| The Quiet American | |
|---|---|
&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:Film_Poster_for_The_Quiet_American.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| Screenplay by | Joseph L. Mankiewicz Edward Lansdale (uncredited)[1] |
| Based on | The Quiet American 1955 novel by Graham Greene |
| Produced by | Joseph L. Mankiewicz (uncredited) |
| Starring | Audie Murphy Michael Redgrave |
| Cinematography | Robert Krasker |
| Edited by | William Hornbeck |
| Music by | Mario Nascimbene |
| Color process | Black and white |
Production company | Figaro |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
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Running time | 122 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.5 million[2] |
The Quiet American is a 1958 American drama romance thriller war film. It was the first film adaptation of Graham Greene's bestselling 1955 novel of the same name,[3] and one of the first films to deal with the geo-politics of Indochina.[4] It was written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and stars Audie Murphy, Michael Redgrave, and Giorgia Moll. It was critically well-received, but was not considered a box-office success.
The film flips the plot of the novel on its head; it turns a cautionary tale about foreign intervention into an anticommunist advocacy of the use of American power abroad. In writing the script, Mankiewicz received uncredited input from CIA officer Edward Lansdale, who was often said to have been Greene’s inspiration for the American character he had called "Pyle" in the novel. (In the 1958 film, this character, though unnamed, was played by Murphy).[3][1] However, in fact, Greene did not meet Lansdale until after completing much of the novel. According to Greene, the inspiration for the character of Pyle was Leo Hochstetter, an American serving as public affairs director for the Economic Aid Mission in Indochina who was assumed by the French to “belong to the CIA”; they had lectured him during the “long drive back to Saigon on the necessity of finding a ‘third force in Vietnam.’”[5]
The film stirred up controversy. Greene was furious that his anti-war message had been excised from the film, and he disavowed it as a "propaganda film for America."[3]
(The Quiet American was remade in 2002. That version, directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Brendan Fraser and Michael Caine, was more faithful to the plot of Greene's novel.[3])
- ^ a b Stephen Kinzer. The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War, Times Books, 2013. p. 232. ISBN 978-0-8050-9497-8
- ^ "Figaro Signs Susan Hayward". Variety. 9 October 1957. p. 21.
- ^ a b c d Phillips, Richard. "A haunting portrait of US-backed terror in 1950s Vietnam" World Socialist Web Site, 2002
- ^ Steffen, James (October 6, 2006). "The Quiet American (1958)". TCM. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
- ^ Boot, Max (2018-01-10). "Meet the Mild-Mannered Spy Who Made Himself the 'American James Bond'". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2020-07-30.