rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 1952
Directed by John Ford; produced by Merian C. Cooper, G.B. Forbes, John Ford, L.T. Rosso; screenplay by Frank S. Nugent
Starring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond, Victor McLaglen, Mildred Natwick
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
Sean Thornton (John Wayne) comes back to Ireland where his family lived,
buys a nice Irish cottage and instantly falls in love with Mary Kate Danaher
(Maureen O'Hara). Her brother also wanted to buy the land that Thornton now
owns so he is not very fond of him. According to Irish tradition the brother
must allow his sister to marry the man and at first, of course, he does not
approve of Thornton when he proposes. Certain reasons change the brother's
mind, but only if everything is done according to Irish tradition. Thornton
and Mary Kate are not allowed to do much together, especially when it
involves touching, and this creates a lot of pretty funny moments. After
they finally got married things are not as happy as they thought it would
be. Thornton also got a secret which is a little the reason the marriage is
not working well. What I am talking about you have to see for yourself.
Although I wouldn't call 'The Quiet Man' a great classic I must say it has
some great moments. Unfortunately it also has the usual corny moments that
you can expect in a movie like this. Because a romantic scene is even more
romantic when it is raining it must be raining, because Wayne is the hero he
must be heroic at a certain point, because this is made for mainstream
audiences everyone is happy in the end. A little too happy I guess, although
I knew it was going to happen this way. Everybody does.
The scenes between Mary Kate's brother (Victor McLaglen) and Thornton all
lead up to the finale which is great for its comedy. Wayne proves he can be
quite funny and he handles the scene very nice. How he treats his wife right
before that I didn't expect and therefore that scene is may be even more
funny. I think this movie works as a comedy and is a little familiar, too
familiar, as a romantic or dramatic movie. Despite this the scenes between
O'Hara and Wayne do work, may be not as good as in 'Rio Grande' two years
earlier, but still very good.