film debut in The Plough and was persuaded to appear in only two additional pictures during the course of his careerdecidedly not for Ford.

The movie version of Eugene ONeills The Long Voyage Home, which starred Wayne (in one of his more unlikely portrayals, as a Swedish sailor) alongside Fitzgerald, Shields and Bond, was not a success for Ford. However, the 1940 box office flop provided stage actress Mildred Natwick not only with her introduction to the director but her first film experience as well. How Green Was My Valley (which featured Fitzgerald and Shields) brought Maureen OHara into the Ford family the following year, with an encounter strange even by Hollywood standards. A few days after inviting her to a party at his home, at which they spoke only briefly, the director summoned her to a meeting with a group of executives at 20th Century-Fox. I felt very confident going into the meeting, naturally assuming I had already won Ford over, recalled the actress. Instead, Ford introduced me with a horrible accusation and lie. Despite her protests, the director assertedand insistedshe had insulted him at the party by calling his relatives a bunch of shawlees. OHara was mortified. What he was accusing me of was terrible. In Ireland, a shawlee is a poor country peasant who wears a shawl because she cant afford a coat. Its an unforgivable insult. Only after they had argued back and forthNo, I didnt Yes, you didwould Ford discuss the film project he had in mind. The next day, the role was hers. So with a bizarre confrontation and my subsequent casting in How Green Was My Valley, an artistic collaboration began that would span twenty years and five feature films, said OHara. In 1944, the director visited her on the set of The Spanish Main and formally offered her the lead in The Quiet Man. He and his wife then invited the actress to spend a weekend on their yacht, where OHara used her secretarial skills to take down the initial scenario for the film in shorthand as Ford dictated it, and acted as his muse by sharing her experiences growing up in Ireland. The process continued until the cameras rolled seven years later. OHaras brothers, Charles FitzSimons and James Lilburn, also appeared in the movie. FitzSimons, a barrister (as attorneys are known in Ireland), helped find the locations and also assisted Ford in casting the film. He castor broughtall of the people from the Abbey Theatre and presented them without comment, noted OHara, because if he commented or praised any of them, that meant they would lose the job.

Webb Overlander (Bailey), Joseph ODea (Malouney) and May Craig (Fishwoman). Among the then-current or former Abbey actors seen in the castin addition to OHara, Fitzgerald, Shields, Crowe, FitzSimons and Lilburnwere Jack MacGowran, Sean McClory, May Craig (who had been at the Abbey since 1907), Eric Gorman (who made his Abbey debut in 1909) and Joseph ODea. Non-actors who were prominently billed among the Irish Players in the movies opening credits were Paddy ODonnell (the railway porter), a taxi driver often employed by Ashford Castle in County Mayo, and Kevin Lawless (the fireman), who was actually a chauffeur for OHaras parents. FitzSimons knew MacGowran long before they appeared together in 1he 1946 Abbey Christmas pantomime Fernando agus an Dragan, with FitzSimons and Lilburn cast, respectively, as Fernando and the titular dragon, and MacGowran (in his Abbey debut) as a leprechaun. They first met as kids, when the FitzSimons family lived on Upper Beechwood Avenue in the Dublin suburb of Ranelagh, MacGowran on Lower Beechwood. We had a playhouse in back of the garden where we did plays, recalled FitzSimons, and the neighborhood children were in them. Many Abbey actors appeared unbilled among the extras and bit players, including Michel O Briain, Brian OHiggins and Rita Foran. O Briain doubled for Sean McClory, who appeared only in the Hollywood-filmed interiors; coincidentally, he hailed from Fords ancestral home of Spiddal, County Galway, where the director had spent holidays with relatives in his youthand originally wanted to center the film before he selected Cong for practical reasons.

More visible in the film, though likewise sans billing: Webb Overlander, John Waynes longtime makeup man, who did double duty on screen, playing Bailey, the mustachioed stationmaster in the opening sequence, and doubling for Fitzgerald in long shots; Ken Curtis, who played Dermot Fahy, the accordionist who sings The Wild Colonial Boy (a role originally scripted for a fiddler); and Waynes children by his first wife, Melinda, Michael, Patrick and Toni, who are seen at the Inisfree Races. Ford had many family members working on the film, including brother Edward OFearna, one of three second assistant directors; brother-in-law Wingate Smith, first assistant director; and son Pat, a stunt double for Victor McLaglen. The unrelated cast and crew members were themselves like a family, with Ford the father, the peace-time admiral, said cinematographer Winton C. Hoch, who worked on five films with the director.

