John Ford, the most successful director to date in Oscar history, won his fourth and final Best Director Oscar for 1952's The Quiet Man. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Victor McLaglen), and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The Quiet Man tells the story of Sean Thornton (John Wayne), a "tourist" from Pittsburgh who returns to his childhood hometown of Inisfree, Ireland. He immediately makes an enemy of Will Danaher (McLaglen) by buying his childhood home, a parcel of land which Danaher was trying to buy in order to expend his estate. Just as quickly, he falls in love with Mary Kate (Maureen O'Hara)... Danaher's sister. Thornton wins Mary Kate's heart, and, with the help of the town priest and the town drunk, Will's permission to marry her. But Sean's mysterious past and a deception made against Will lead to conflict, and eventually to a confrontation between Sean and Will.
As great a movie star as John Wayne may have been, he has never struck me as a very good actor. What I mean is, like him or hate him, you have to admit that he didn't exactly disappear into his characters. Every role that John Wayne played was the role of John Wayne. As such, to me, Wayne felt miscast here, setting aside his cowboy and war hero personae to take on a romantic comedy. Picture Sleepless in Seattle starring Arnold Schwarzenegger instead of Tom Hanks. It doesn't really work for Wayne, in my opinion, but he is not so bad as to spoil the rest of the movie, either.
John Ford was also better known for his westerns, but stories of the Irish and English countryside did very well for him, too. Of his other Oscars, one was The Informer, the story of an outcast from the IRA, and another was How Green Was My Valley, the saga of a family of Welsh coalminers. His direction here is wonderful, even in spite of the miscast lead actor. The visuals are filled with beautiful backdrops of the Irish countryside, and the story is told with fleshed-out characters, and with a deft comedic touch.
Interestingly, Victor McLaglen, nominated here for Best Supporting Actor, won the Oscar for Best Actor for The Informer - the first film for which John Ford won Best Director.
Movie trivia question: Who was the first person to win both an Oscar and an Independent Spirit Award for the same performance?
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