"The Quiet Man" (1952)

I have a particular fondness for fish-out-of-water stories, which is one of the main reasons I enjoy The Quiet Man so much.  The other main reasons, of course, are my favorite actor and favorite actress:  John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.  They seem to bring out the best acting in each other, and of course, John Wayne always gave his all for director John Ford, which means he is particularly on in this film.  And Maureen keeps up with him scene after scene -- they're simply a joy to watch together.

The titular quiet man is Sean Thornton (John Wayne), an American who moves to the tiny Irish town of Innisfree.  He wants to buy White O'Morn, the cottage where he was born shortly before his parents emigrated to the United States.  But when he outbids Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen) to buy it, he makes an enemy of Danaher, who vows to make his life miserable.  He finds it easy to do, too, because Thornton promptly falls in love with Danaher's sister, Mary Kate (Maureen O'Hara).  Mary Kate has a temper as fiery as her brother's, and the town regards her as unmarriageable.  Who would dare tame Mary Kate, or want Will for a brother-in-law?

But Sean Thornton believes himself superior in his American sophistication to these quaint, quirky Irish people who tell him this or that isn't or can't be done.  He wanted White O'Morn, and he got it.  He wants Mary Kate, so he's sure he can get her too.  He is quiet not in volume, but in action -- although he is bold, he is also kind and considerate, very unlike most of the men in Innisfree.  He sees Mary Kate is not only beautiful, but also lonely and sad.  She's spent her life keeping house for her loutish brother, and no one has ever courted her.  Under his attentions, she thrives.

And they get married.  But Will Danaher discovers he was tricked into giving his sister away, and in a towering rage, he refuses to give her the dowry he had promised or her rightful belongings.  Mary Kate expects Sean to fight her brother to get back her money and things, but he won't do it.  Sean says he wanted Mary Kate, not money and objects, and he takes her home.  But there Mary Kate gives him an ultimatum:  until he gets her dowry and the furniture she inherited from her mother, she will cook and clean for him, but she will not share his bed.

Sean still refuses to fight her brother, and so they do not consummate their marriage.  Mary Kate despises her husband as a coward, and he cannot understand why she values money and goods more than him.  The rest of the film revolves around how they come to understand each other's reasons for how they're behaving so they can find a resolution to their problem.

What I find really interesting about this film is how the problem isn't solved by the "backward" Mary Kate changing her ideas about marriage and how husbands and wives should behave.  It's "enlightened" Sean who gradually adapts to how his new friends and neighbors live and act.  It's not until he gives up on thinking he's somehow better than they are that he can understand why Mary Kate believes he's failed as a husband.  And only by sacrificing his own dignity by publicly reclaiming his wife, and then putting aside his own wishes and feelings to honor hers, does he finally prove he's a man worthy of her.

The truth is, this quiet man has been too quiet for his own good.  He's been harboring a terrible secret and refusing to share it with anyone, not even the woman he loves.  Finally, he confesses to a priest, and in a wordless flashback we see what has been haunting him, what drove him to seek Ireland in the first place.

He went searching for a new life, a place where no one knew who he had been and what he had done.  But he couldn't outrun himself.  And hiding his secret did him no good -- it isolated him from his friends, kept his wife from understanding why he wouldn't fight her brother.  It's not until he stops being quiet -- keeping his secret, being peaceful and avoiding fights, and calmly accepting his wife's behavior -- that he can find resolution and win peace.

Not only is this an intriguing look at gender and cultural differences, but it's a perfectly beautiful film.  John Ford shot it in Technicolor on location in Ireland, and you can still see how lovely this movie is.  There has yet to be a really good restoration of The Quiet Man available on DVD, which is a crying shame -- I hope someone like TCM or the Criterion Collection lavish their attention on it soon.

This has been my contribution to the John Wayne Blogathon that Quiggy and I are co-hosting here on my blog and on The Midnite Drive-In.  Please follow this link to see all the other entries in this celebration of one of the most popular actors of all time!  Also, I'm hosting a giveaway of six of John Wayne's films, which you'll find by following that link as well.

The John Wayne Blogathon + Giveaway!

It's here!  The John Wayne blogathon has arrived!  And yes, you read that correctly -- this includes a giveaway.  Info on that at the very bottom of this post.  But first, here are the awesome blogathon entries!  I'll be adding to this list as I get links to posts.  So entrants, leave the links to your entries in the comments here or at the Midnite Drive-In!  Quiggy and I will be updating our link lists as we have time throughout the next three days.

