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The Quiet Man
HE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART , WEST 53 STREET. NEW YORK If. N. Y. UPHONI: CltCLI MfM No. 65 For Release Sunday, August 2, 1959 THE QUIET MAN AT MUSEUM OF MODERN ART The Quiet Man, the 1952 Academy Award winner for beet direction, will be screened In the Museum of Modern Art auditorium, 11 West 53 Street, August 2-8. There will t. be one showing daily at 3 P»m. Directed by John Ford, the film features John Wayne, Maureen OfHara and Barry Fitzgerald, It is the final program in the Museum*s current series, John Ford: Nine Films. Produced in Ireland in the picturesque village of Cong, County Mayo, The Cjuiet Man is described by Archer Winsten as wa picture of wonderful lyric, bucolic. purely Irish quality....Its humor is of the enduring kind that resides within a characterful people whose richly spoken contentions have a kind of wild fancy to them....The extraordinary beauty of the film demands a mention. Much of it was photographed under cloudy skies and in the rain. The Technicolor, though subdued. is all the better for it.*..Once again one of our greatest American directors, , Maine1 s gift to Ireland, has refreshed himself at fthe ould sod1 and delivered a memorable film, with major assists from the Abbey Theater players and Ireland itself." The Quiet Man, with John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond, Victor Mclaglen, Mildred Natwick, Francis Ford, Arthur Shields and Abbey Theater players. A Republic picture produced by Merian C. Cooper, directed by John Ford, screen play by Frank Nugent, story by Maurice Walsh. -
John Ford Film Series at Museum of Modern Art
I THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART No. 50 n WEST 53 STREET. NEW YORK 19. N. Y. For Immediate Release ffUFHONl: CIRCLI B-8900 JOHN FORD FILM SERIES AT MUSEUM OF MODERN ART JOHN FORD: NINE FILMS, a new auditorium series at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, will begin with THE IRON HCRSE, June 7-13, daily showings at 3 pm. The 1921* silent film, an epic of the first American trans-continental railroad, features George O'Brien and Madge Bellamy, With the program changing each Sunday, the review of films by Mr, Ford, the eminent American director, will continue daily at 3 and 5:30: June lk-20, FOUR SONS (19ft), with Margaret Mann, Francis X. Bushman, Jr; June 21-27, THE INFORMER (1935), with Victor McLaglen; June 28-July h, STAGECOACH (1929), with John Wayne, Claire Trevor, John Carradine; July 5-11, YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (1939), with Henry Fonda, Alice Brady; July 12-18, LONG VOYAGE HOME (19^0), with John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Barry Fitzgerald; July 19-25, T"E GRAPES OF WRATH (19lO), with Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine; July 26-Aufust 1, MY DARLING CLEMINTINE (19^6), with Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature; August 2-8, THE QUIET MAN (1952), with John Wayne, Maureen OfHara, Barry Fitzgerald. THE QUIET MAN will be shown at 3 pm only, Richard Griffith, Curator of the Film Library, says of the new Museum series: "To choose nine films by John Ford for this exhibition will seem to the great director's admirers an act of impertinence. -
Copyright by Joseph Paul Moser 2008
Copyright by Joseph Paul Moser 2008 The Dissertation Committee for Joseph Paul Moser certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Patriarchs, Pugilists, and Peacemakers: Interrogating Masculinity in Irish Film Committee: ____________________________ Elizabeth Butler Cullingford, Co-Supervisor ____________________________ Neville Hoad, Co-Supervisor ____________________________ Alan W. Friedman ____________________________ James N. Loehlin ____________________________ Charles Ramírez Berg Patriarchs, Pugilists, and Peacemakers: Interrogating Masculinity in Irish Film by Joseph Paul Moser, M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2008 For my wife, Jennifer, who has given me love, support, and the freedom to be myself Acknowledgments I owe many people a huge debt for helping me complete this dissertation. Neville Hoad gave me a crash course in critical theory on gender; James Loehlin offered great feedback on the overall structure of the study; and Alan Friedman’s meticulous editing improved my writing immeasurably. I am lucky to have had the opportunity to study with Charles Ramírez Berg, who is as great a teacher and person as he is a scholar. He played a crucial role in shaping the chapters on John Ford and my overall understanding of film narrative, representation, and genre. By the same token, I am fortunate to have worked with Elizabeth Cullingford, who has been a great mentor. Her humility, wit, and generosity, as well as her brilliance and tenacity, have been a continual source of inspiration. -
The Odyssey, Book One 273 the ODYSSEY
