I was winding down in front of the tube last night after dinner when I came across one of my favorite movies: The Quiet Man (1952).
I suppose I’ve seen The Quiet Man 15 times or so over the years. It has much to recommend it, including John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, and an Irish countryside that’s shot so lovingly it nearly overwhelms the two leads. The story goes that Wayne’s Sean “Trooper” Thorne, a prize fighter, has killed a man in the ring back in the States, so he gives up the game and packs for the Isle of Innisfree to take up in his childhood home. Shortly after arriving — now known as Sean Thornton to cover his pugilist past — he meets O’Hara’s Mary Kate Danaher. She’s a fiesty, green-eyed redhead (no, really) who lives with her overbearing brother, Will.
Sean and Mary Kate hit it off immediately, but he soon discovers that there’s a very strict code of conduct for courting a lass of Innisfree. Sean enlists the town drunk, who is also the official matchmaker, to help him with the details as he embarks on the winning of Mary Kate. Yet, alas, Will Danaher won’t hear of this brash American getting anywhere near his sister, and he resists Sean’s efforts at every turn.
The Duke is at the top of his game here. John Ford’s direction is perfect. The romance between Sean and Mary Kate is deftly portrayed with all of the wit and passion you quickly come to expect from the main characters. And of course there are the wind machines. No doubt you’d be able to find a film of the period — or any other, for that matter — that uses wind machines more capriciously than The Quiet Man, but it’d really take some effort.
But you have to have the wind machines if you expect to get a scene as iconographic as the one portrayed on this movie poster. Sean has just arrived at his family cottage to find it in a state of disrepair. But there’s a fire going, and someone has been sweeping the floor. In the shadows, Mary Kate watches Sean inspect the home; she’s scared and intrigued. Without giving any outward signs, Sean quickly realizes that it’s Mary Kate who’s in the house. He gives a tremendous yell and throws a stone through a window to flush Mary Kate from her hiding spot. She bolts, but before she can make it out the door, Sean grabs her by the arm and pulls her back into the living room, for a moment casting them both in a dancer’s pose as the wind howls into the living room. He then pulls her to him and kisses her, earning a slap to the face for his trouble.
My words don’t do the scene justice. It’s breathtaking to watch. And that’s saying something, coming from me. Ordinarily, if it doesn’t involve gunplay, an explosion, or a vehicle with a hyperdrive, I ain’t interested. Actually, it’s a shame. This is a movie I think Leah would really enjoy if she’d take the time to sit down and watch it, but since it has that patina of pre-1990 cinema, she resists it. It’s difficult to imagine two people having more divergent tastes in movies. I foresee a huge battle over the fate of Ava’s cinematic soul coming up here before too long. Let’s hope the powers of light prevail!