THE LIST

Big Jake (1971) and The War Wagon (1967) at Thoughts All Sorts

Rooster Cogburn (1975) by Ekaterina

Operation Pacific (1951) at Silver Screenings

The Big Trail (1930) at High Noon

True Grit (1969) at Movies Meet Their Match

The Quiet Man (1952) at Hamlette's Soliloquy

Rio Bravo (1959) at High Noon

Island in the Sky (1953) at Caftan Woman

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) at Old Hollywood Films

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) at Coffee, Classics, and Craziness

Rio Lobo (1970) at Sidewalk Crossings

In Old California (1942) at Christina Wehner

John Wayne on I Love Lucy (1955) at Love Letters to Old Hollywood

"When John Ford Met John Wayne" at Crítica Retrô

The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) at Movies Meet Their Match

Rio Grande (1950) at Phyllis Loves Classic Movies

Stagecoach (1939) and The Shootist (1976) at The Midnite Drive-In

Many thanks to Quiggy for thinking up this fun event and asking me to cohost, and to all you lovely bloggers who are participating, be it by contributing a post, reading entries, or both!

THE GIVEAWAY

I am giving away six used John Wayne movies on 5 DVDs, one each to five lucky winners.  They are Hatari! (1962), Hondo (1953), McLintock! (1963), Red River (1948), and a double feature of what are possibly his finest westerns, Rio Bravo (1959) and The Searchers (1956).  Please be aware that these are all USED -- they all load and play in my DVD player, but I cannot guarantee they will work in yours.

This giveaway runs through Thursday, December 15.  I will draw five winners (one for each DVD) on Friday, December 16, and post the names of the winners that day, as well a notify them by email. I can only send these to US addresses because of shipping being so expensive these days. Of course, if you have a friend who lives in the US that is willing to have it shipped to them for you, that's fine, but I won't send them internationally.

PLEASE make sure your information for the giveaway widget includes your current email address so that if you win a prize, you'll get the email informing you that you won! If you don't reply to my email within one week, I will choose another winner and award your prize to them instead.

The first way to enter, as you see, asks you to tell me your top two prize choices. I do my best to match winners with their choice of prizes, but that doesn't always work out. If you already own one or more of these movies, please say so with the next entry option-- that way they can go to someone who doesn't own them yet! (If you don't own any of them, you can still use that entry option and just answer something like "none.")  Enter via this widget:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Post by Ekaterina: "Rooster Cogburn" (1975)

Hamlette's Note: Thanks for writing this post for the John Wayne Blogathon, Ekaterina!

Rooster Cogburn -- a review by Ekaterina

The movie is about Eula Goodnight (Katharine Hepburn), a religious missionary always preaching about God, and Marshal Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne), who is not very religious to say the least.  Most of the movie is about how Marshal Cogburn, Miss Eula, and Wolf (an Indian boy) chase a group of outlaws, who have also killed Miss Eula’s father and friends.  The movie mainly focused on the characters played by John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn.

Some things I loved about this movie was the relationship between John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn.  They were both witty, and they were both strong characters that worked well together.  I liked how their friendship and how they didn’t end up in a romantic relationship.  Although I do like watching romantic movies, I don’t think I would have liked the movie if John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn ended up in a romantic relationship.  This movie does have a similar plot line to African Queen, but I like this movie more because of the chemistry between Wayne and Hepburn.

There was also a slight emphasis on the Civil War in this movie.  Miss Eula was a Yankee, who grew up in Boston, and Rooster Cogburn fought for the Confederacy.  I’ve found it interesting how they often made remarks on it.  I like it when westerns make references to the Civil War because you really get to see how the war impacted ordinary people, which is why I liked this part of the movie.

Whenever I watch a movie, I usually go to IMDB to look up some fun facts about the movie because the movie becomes richer and more interesting.  So here are some behind the scenes facts you might want to know.

• “During filming John Wayne was injured teaching his eight-year-old daughter to play golf, but fortunately his eye patch concealed the mark. He had been working on one lung for the past ten years and had great difficulty breathing due to the high altitude, often needing to breathe through an oxygen mask.”
• “Jon Lormer, who plays Katharine Hepburn's father, was only one year older than her.”
• This was the last movie directed by Hal B. Wallis.  Wallis had produced other films such as Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, True Grit, and Sergeant York.

If you liked True Grit, you will probably also like this movie.

I don’t like giving out too many spoilers, so I’ll end this post, and you will have to go watch the movie. ☺

A Very Merry Tag

I recently started following Abby's blog Lavender Spring, and as part of her Advent celebration, she's created this delightfully Christmasy tag.  You probably know by now that I'm something of a Christmas addict, though I haven't actually made a Christmas header for this blog this year because I can't bear to replace my Alan Ladd yet.  But I made my book blog all Christmasy, which pleases me no end :-)  [EDIT:  You know you made a good choice in best friends when they read this and immediately email you with Christmasy Alan Ladd pictures so you can have your Alan Ladd and your Christmas header too.]

Anyway, here are my answers to her Very Merry Tag!  I wasn't tagged directly by anyone, but Abby basically tagged anyone who read her initial post, so... thanks for creating this and sort-of tagging me, Abby!