05_273-611_Homer 2/Aesop 7/10/00 1:25 PM Page 273 HOMER / The Odyssey, Book One 273 THE ODYSSEY Translated by Robert Fitzgerald The ten-year war waged by the Greeks against Troy, culminating in the overthrow of the city, is now itself ten years in the past. Helen, whose flight to Troy with the Trojan prince Paris had prompted the Greek expedition to seek revenge and reclaim her, is now home in Sparta, living harmoniously once more with her husband Meneláos (Menelaus). His brother Agamémnon, commander in chief of the Greek forces, was murdered on his return from the war by his wife and her paramour. Of the Greek chieftains who have survived both the war and the perilous homeward voyage, all have returned except Odysseus, the crafty and astute ruler of Ithaka (Ithaca), an island in the Ionian Sea off western Greece. Since he is presumed dead, suitors from Ithaka and other regions have overrun his house, paying court to his attractive wife Penélopê, endangering the position of his son, Telémakhos (Telemachus), corrupting many of the servants, and literally eating up Odysseus’ estate. Penélopê has stalled for time but is finding it increasingly difficult to deny the suitors’ demands that she marry one of them; Telémakhos, who is just approaching young manhood, is becom- ing actively resentful of the indignities suffered by his household. Many persons and places in the Odyssey are best known to readers by their Latinized names, such as Telemachus. The present translator has used forms (Telémakhos) closer to the Greek spelling and pronunciation. -
John Ford Birth Name: John Martin Feeney (Sean Aloysius O'fearna)
John Ford Birth Name: John Martin Feeney (Sean Aloysius O'Fearna) Director, Producer Birth Feb 1, 1895 (Cape Elizabeth, ME) Death Aug 31, 1973 (Palm Desert, CA) Genres Drama, Western, Romance, Comedy Maine-born John Ford originally went to Hollywood in the shadow of his older brother, Francis, an actor/writer/director who had worked on Broadway. Originally a laborer, propman's assistant, and occasional stuntman for his brother, he rose to became an assistant director and supporting actor before turning to directing in 1917. Ford became best known for his Westerns, of which he made dozens through the 1920s, but he didn't achieve status as a major director until the mid-'30s, when his films for RKO (The Lost Patrol [1934], The Informer [1935]), 20th Century Fox (Young Mr. Lincoln [1939], The Grapes of Wrath [1940]), and Walter Wanger (Stagecoach [1939]), won over the public, the critics, and earned various Oscars and Academy nominations. His 1940s films included one military-produced documentary co-directed by Ford and cinematographer Gregg Toland, December 7th (1943), which creaks badly today (especially compared with Frank Capra's Why We Fight series); a major war film (They Were Expendable [1945]); the historically-based drama My Darling Clementine (1946); and the "cavalry trilogy" of Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and Rio Grande (1950), each of which starred John Wayne. My Darling Clementine and the cavalry trilogy contain some of the most powerful images of the American West ever shot, and are considered definitive examples of the Western. Ford also had a weakness for Irish and Gaelic subject matter, in which a great degree of sentimentality was evident, most notably How Green Was My Valley (1941) and The Quiet Man (1952), which was his most personal film, and one of his most popular. -
Quiet Man by Scott Allen Nollen
The Quiet Man By Scott Allen Nollen During pre-production on his wartime tribute “They Were Expenda- ble” (1945), John Ford learned that Maureen O’Hara was starring in the swashbuckler “The Spanish Main” at RKO. O’Hara knew that Ford had re- turned from military service in Eu- rope to make a feature film, but had no idea why he wanted to see her at the studio. She soon learned that he wanted her to play the female lead in a film based on a Maurice Walsh sto- ry called “The Quiet Man,” to be shot on location in Ireland. Ford previously had dropped hints about making “a picture in Ireland,” but O’Hara had considered the re- Newlyweds Sean Thornton (John Wayne) and the former Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O’Hara) in marks wishful thinking. Now she front of their cottage, White O' Mornin.’ Courtesy Library of Congress knew the property, and her agreement to star in the film was sealed with a handshake. porting characters were Father Peter Lonergan (Ward Bond), Reverend Cyril Playfair (Arthur Shields) and Ford eventually hired “How Green Was My Valley” author Michaeleen Og Flynn (Barry Fitzgerald). Ford and Nugent Richard Llewellyn to expand “The Quiet Man” to novella also added a crucial plot element: Sean’s refusal to fight length. Combined with the notes he had been compiling Will due to his guilt for having killed a fellow boxer in the for the past 15 years, Ford was sure he’d have plenty of ring, the impetus for abandoning America for the serenity material from which a screenplay could be adapted. -
The Searchers (1956) Is Considered by Many to Be a True American Masterpiece of Filmmaking, and the Best and Perhaps Most-Admired Film of Director John Ford