From Page to Screen

The original story by Maurice Walsh that set John Ford aflame with its cinematic possibilities was about one Shawn Kelvin, who left his native County Kerry at the age of 20 to seek his fortune in America. He returns home 15 years laterafter working in a Pittsburgh steel mill and sparring in a boxing campto find himself the lone survivor of his clan, and the family farm now part and parcel of a ranch belonging to Big Liam OGrady. Kelvin is a quiet man, not given to talking about himself, and though OGrady acquired his farm in a less than honorable way, the docile Kerryman had had enough of fighting and all he wanted now was peace. Kelvin buys a little farm in Knockanore Hill but has no thought of marriage, even after he spots an attractive redhead in churcha Miss Ellen OGrady. Herself has no hope of getting hitched; after all, shes housekeeper, cook and maid to her brother, Big Liam, and the arrangement suits him just fine. Things change only when his neighbor is widowed, but Mrs. Carey is in no hurry to remarry and move into OGradys domicile with another woman in the house. Big Liam tells Shawn he wants to see Ellen settled in a place of her own, and offers him a dowry of 200 pounds. Ellen resigns herself to the bargain and marries Shawn, but then Mrs. Carey abruptly marries her cattleman instead of Big Liam. When Ellens promised dowry is not forthcoming, she presses Shawn to demand it from her brother; Liam refuses to pay and Shawn tells him, If you break your bargain, I break mine keep your sister. Liam grudgingly pays the money, only to have the couple throw it into the firebox of a threshing machineleading to a violent round of fisticuffs, with Shawn easily besting Liam. Walsh soon expanded the original story into a five-part novel titled The Green Rushes, with the tales minor characters inhabiting their own loosely affiliated storiessomewhat in the manner of John Steinbecks early novel, The Pastures of Heaven. In the process of expansion, Walsh added a political element to the story of The Quiet Man that had to do with the bloody War of Independence between the Irish Republican Army and the Black and Tans, the amateur soldiers in mismatching uniforms brought in to quell The Troubles raging in the streets of Dublin. The political aspect remained when Ford hired Richard Llewellyn, author of the novel How Green Was My Valley, to turn the Walsh yarn into a novella. But most of it disappeared when the director

decided the tale he wanted to tell was above all a love story. He then brought in film critic-turnedscreenwriter Frank S. Nugent, who had scripted Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and other films for him. Politics wasnt the directors strong suit anyway. The real lesson of The Plough and the Stars was that Fords Irishness would always be a thing of romance and fantasy, and could never encompass the political and social realities of 20th century Ireland. That is why The Quiet Man succeedsas a poetic comedy, a fairy tale, observed director Lindsay Anderson. Ford wanted it to be a romance, the joy of Ireland and the joy of being Irish, said Maureen OHara. But for all his success as a filmmaker over the decades, the director couldnt sell Hollywood on the idea. It was presented to 20th Century-Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and RKO studios, recalled OHara, and every one of them, they all turned it down and said it was a silly little Irish story that would never ever make a penny. Actors werent the only ones typecast in the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood; directors also fell victim to the lazy thinking of studio executives. While he excelled at bringing history to life (Drums Along the Mohawk) and bringing out the human element in a drama (The Grapes of Wrath), Ford was best known for westerns like Stagecoach and Fort Apache. To his disadvantage, he made them almost too well. He had directed a number of films with Irish themes and several comedies, notably three with Will Rogers. But he was such a master of action and adventure, the studios apparently didnt feel he was capable of turning out a romantic comedy on the order of It Happened One Night or The Shop Around the Corner, anymore than they would trust Frank Capra or Ernst Lubitsch with a western. The filmmaker also stood in his own way at times. Ford was no company man, observed film historian Leonard Maltin. He made movies to please himself. If ever there was a film that met that description, it was The Quiet Man. It was in the forefront of his mind when Ford formed his own company, Argosy Productions, with Merian C. Cooper (best known for King Kong) in 1946. Sir Alexander Korda, the Hungarian-born producer who has been characterized by film historian John Walker as more than any other man the savior of the British film industry, came to the rescue and agreed to finance the project. But the deal fell though when Korda and Cooper couldnt come to terms, after quarreling over matters of money and percentages.