Does it snow where you live around Christmas? (If it doesn't, you have my sincere sympathy.) How much? Any special snowy Christmas stories? 

Not usually.  We do get some snow in January and February most years, but I don't think we've had a single white Christmas since moving here five years ago.  I've had many white Christmases in my past, and loved them, so brown Christmases tend to annoy and sadden me.  I absolutely adore snow.

I don't have any special stories about snowy Christmases, but I do have a fun memory of a very very very snowy and icy New Year's Eve from when Cowboy and I were first married.  We lived in Wisconsin then, near a lot of his family.  One New Year's Eve, all of his siblings and their families and the two of us went to their aunt and uncle's farm about ten miles from where we lived.  A big ice storm blew in and forced us all to spend the night there at the farm.  Cowboy and I and three of his siblings all worked 3rd shift, so we stayed up all night long playing board games and eating leftover food while everyone else slept, and it was a grand time.

Do you get a real tree or a fake tree? 

We haven't had a real tree once in fourteen years of marriage, but I keep saying that one of these years, we're going to drive up into the mountains and cut one ourselves.  My family did that for many years, and it was so fun.  I like the smell and look of a real tree best, but this is the first year in so long where I haven't had a kid so small I worried they would tip the tree over and spill water all over my nice wooden floor.  I did get some of those "Scentsicles" things this year to try out, and they smell really nice, if not exactly real.

What is your favorite Christmas movie?

White Christmas (1954).  I adore it!

Where in the world would you like to spend Christmas the most? 

Wherever Cowboy and our kids are.  But if we could all be together someplace awesome like Colonial Williamsburg, I would love that too.

What fictional/literary character would you most like to spend Christmas with? 

Sergeant Saunders from Combat! (1962-67).  I would do my best to make his Christmas merry and bright, even in the middle of a war zone.  We could sit cozily together by a bonfire in some abandoned barn or sawmill or whatever, not saying much, not doing much, just being quiet together, and each knowing that the other was totally okay with just sitting there quietly together.  Bliss.  I like to imagine he would think so too.

(Vic Morrow as Sgt. Saunders in Combat!)

What is your favorite Christmas song? 

"Carol of the Bells."  Here's a favorite Christmas memory:  This is actually a Ukrainian carol, and I got to sing it with my future in-laws at their church in Ukraine (where they were missionaries) one Christmas.  That was pretty amazing, let me tell you.

What is your favorite Christmas book/story (besides, ya know, the story)? 

Probably "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle," a story in the Sherlock Holmes canon that takes place at Christmas and never fails to charm me.  It's one of my favorite Holmes stories, with such a great ending.  Also, it makes me laugh several times, and you know I dearly love to laugh.

Which do you prefer: multi-colored lights or white lights? 

I prefer multi-colored lights on my tree and white lights elsewhere in my house.

 What time period/decade would you most like to spend Christmas in? 

Well, I'll just say the 1940s so it meshes with my wish to spend Christmas with Sgt. Saunders, who is more dear to my heart than any other fictional character in anything at all, be it book, movie, or TV show.

Which period drama has the best Christmas scene/episode?

Welllllll, since I already used White Christmas in another answer, I guess I'll go with Little Women (1994), which opens with a beautiful example of sharing Christmas cheer with others, and also includes a Christmas scene that makes me cry (even just thinking of it, I've got a lump in my throat).  I'm speaking, of course, of the scene where Beth gets a new piano.  Too Much Wonderfulness.

I am not going to tag anyone today because I need to get school going, but I don't want this to languish unfinished anymore.  If you're feeling Christmasy and want to do this tag, please do so!

My Winter To-Do List 2016

Here are the things I want to do this winter, so before the end of February, I guess.

~ Finish reading Song of the Ean by Emily Nordberg

~ Read Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien

~ Reread A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

~ Read three more books from my TBR shelves

~ Read three books from the library

~ Start blogging about my favorite adult coloring books

(Source)

~ Figure out what book challenge I'm setting myself for 2017

~ Start blogging about how 2017 is the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation

~ Finish sewing my black-and-white skirt in time to wear it for Christmas

~ Knit myself a scarf like Newt Scamander's

I get sorted into Hufflepuff most of the time myself.

~ Finish the baby blanket I'm making for my best friend from college

~ Finish a rough draft of my western Little Red Riding Hood retelling, "Cloaked"

~ Watch two Christmas movies

~ Watch 3 movies from my TBW shelves

~ Print, frame, and hang family photos in our foyer finally

~ Make "Porter Cake" from An Unexpected Cookbook by Chris-Rachael Oseland

There, I think that's a nice mix of goals for all the creative aspects of my life, don't you?

The John Wayne Blogathon is Only a Week Away!