The Searchers (1956) is considered by many to be a true American masterpiece of filmmaking, and the best and perhaps most-admired film of director John Ford. It was his 115th feature film, and he was already a four-time Best Director Oscar winner (The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952)) - all for his pictures of social comment rather than his quintessential westerns. With dazzling on-location, VistaVision photography (including the stunning red sandstone rock formations of Monument Valley) by Winton C. Hoch in Ford's most beloved locale, the film handsomely captures the beauty and isolating danger of the frontier. However, at its time, the sophisticated, modern, visually- gorgeous film was unappreciated, misunderstood, and unrecognized by critics and did not receive a single Academy Award nomination. The film's screenplay was adapted by Frank S. Nugent (director Ford's son-in-law) from Alan Le May's 1954 novel of the same name, that was first serialized as a short story in late fall 1954 issues of the Saturday Evening Post, and first titled The Avenging Texans. Various similarities existed between the film's script and an actual Comanche kidnapping of a young white girl in Texas in 1936. The Searchers tells the emotionally complex story of a perilous, hate-ridden quest and Homeric-style odyssey of self-discovery after a Comanche massacre, while also exploring the themes of racial prejudice and sexism. Its meandering tale examines the inner psychological turmoil of a fiercely independent, crusading man obsessed with revenge and hatred, who searches for his two nieces (Pippa Scott and Natalie Wood) among the "savages" over a five-year period. -
John Ford and Stagecoach Trivia
John Ford and Stagecoach: Facts and Trivia Director John Ford won six Academy Awards (for The Informer, Grapes of Wrath, How Green was My Valley, The Quiet Man, and two wartime documentaries), won four New York Film Critics Awards, and won the American Film Institute’s first Life Achievement Award. Stagecoach won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor and for Music/Scoring; it was nominated for five more–Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Picture. In a career that spanned more than fifty years, he made 136 movies, 54 of them Westerns. None of his Academy Awards as a director were for a Western. Asked why, in the climactic chase scene of Stagecoach, the Indians didn't simply shoot the horses to stop the stagecoach, Ford replied, "Because that would have been the end of the movie." Stagecoach was the first of the 9 films that John Ford filmed in Monument Valley: My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Wagon Master, Rio Grande, The Searchers, Sergeant Rutledge, and his last Western, Cheyenne Autumn. Stagecoach is the first of many collaborations between John Ford and John Wayne. When the film was being cast, John Ford lobbied hard for John Wayne, but producer Walter Wanger kept saying no. It was only after constant persistence on Ford's part that Wanger finally gave in. Wanger's reservations were based on Wayne's string of B-movies, in which he came across as being a less than competent actor, and the box office failure of Raoul Walsh's The Big Trail in 1930, Wayne's first serious starring role. -
1 the Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952) and the Field (Jim Sheridan, 1990)
1 The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952) and The Field (Jim Sheridan, 1990) Nostalgia for the non-existent is an odd illness. Some Irish people are addicted to an inane pastoral version of their own culture which bears no relationship to anything in Ireland, past or present. At a recent international conference there, I was, I confess, shocked to find that the local contingent insisted on all present singing When Irish Eyes Are Smiling at the first meeting. Still more was I shocked, when, at the last dinner, they insisted on all present singing it again. I wondered if they knew that it was written by an American, or, if they did know, whether they cared. According to the pastoral myth, Irish are innocent, emotional, child-like in their addiction to play, take nothing seriously, aren’t interested in sex, are full of love for their homeland, parents and their children, quite violent but only by way of sport … in short, they’re a bit like Hobbits, and far closer to angels than any other people. In Ireland, the Fall has been reversed, and prelapsarian innocence reigns. It’s like the myth of Merrie England, except that few in England try and sell that myth as if it’s still current reality. It’s seen at its most stupid in the Walt Disney Darby O’Gill and the Little People (Robert Stevenson, 1959), a film that would be entirely devoid of meaningful content were it not for the very young Sean Connery as the juvenile lead. Connery presumably got the part because the Disney casting directors thought he was Irish. -
The John Ford Collection