Cooper, who had enabled Ford to make The Informer at RKO Radio Pictures, then put together a three-film deal for Argosy at the same studio. Its key provision was that if the first picture made money, then RKO would let John make The Quiet Man, said Dan Ford. However, The Fugitive (1947) was an artistic success but a commercial failure, dooming Fords pet project at RKO. Despite a premature announcement in the trades in 1948 that Ford and Cooper planned to make the picture with frozen funds, as provided for in the Anglo-American film agreement, the project itself remained in the freezer. The Quiet Man might never have seen the light of day if John Wayne hadnt pitched it to Herbert Yates, who ran Republic Pictures, where Duke made B-westerns. He knew Yates was concerned that television was going to usurp the audiences for the low-budget fare he was grinding out, and he wanted to upgrade to quality pictures. I went to him and told him he should get Jack Ford to come to Republic. If he got him, the other big directors would follow, said Wayne. Yates liked the idea. He said, OK, what do I have to do? I said, Let him make a property he owns called The Quiet Man. Give him 15% of the gross and tell him nobody checks his budgets. The czar of Republic had the same opinion of the Irish rom com as everyone else in Tinseltown but Yates was a shrewd businessman who knew the value of having a director like John Ford on his lot, recalled OHara, and thats when he said the magic words: Ill finance the picture if you make me a western first to make up for the money Im going to lose on The Quiet Man.

John Ford, Maureen OHara and John Wayne on the set of Rio Grande. Rio Grande (1950) was not a film Ford or Wayne wanted to make. To them it was just a path to The Quiet Man. It was understood by all of us that this was the only reason we were doing it, said OHara, who co-starred opposite Wayne for the first time. The actors made a happy discovery when they realized they looked like a couple who belonged together, said the actress. Did I know we had that special erotic chemistry together that would be so magical on screen No, I did not; neither of us did. There were no kinetic sparks from which to duck. But when we saw ourselves together on screen for the first timeoh yes, we knew. Despite the success of Rio Grande, Yates felt hed been bamboozled into making a phony art-house picture, which at one point he proposed to retitle The Prizefighter and the Colleen. He told Wayne it would hurt his career, and not until the actor agreedat Fords behestto do the film for a flat fee of $100,000 and waive his percentage participation did Yates approve the $1,750,000 budget. OHara accepted $65,000, because we had all waited so long and so badly wanted to make the movie. Fitzgerald was paid $60,000 ($7,500 a week with a guarantee of eight weeks); McLaglen, $25,000 ($5,000 a week for five weeks); Bond, $20,000; Natwick, $8,000; Shields, $7,500; and Francis Ford $500 for one weeks work. The production company headquartered themselves in the picturesque town of Cong, County Mayo, where they stayed at Ashford Castle, the former estate of the Guinness family. The town itself played

a starring role as the village of Inisfree, named for William Butler Yeats famous poem, The Lake Isle of Innisfree. Though completed in 1893, the poem reads like a statement of Sean Thorntons innermost thoughts: And I shall have some peace there, and peace comes dropping slow There midnights all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow. Ashford Castle, seen in the films opening credits, provided many of the locations. The scene where Wayne and Fitzgerald first ride out to the cottage was filmed on Ashfords golf course, as was the scene where OHara is first glimpsed herding sheep. Much of the scene where Wayne drags OHara through the field was also shot there. When the couple begin courting, the sequence where they first take a walk together was filmed on the grounds of the castle and the nearby Ashford Farm; the Danaher house is also on Ashford grounds, as is the church seen early in the filmone of the few interior locations filmed in Ireland. The Ballyglunin Railway Station (or Castletown, as its called in the film) still stands, between Tuam and Athenry, County Galway, some 30 miles from Cong. The Inisfree Races were filmed on Lettergesh Beach in Galway, about 20 miles north of the town of Clifden, glimpsed a few times in the film. Toor Ballylee, a 13th century tower once owned by W. B. Yeats, is another location seen in the movie.