Don't forget that the John Wayne Blogathon begins one week from today, December 9th.  If you've signed up to participate, great!  If you're still considering joining, don't wait much longer, or you'll miss it!  You can sign up right here, or just see all the things people will be posting about if you're curious :-)

"Father Goose" (1964)

This is the very first Cary Grant movie I ever saw.  And I was so excited by it, at the age of 13 or so, that the next day, I told my art teacher the entire plot in great detail.  Except I forgot to tell her the title, and so after about five minutes of me telling her allll about it, she was like, "What was this movie called?"  "Oh, um, Father Goose."  And she had totally seen it before, and I was a little deflated because I had discovered the funniest movie ever... and she'd discovered it first.

But anyway, I still love this movie.  One of my absolute favorite comedies.  It concerns one Walter Eckland (Cary Grant), a snarky misanthrope who wants nothing more than to sit out WWII on his recently acquired boat.  His frenemy Houghton (Trevor Howard) tricks him into being a plane spotter for the Allies, radioing in the movements of enemy Japanese airplanes.  Walter doesn't like it at all, and he likes it even less when he ends up rescuing a French woman, Catherine Freno (Leslie Caron), and seven little girls of various nationalities.  Freno was fleeing with them from the encroaching Japanese, trying to get them back to their families or something.

Walter and Catherine get along together about as well as my 9-year-old and my 4-year-old, which is to say they snarl and snap at each other a lot, do everything in their power to aggravate each other, and both behave badly for quite some time.

And then they fall in love.

And then the Japanese figure out the island is inhabited and attack.

And, most surprisingly of all, this movie is actually funny!  It's got a wonderful dry humor, with some of the best snappy one-liners and zingy comebacks ever written by someone not named Joss Whedon.  Here's one of my favorite lines that I think would be funny even without all the context, to give you idea of the flavor:

"We could have transferred in George Dickens if he hadn't gotten himself eaten that way."

Seriously, Dickens, what a slacker!  Getting eaten rather than going and helping out the Allied cause.  Tsk tsk.  Anyway, yes, this is a very very very quotable movie.  Love the dialog to bits.  There's also a lot of wonderful visual comedy, mostly in the form of Cary Grant's facial expressions.  His reaction shots are priceless.

While rewatching this movie so I could review it, I spent a lot of time thinking about how it plays with gender stereotypes.  Catherine Freno is supposed to be an uptight spinster whose frigid insistence on straightening pictures and making rules is keeping her from finding happiness with a man.  Walter Eckland is supposed to be a shiftless, slobby escapist who looks out only for himself and would be so much better off if he would just get his act together, take on some responsibility, and find happiness with a woman.  The obvious expectation would be that when Catherine loosens up and Walter straightens up, then they can be together and be happy because then they're better people than before.

Except that's not quite how the movie goes.  Catherine's rules are important.  They help keep the girls, herself, and even Walter safe.  Her insistence on discipline and propriety protects those seven girls during a very scary separation from their parents.  All along, she can tell the difference between rules for the sake of rules, and rules that will keep people from harm.  And Walter's not actually shiftless, he just doesn't like doing the right thing solely because it's expected of him.  He's perfectly willing to sacrifice himself to save Catherine and those seven children, not because he's become a nicer person by the end of the film, but because he's been a nice one all along.  Crusty and growly, yes, but he was never shiftless and selfish -- other characters just assumed he was.

Instead of Catherine loosening up and Walter straightening up, what actually happens is that they learn to see the truth about each other's behavior, the why behind the what.  Catherine has been in important diplomatic positions since a young age, and knows the importance of propriety and protocol because she has seen how they influence people for good or bad.  Walter realized a few years earlier that people who are more concerned about appearances than about who a person is are superficial and not worth dealing with, and he's been searching for a world where he can be valued or not based on himself alone.

He thinks at first that Catherine is someone who would judge him on whether or not he's wearing a necktie, and she thinks at first that he's someone who subverts propriety for no good reason. But when they realize that their initial impressions were wrong, that's when they learn to care for each other.  They don't change inside, either of them, but instead, they stop hiding who they are behind barriers they've erected to keep themselves safe from the world.

It's pretty profound, especially for a movie that is unabashedly silly at times.  If you've never seen this, please do yourself a favor and find it.  You can often find the whole thing on YouTube, pick up a used DVD copy fairly cheaply online, or watch it on a service like Amazon Instant Video.

Is this movie family friendly?  Mostly.  There are a couple of mild bad words, and several instances where a character was going to say a bad word, but it gets cut off or silenced.  There's a bit of danger and excitement, with a fighter plane shooting at the characters and so on.  There are some tame kisses, and a bit of very vague innuendo in dialog.  I would let my kids watch this with me around to mute the bad words -- in fact, I'm hoping to show it to them soon.

I wrote this review specifically for the Cary Grant Blogathon hosted by Phyllis Loves Classic Movies.  Follow the link above to check out the other entries!