The John Ford Collection The John Ford collection of manuscripts at the Lilly Library offers a view of Ford's entire motion picture career, from the silent era to his last movie in 1966. The material in this collection was acquired from Ford's children and grandson after his death . It was used extensively, but not exhaustively, by Ford's grandson Dan Ford in writing his biography Pappy: The Life of John Ford and includes much of the research material accumulated by Dan Ford for his book. The collection covers the years from 1906 to 1976 and contains approximately seven thousand items, of which twenty-five hundred are correspondence. John Ford was born Sean Aloysius Feeney in Portland, Maine, in 1895. He changed his name after joining his older brother Fran cis, who had taken the name of Ford, in Hollywood in 1913. He began his career as a prop man, stunt man, and actor, moving to directing in 1917 with a two-reeler entitled The Tornado. He spent the rest of his life directing films, through the transition from silents to sound, making over 130 in all and winning six Academy Awards. From 1917 until 1930 Ford directed at least 66 films, a great many of which were westerns starring the cowboy actor Harry Carey. Early in his career Ford was most often associated with Universal Studio but by the early twenties he was under contract to the Fox Film Corporation (later the Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) until after World War II. It was at Fox that he had his first major success, with The Iron Horse in 1924. -
Uncle Jack, Duke, and Dobe C I O N W D B I O a Y the MAKING of the SEARCHERS, 50 YEARS LATER N S S
COVER STORY Uncle Jack, Duke, and Dobe C I O N W D B I O A Y THE MAKING OF THE SEARCHERS, 50 YEARS LATER N S S by William C. Reynolds n the cinematic world of John Ford, young Harry Carey Jr. was close to the director’s heart. Almost a member of Ford’s family, “Dobe” Carey, as he was nicknamed, was I the son of Ford’s first major star from the silent film era, Harry Carey Sr. (1878-1947), with whom Ford made more than 20 Westerns. Carey Jr.’s father had given him that nickname the day he was born, apparently because he had a thatch of red hair the color of the Carey ranch house’s adobe bricks. In his 20s, Dobe became a member of John Ford’s stable of actors, being cast in a number of the director’s early Westerns, including 3 Godfathers, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and Wagonmaster — all three of which starred John Wayne. In 1955, flame-haired Dobe once again found himself on a John Ford set, but this time getting ready for one of the most important scenes of his acting life. The location was Ford’s favorite, Arizona’s Monument Valley; the star was once again the Duke; and the film was a new Western titled The Searchers. RIGHT: The original movie poster, circa 1956. FAR RIGHT: Jeffrey Hunter as Martin Pawley and John Wayne as Ethan Edwards look after Dobe Carey, who has just run out of the scene. MOVIE POSTER: MOVIEGOODS.COM PHOTOGRAPHY: © JOHN SPRINGER COLLECTION/CORBIS 114 DECEMBER 2005 COWBOYS & INDIANS 115 ccoverover sstorytory 11205.indd205.indd 1114-11514-115 99/20/05/20/05 111:03:171:03:17 AAMM Wayne’s Ethan Edwards surveys the Comanche camp. -
"What Makes a Man to Wander?": the Searchers As a Western Odyssey Kirsten Day Augustana College - Rock Island
Augustana College Augustana Digital Commons Classics: Faculty Scholarship & Creative Works Classics Winter 2008 "What Makes a Man to Wander?": The Searchers as a Western Odyssey Kirsten Day Augustana College - Rock Island Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/clasfaculty Part of the Classics Commons Augustana Digital Commons Citation Day, Kirsten. ""What Makes a Man to Wander?": The Searchers as a Western Odyssey" (2008). Classics: Faculty Scholarship & Creative Works. http://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/clasfaculty/2 This Published Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Classics at Augustana Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Classics: Faculty Scholarship & Creative Works by an authorized administrator of Augustana Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “WHAT MAKES A MAN TO WANDER?”: THE SEARCHERS AS A WESTERN ODYSSEY1 KIRSTEN DAY What makes a man to wander? What makes a man to roam? Opening theme from The Searchers2 INTRODUCTION Despite its fifth place ranking among the best movies ever made in a 1992 Sight and Sound critics’ poll,3 John Ford’s 1956 film The Searchers is surpris- ingly unfamiliar to the general public, even among Western film enthusiasts. The film’s critical appeal derives not only from its dazzling cinematography, all-star cast, and polished direction, but also from its innovative treatment 1 This article grew out of a paper presented at the Southwest Texas Popular Culture Associa- tion / American Culture Association conference in 2002. I am grateful to Geoff Bakewell, James Clauss, Kyle Day, and David Fredrick for their comments on this essay in various stages of revision.