A handful of exteriors were filmed at Republic Studios, in Studio City, California, including the scene where Michaeleen Flynn and others deliver Mary Kates furniture to White O Morn, and the graveyard scene where Sean and Mary Kate kiss in the rain. Through a series of takes, Ford exhorted his stars to make their kisses more passionate, their embrace even tighter. Eventually, Duke could feel every line and curve of Maureens

body through her soaked clothes, and he suspected she could feel every line of his, observed Pilar Wayne, the actors third wife, whom he met in 1952. When I asked Duke years later how Ford could have prolonged the shooting of that particular scene with Maureen, Duke replied, Hell, Honey, Ford just had me do all the things he wanted to do himself. According to OHara, the only thing wrong with this story is that the scene was shot only once not over and over. As for the directors vicarious desires, Ford sent OHara a series of bizarre love letters over the years. But was he really in love with her? I honestly believe the answer is no, the actress declared in her autobiography. He mightve thought he was, but he was only in love

with an image. John Ford was in love with Mary Kate Danaher, and I was his image of her. Charles FitzSimons and Lee Lukather, the films unit manager, scouted locations and gave suggestions to Ford, who made the final selection. Although Lord Michael Killanin took credit for helping to find locations (such as the White o Morn cottage in Tiernakill, Maam, County Galway), OHara has stated that he was not instrumental in these efforts, contrary to what has been reported in numerous books. Killanin is also named as an uncredited producer, noted the actress. It is not only absolute rubbish, but also shameful. There was only one producer of The Quiet Man, and that was Merian C. Cooper.

Cong had no electricity and only one telephone line when it was selected as Fords base of operations. Ford didnt allow physical problems to interfere with the dramatic quality of the film, said Winton C. Hoch. The scenes were merely indicated in the script. Ford preserved the spirit of what was there and built on thatif a situation presented itself, he would take advantage of it. We rehearsed scenes as they were written, recalled Sean McClory, but by the time we shot them they were different. They were much improved, stamped with Fords own personal touch. While Ford was one of the movies greatest

directors, he was also one of most difficult. He was an odd man to work for, said John Carradine, who gave the finest performance of his career under Fords direction in The Grapes of Wrath. If you suggested something you wanted to do that hadnt been rehearsed, hed give you that cold fish eye and say, You want to direct the rest of the picture? or hed announce to the company, Mr. Carradine will direct this scene.

Cinematographer Winton C. Hoch on the set in Ireland. Winton C. Hochs first assignment for Ford, 3 Godfathers, was almost the cameramans last. Jack had heard raves about Winnies skill with color film, so he was in a little trouble right there, said actor Harry Carey Jr., who recalled Hochs first-day-on- the-job trek to the

top of a sand dune, where he suggested camera placement to enable a beautiful tracking shot. Ford turned on him: Do you want to go home right now? Who in the name of Christ do you think youre talking to? I mean, Jesus, youre going to lecture me about your goddamned picture postcard shots? Well, were not having those kinds of shots in this picture. And I tell you where the camera goes! OHara got a taste of the trickster during the casting for How Green Was My Valley, but clearly saw the darker side of John Ford, the mean and abusive side, when she filmed Rio Grande. One minute he was my best friend and the next he was insulting me, she recalled. More shockingly, he was extremely severe and cruel to

Duke on the set. It was horrible treatment, unlike anything I had ever seen It made me sick to my stomach and more than once I had to excuse myself from the set so I could go to the bathroom and vomit.
When William Wyler directed the tempestuous Margaret Sullavan in The Good Fairy, he tried to make peace with her over dinner and ended up promptly falling in love with and marrying her. Director Henry King slapped French chanteuse Ketti Gallian across the face to get what he wanted, when she couldnt cry on command for a scene opposite Spencer Tracy in Marie Galante. John Ford could turn on the charm, but was more likely to approximate Kings tactics than Wylers. Ford didnt pull any punches, maintained Eileen Crowe. When wind machines were needed to get the desired effect during the filming of OHaras shots at the Inisfree Races, the actress found her hair lashing her face and eyes. She finally lost her cool when he began screaming insults at her. Ford kept shooting the scene over and over, and she didnt like it, recalled Charles FitzSimons. She said something to him and he said it didnt matter, and she said, What would an old bald-headed sonuvabitch like you know about getting hair in your face?! That was just what he wanted; he said, Print it.

