Pop Culture 101 - THE QUIET MAN

Ireland was a frequent subject of John Ford's films, most notably in The Informer (1935), The Plough and the Stars (1936) and Young Cassidy (1965). The first two were based on plays by Sean O'Casey and the third on O'Casey's autobiography. Ford also made movies about the Irish in America, including The Long Gray Line (1955) and The Last Hurrah (1958).

Before he was given the green light on The Quiet Man, Ford had to make another picture for Republic Studios. He made the Western Rio Grande (1950) with many of the same personnel as his Irish romance: Wayne, O'Hara, McLaglen, editor Jack Murray, art director Frank Hotaling, composer Victor Young.

After this picture, screenwriter Frank S. Nugent adapted another story by Maurice Walsh, who wrote the short story that served as the basis for The Quiet Man. Trouble in the Glen (1953), however, was set in Scotland, not Ireland. But there is a similarity in that Victor McLaglen played another brute whose big fight with the film's star (Forrest Tucker) finally brings peace to the land.

The film has some interesting thematic similarities and contrasts to an earlier John Wayne picture (without Ford), Angel and the Badman (1947). In that Western, the outlaw Wayne must forgo violence for the love of a woman and to be accepted into her pacifist Mormon community. In this, he is a man sworn not to fight who must go through one last "donnybrook" to achieve the peace and balance of the community.

by Rob Nixon