The Quiet Man in Cong 70 years on

By Tom Gillespie

SEVENTY-ONE years ago this week (June 7, 1951) filming commenced in Cong on the romantic blockbuster The Quiet Man, starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, and released in June 1952.

All of the outdoor scenes were shot on location in Mayo and Galway. The inside scenes were filmed towards the end of July at the Republic Studios in Hollywood.

The story is set in the fictitious community of Inisfree. This is not the same as the Lake Isle of Innisfree, in Lough Gill on the Sligo-Leitrim border, made famous by poet William Butler Yeats, which is a tiny island.

Many scenes for the film were actually shot in and around the village of Cong and on the grounds of nearby Ashford Castle.

The spin-off from the film has put Cong on the tourist map, attracting Quiet Man fans from all around the world.

The romantic comedy was directed by John Ford and also starred Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond and Victor McLaglen.

The screenplay by Frank S. Nugent was based on a 1933 Saturday Evening Post short story by Maurice Walsh entitled The Green Rushes.

The film is notable for Winton Hoch's lush photography of the Irish countryside and a long, climactic, semi-comic fist fight.

It was an official selection of the 1952 Venice Film Festival. The film won the Academy Award for best director for Ford, his fourth, and for best cinematography.

In 2013 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant’.

The cast also included Mildred Natwick as the widow Sarah Tillane, Francis Ford as Dan Tobin, Arthur Shields as Rev. Cyril Playfair, Eileen Crowe as Elizabeth Playfair, Charles FitzSimons as Hugh Forbes, James Fitzsimons (as James Lilburn) as Father Paul, Sean McClory as Owen Glynn, Emily Eby as Mave Campbell, Jack MacGowran as Ignatius Feeney, Philip Stainton as the Anglican Bishop, Paddy O'Donnell as the railway porter, Eric Gorman as Costello - engine driver, Kevin Lawless as engine fireman and Joseph O'Dea as Molouney - train guard.

Charles Fitzsimons and James Fitzsimons were Maureen O'Hara's real life younger brothers.

In this film, James was billed as James Lilburn, though he was later better known as James O'Hara.

Barry Fitzgerald and Arthur Shields were also brothers in real life, and Francis Ford was John Ford's elder brother.

Ken Curtis, later of Gunsmoke fame and newly married to John Ford's daughter Barbara, had a small role as Fahy, the village accordion player.

Wayne brought his four children along on location and Ford gave them parts in the important race scene in the film: Michael Wayne (18), as teenage boy at races, Mary Antonia ‘Toni’ Wayne (16) as teenage girl at races, Patrick Wayne (13) as teenage boy at races and Melinda Wayne (12) as young girl at races.

The film was something of a departure for Wayne and Ford, who were both known mostly for Westerns and other action-oriented films.

It was also a departure for Republic Pictures, which backed Ford in what was considered a risky venture at the time.

It was the only time the studio, known for low budget B-movies, released a film receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

Ford read the story in 1933 and soon purchased the rights to it for $10. Republic Pictures agreed to finance the film with O'Hara and Wayne starring and Ford directing, but only if all three agreed to first film a Western with Republic. They did and after completing Rio Grande they headed for Ireland to start shooting.

One of the conditions that Republic placed on Ford was that the film would run under two hours. However, the finished picture was two hours and nine minutes. When screening the film for Republic executives, Ford stopped the film at approximately two hours in, on the verge of the climactic fistfight. Republic executives relented and allowed the film to run its full length.

It was one of the few films that Republic filmed in Technicolor; most of the studio's other colour films were made in a more economical process known as Trucolor.

Ford chose his friend, Hollywood composer Victor Young, to compose the score for the film. Young sprinkled the soundtrack with many Irish airs such as the ‘Rakes of Mallow’ and ‘The Wild Colonial Boy’. One piece of music, chosen by Ford himself, is most prominent: the melody the ‘Isle of Innisfree’, written not by Young, but by the Irish garda/songwriter Richard Farrelly.

The melody of the ‘Isle of Inisfree', which is first heard over the opening credit sequence with Ashford Castle in the background, becomes the principal musical theme of The Quiet Man. The melody is reprised at least 11 times throughout the film.

The upbeat melody comically hummed by Michaeleen Oge Flynn and later played on the accordion is the ‘Rakes of Mallow’.

The film was a financial success, grossing $3.8 million in its first year of release. This was among the top 10 grosses of the year. It was the seventh most popular film for British audiences in 1952.

A kissing scene between Sean (Wayne) and Mary Kate (O’Hara) is shown in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) when E.T. watches television. E.T. is interested and moved by the scene. His telepathic contact with Elliot causes the boy to re-enact it while he is at school.

Retired Professor Des McHale, a native of Marian Row, Castlebar, is a noted authority on the film and has written a book on it.

Many locals were given parts in the film including Joe Mellotte from The Neale who was Wayne’s stand-in.