OHara at the races with Patrick and Melinda Wayne, with the wind machines blowing. The director had a strict rule that cast and crew would abstain from drinking while they were working on a picture. Oh God, no. John Ford would never tolerate drinking. He was very strict like that, said OHara. Ford was a stickler for that, concurred Sean McClory, who added, Off the set, I assure you there was not a sober breath drawn in all that time. Certainly, John Wayne appears to have had his fair share of the drink during the filming. I saw Wayne not able to stand up at times in the village and Ford would get very annoyed with him, said Cong villager Robert Foy, who worked as an extra on the film. McLaglen was another heavy tippler among Fords favorites. Jack MacGowran would set a good example and be a positive influence in that regardor so Ford hoped. As it turned out, Wayne and McLaglen found a most willing accomplice and drinking partner in the young Abbey-trained actor. One night after a round of drinking, MacGowran was reprimanded by the director. He took off his coat and challenged Ford to a fight. A few smart-mouthed remarks followed when the challenge was denied. But Ford would not tolerate disrespect, and decided to make an example of MacGowran.

The next morning they were filming the scene where Wayne was to throw OHaras dowry into the furnace. You go stand up there, yelled Ford, instructing MacGowran to stand with his back to the blazing furnace. The actor had a dreadful hangover and Ford knew it; he held himself upright by sheer willpower for three hours, swearing under his breath as the sweat poured from his brow. When the director thought he had suffered enough, he said, I think you can move away now. The night before the company finished up in Ireland, they all went out on a binge, remembered Eileen Crowe. Even after Wayne concluded filming his scenes, he was in no hurry to leave the Emerald Isle. I believe he was the last to leave, said his stand-in, Joe Mellotte. I cant say he had a tear in his eyehe talked about America so much you knew where his heart wasbut I am certain he was still under the influence of the Guinness.

For Your Consideration

Sacrilegious as it may be to suggest, its not hard to picture James Cagney as Sean Thornton especially when one considers the dramatic, non-musical moments in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and his romantic comedy of the same period, The Strawberry Blonde. Hed have fit the role of Thornton perfectly, except he was too old for the part by the time the film was made. Wayne himself was too old, but not as long in the tooth as Cagney, who was eight years his senior. Although he felt he was just playing a straight man to those wonderful characters, The Quiet Man represents Waynes best performance. Hes out of his comfort zone as an actor here, far from the settings and locales of films like Stagecoach and Red River in which he defined his rugged persona. Hes still John Wayne, hes still got that machismo, but his fish-out-of-water character suppresses much of the screen personality familiar to moviegoers. Hes almost an anti-hero, as a man whos disgraced himself and left America and come to Ireland to try to find peace and contentment, and start life over again. His Sean Thornton has a vulnerability that makes him credible and appealing. It is startling to realize Wayne did not receive an Oscar nomination for a film that garnered seven of themor any other formal award recognitionmuch less the coveted statuette itself. Dukes politics definitely hurt him that year, asserted his longtime secretary, Mary St. John. Ward Bond pointed to Waynes position as president of the anti-Communist organization, the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American ideals. Rubbing salt in the proverbial wound was the fact that Wayne picked up two Oscars at the 1952 Academy Award ceremony on March 19, 1953John Fords trophy for Best Director (he was in Africa filming Mogambo) and Gary Coopers for Best Actor (High Noon). Its difficult to imagine another actress who couldve touched the hem of Maureen OHaras skirt in the role of Mary Kate Danaher, the most memorable performance of her career. Though the power of her personality had flavored How Green Was My Valley and other films, the Queen of Technicolor added an exotic element here. Although the film is old-fashioned and her character is manhandled by Thornton, theres a feminist edge to her portrayal of Mary Kate; OHara somehow manages to be both sexy and submissive at the same time. Yet she, like Wayne, received no awards or nominations of any kind for her sparkling performance.

Actress Anne Baxter, a friend of OHaras, called her after a committee meeting of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences at which she was present, to tell her shed been nominated. When OHara discovered she wasnt, Baxter (who had to leave before the end of the meeting) could not explain how or who knocked you out of the box. Shortly after the award ceremony, Ford presented the actress with a gold bracelet, with a miniature Oscar statuette hanging from it and exclaimed, Here! Thats for what they stole from you. Noted OHara in her autobiography, I knew instantly that if what Anne Baxter had told me was true, it had been John Ford himself who knocked me out of the box.

