From: Reviews and Criticism of War Theatrical and Television Dramas (http://www.lasalle.edu/library/vietnam/FilmIndex/home.htm) compiled by John K. McAskill, La Salle University ([email protected])

Q8400 THE QUIET AMERICAN (USA, 1957) (Other titles: Americain bien tranquille; Americano impasible; Americano tranquillo; Vier Pfeifen Opium)

Credits: director/writer, Joseph L. Mankiewicz ; novel, . Cast: Audie Murphy, Michael Redgrave, Claude Dauphin, Georgia Moll. Summary: War film set in Vietnam in the early 1950s during the Indochina War. When the body of CIA agent Alden Pyle (Murphy) is found floating in the Saigon River, the French authorities question British journalist Thomas Fowler (Redgrave) and his mistress Phuong (Moll) who were involved with Pyle. In flashback, Fowler recalls his relationship with Pyle from their first meeting. Serving undercover in the charity “Friends for Free Asia,” Pyle is supplying aid to the militarist Cao Dai sect which he hopes will serve as a “third force” (between the French colonialists and the Communist Viet Minh), but his naive, ill-informed actions lead to further bloodshed. Pyle saves Fowler’s life in a Viet Minh ambush, but Pyle is a rival for Phuong’s affections and Fowler also suspects him of involvement in a terrorist bombing. Fowler betrays Pyle to the Viet Minh who murder him, but Fowler ultimately learns from the French police that Pyle was innocent. The film version makes several fundamental changes to the Graham Greene novel which indicts American actions in Vietnam for their ignorance of the country’s history and their propensity to get people killed. The film turns this anti-American tone into an anti-communist one.

Adair, Gilbert. Hollywood’s Vietnam [GB] (p. 19) ______. Vietnam on film [GB] (p. 31, 170) Auster, Albert and Quart, Leonard. How the war was remembered: Hollywood & Vietnam [GB] (p. 16-18, 21, 22) Badsey, Stephen. “The depiction of war reporters in Hollywood feature films from the to the present” Film history 14 (2002), p. 243-260. Banning, Bradford. [Quiet American] Films in review 9/2 (Feb 1958), p. 88-9. Christensen, Terry. Reel politics : American political movies from Birth of a nation to Platoon [GB] (p. 91-2, 147) Christopher, Renny. “The quiet American” Vietnam war feature filmography (1992 draft) [GB] (p. 320-21) and Vietnam war films [GB] (Entry 479) “Cinema: New picture: The quiet American” Time 71 (Feb 10, 1958), p. 100, 103. Crowther, Bosley. “Screen: ‘Quiet American,’ Mankiewicz version of novel by Greene” New York times (Feb 6, 1958), p. 24. Devine, Jeremy M. Vietnam at 24 frames a second [GB] (p. 8-13+) Hartung, Philip T. “The screen: The sophist and the sophomore” Commonweal 67 (Feb 21, 1958), p. 541-2. Hatch, Robert. “Films” Nation 186 (Mar 8, 1958), p. 216. Hift. “The quiet American” Variety (Jan 22, 1958), p. 6. Hillstrom, Kevin and Hillstrom, Laurie Collier. The Vietnam experience : a concise encyclopedia of American literature, songs, and films [GB] (p. 237-46) Hillstrom, Laurie Collier (see under Hillstrom, Kevin) Holzl, Gebhard and Peipp, Matthias. Fahr zur Holle, Charlie! [GB] (p. 52, 57, 298) Knight, Arthur. “SR goes to the movies: One man’s movie” Saturday review 41 (Jan 25, 1958), p. 25. Lanning, Michael Lee. Vietnam at the movies [GB] (p. 299-300) Lewis, Kevin. “The third force: Graham Greene and Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s ‘The quiet American’” Film history 10/4 (1998), p. 477-91. McCarten, John. “The current cinema: Charade” New Yorker 33 (Feb 15, 1958), p. 80-1. Mindlin, Michael, Jr. “No rest for ‘The quiet American’: Western troupe finds shooting in Saigon hectic and exotic” New York times (Apr 28, 1957), sec. 2, p. 5. Morsiani, Alberto. “Mankiewicz, Ulisse, Coriolano e la verita desole” Castoro cinema II 150 (Nov/Dec 1990), p. 13-102. “Movies: Loser on points” Newsweek 51 (Feb 10, 1958), p. 106-7. Muse, Eben J. The land of Nam : the Vietnam war in American film [GB] (p. 26-7, 29, 111, 262-3) Peipp, Matthias (see under Holzl, Gebhard) Phillips, Gene D. Graham Greene : the films of his fiction New York : Teachers College Press, 1974. (p. 132-45+) Quart, Leonard (see under Auster, Albert) [Quiet American] Cahiers du cinema 15/86 (Aug 1958), p. 46. [Quiet American] Daily cinema 7983 (Mar 26, 1958), p. 9. [Quiet American] Film daily 113/16 (Jan 23, 1958), p. 6. [Quiet American] Filmfacts 1 (1958), p. 13. [Quiet American] Hollywood reporter 148/18 (Jan 22, 1958), p. 3. [Quiet American] Kinematograph weekly 2642 (Apr 3, 1954), p. 15. [Quiet American] Library journal 83 (Feb 15, 1958), p. 588. [Quiet American] Listener 118/3037 (Nov 12, 1987), p. 35. [Quiet American] Monthly film bulletin 25/292 (May 1958), p. 59. “Quiet American, The” Motion picture guide (edited by Jay Robert Nash and Stanley Ralph Ross) Chicago : Cinebooks, 1985. (v. 6, p. 2512) [Quiet American] Motion picture herald 210/4 (Jan 25, 1958), p. 689. [Quiet American - script of last reel] Presence du cinema 16 (Nov 1963), p. 38. Riambau, Esteve. “Mankiewicz en Venecia” Nosferatu no. 38 (Nov 2001), p. 111-29. Robinson, David. [Quiet American] Sight and sound 27/4 (spring 1958), p. 201. Rohmer, Eric. [Quiet American] in his Gout de la beaute Paris : Editions de l’Etoile, 1984. [Translated as “Politics against destiny: Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s The quiet American” in his The taste for beauty Cambridge : Cambridge Univ. Press, 1989. (p. 156-62)] Smith, Julian. Looking away: Hollywood and Vietnam (book) [GB] (p. 14, 75, 108- 13, 116) Walsh, Moira. “Films” America 98 (Feb 22, 1958), p. 614-15. Whitfield, Stephen J. “Limited engagement: The Quiet American as history” Journal of American studies 30/1 (Apr 1996), p. 65-86.

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