OHara in her opening scene, with Hoch behind the camera. In addition to Ford, Winton C. Hoch and second-unit associate Archie Stout won Oscars for their spectacular color cinematography. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Victor McLaglen), Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction and Set Decoration (in color) and Best Sound Recording. Ford also won the Directors Guild of America award, the Venice Film Festival International Award, and a Golden Globe nomination. The picture won the National Board of Review award for Best Film; Frank Nugent won the Writers Guild of America award for his screenplay, and Victor Young picked

up a Golden Globe nomination for his memorable score. Snubbed by the Oscars during his lifetime, Young was posthumously awarded the coveted statuette for Around the World in 80 Days; he racked up an additional 21 nominations. To Quiet Maniacs the failure of the Academy to recognize his contribution to the film is a slight equaling or even exceeding that delivered to Wayne and OHara. While Barry Fitzgeralds performance in Going My Way won the irrepressible scene stealer an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, his characterization of Michealeen Flynn was seemingly too Stage Irish, too stereotypical, to merit Academy recognition.

James Lilburn (Father Paul) and Ward Bond (Father Lonergan). Ward Bonds Father Lonergan is also a bit of Stage Oirish, one less acceptable than Fitzgeralds more akin to a leprechaun in a Lucky Charms commercial, his height and build notwithstanding. Its an unpalatable piece of miscasting, but of course he was an esteemed member of the Ford stock company. Its also difficult to accept Bond as a priest when he was engaged in conduct unbecoming one, unsaintly to say the leastas an ardent proponent of the blacklist, he shamelessly slandered many of his fellow actors on behalf of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC).

That Ford himself was affectionately making fun of the Irish, caricaturing them in a way that would define them for Americans for decades to come, apparently didnt bother the Academythough the film had its detractors then and now. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd noted that it was once considered a font of offensive drinking-and-brawling stereotypes by many native Irish. Fords The Rising of the Moon (1957), also filmed on location in Ireland, was denounced by D. P. Quish of the Limerick County Council as a vile production and a travesty of the Irish people. The filmmaker, said historian Anthony Slide, never viewed Ireland as it is, or as it was, but as a land of his dreams his vision of Ireland was that of a poet, but a decidedly second-rate poet, whose view was often patronizing and boorish. John Ford was as outspoken as he was controversial. One suspects his response to the foregoing would be the same as his rejoinder to the assessment that he was the greatest poet of the Western sagaI would say that is horseshit.

Trivia

In a recorded commentary track for the film, Maureen OHara attempted to clear up a number of myths and discrepancies. She stressed the name of Sean Thorntons cottage was White o Morn, not White o Morning, as in all the articles. But while it is indeed White o Morn in the film, the name consistently appears as White o Morning throughout the April 30, 1951 draft of the shooting script by Frank Nugent.

** ** ** Filming began on location in Ireland June 7, 1951, and concluded there July 14; the shooting continued at Republic Pictures in the Hollywood area, where the interiors were filmed, wrapping August 3. The New York premiere was held at the Capitol Theatre, August 21, 1952.

** ** ** Only four days of unbroken sunshine were counted during the six-week shoot in Ireland, claimed Frank Nugent, ,,,most of it spent in a fine drizzle which Mr. Ford, as a patriotic Irishman, endorsed as the ideal condition for Technicolor. OHara disputed such reports as rubbish, noting, The weather couldnt have been better while we were filming.

** ** **
On July 17, 1951, as exterior filming was about to wrap in Ireland with a cast largely comprised of Abbey Players past and present, the legendary Dublin theatre itself went up in flames. It did not, however, burn to the ground, as commonly believed. Among the remnants that were auctioned off were the distinctive front doors of the theatre; they were purchased and installed at the entrance to the Connemara Marble Factory in County Galway, not far from some of the film locations.

** ** **
The company stayed at the fabled Chateau Marmont on the Sunset Strip while they filmed the interiors at Republic Studios. In the evening, a number of them could often be found in the bar of director Preston Sturges nearby restaurant, The Players.

Sean McClory (McGlynn) and Charles FitzSimons (Forbes) at the Inisfree Races, in one of the few exterior shots filmed at Republic Studios.

** ** **
While Ford had to fight Yates to go nine minutes beyond the Republic chiefs dictum of a two-hour maximum running time, the Variety reviewerwho previewed the picture in May, 1952, three months prior to its U.S. releaseexpressed the opinion that Ford dwelt too long on the countryside and village mores, with the result that the film is at least 30 minutes too long. (Half an hour is invariably trimmed for commercials when the film is shown on network television in the U.S.)

** ** **
Maurice Walsh earned a total of $6,260 for the film rights to the originala film that was No. 12 on the list of 1952s top-grossing pictures. Herbert Yates eventually paid Ford and co-producer Merian Cooper $546,000 apiece. Yates practiced some creative accounting on the films box-office receipts, according to author Gerry McNee. The contract drawn up had agreed a 50-50 split of the net profits between Republic and Argosy. With word coming in from all around the country that the film was a smash nit, the cash should have been flowing, stated McNee. But Yates accounts were showing just half the anticipated amount.

** ** **
The shooting script has a lengthy conversation between Sean and Michaeleen Flynn, when they first meet at the train station and walk to the jaunting car, all of which Ford scrapped. Another line was omitted in the sheepherding scene when Sean and Mary Kate first spot each other; the script has her calling a greeting to Sean (A bright good day to you!) in Gaelic. Barry Fitzgerald improvised the line Michaeleen Flynn speaks when he sees the broken bed the morning after the wedding night: Impetuous Homeric! The line was cut at the behest of censors when the film was shown in Ohio. Also not in the shooting script is one of the most frequently quoted lines in the filmand arguably the most controversial the Fishwomans (May Craig) remark to Sean Thornton: Heres a good stick to beat the lovely lady. What does Mary Kate say to Father Lonergan in Gaelic while hes fishing? I wouldnt let my together man [husband] into the bed with me is it a sin? The line that OHara whispers to Wayne at the end of the film has been the subject of much speculation. The unscripted line was Fords idea; the actress at first refused to say it, and then agreed on one condition: that it is never ever repeated or revealed to anyone. Says author Des MacHale, Of course there has been no shortage of suggestions, printable and unprintable one of my favorites is an old Irish romantic suggestion that very well couldve been usedHow would you like to go halves on a baby with me?

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The Quiet Man has been widely parodied and referenced. It is one of Steven Spielbergs favorite movies, witness the homage in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982); it was later lampooned in an episode of TVs The Simpsons. Chris Columbus wrote the role of Rose Muldoon in his film Only the Lonely (1991) with OHara in mind, wondering what Mary Kate might be like if she were a window living in Chicago with her son (played by John Candy).

A poster for the films French release.

Selected Bibliography

Anderson, Lindsay. About John Ford. London: Plexus Publishing ltd., 1981. Carey Jr., Harry. Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in The John Ford Stock Company. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1994. Carradine, John. Interview with the author, Apr. 25, 1979. .Crowe, Eileen. Conversation with the author, Jul. 27, 1975. Davis, Ronald L. Duke: The Life and Image of John Wayne. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998. Dowd. Maureen. Cowboys and Colleens. The New York Times, Jul. 20, 2012. FitzSimons, Charles. Interview with the author, Mar. 23, 1976. Ford, Dan. Pappy: The Life of John Ford. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1979. Hoch, Winton C. Interview with the author, Apr. 12, 1975. McClory, Sean. Interview with the author, Aug. 7, 1974. MacGowran, Gloria. Interview with the author, Jun. 22, 1975. Maltin, Leonard. The Making of The Quiet Man. Jessie Film, 1992. DVD. Nugent, Frank S. The Quiet Man. Shooting script, Apr. 30, 1951. Courtesy of USC CinemaTelevision Library. __________. Pubs, Pictures, and Nice Soft Days in Eire. The New York Times, Aug. 5, 1951.

OHara, Maureen. Interview with the author, Nov. 19, 1976. __________. The Quiet Man: The Joy of Ireland. Mogo Media, 2002. DVD. __________, with John Nicoletti. Tis Herself: An Autobiography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. OToole, Peter. Interview with the author, Sept. 26, 1975. Roberts, Randy, and Olson, James S. John Wayne: American. New York: The Free Press, 1995. Slide, Anthony. The Cinema and Ireland. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1988. Wayne, Pilar, and Thorleifson, Alex. John Wayne: My Life With the Duke. New York: McGrawHill, 1987. Young, Jordan R. The Beckett Actor: Jack MacGowran, Beginning to End. Beverly Hills: Moonstone Press, 1987.