In honor of ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’: Revisiting John Ford’s Irish films that won him Oscars
Writer/director Martin McDonagh and actors Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson have become the holy trinity of Irish films thanks to the critical and commercial success of 2008’s “In Bruges” for which Farrell won a Golden Globe, and their current collaboration “The Banshees of Inisherin,” which won best screenplay and actor for Farrell at Venice this past September. Since then, the Oscar buzz surrounding “Banshees” has become deafening.
During his four decade film career, John Ford made classic Westerns (“Stagecoach,” “The Searchers”) and dramas (“The Grapes of Wrath” and “How Green Was My Valley”; he won best director for both). But the no-nonsense filmmaker born John Feeney in Cape Elizabeth, Maine to Irish immigrant parents always revisited his Irish heritage.
The year 1924 saw the release of “The Shamrock Handicap” of which Variety noted “Ford loves everything Irish, and he made the most of the little human-interest touches.” His best-known Irish films, and for which he also won Oscars are 1935’s “The Informer” and 1952’s “The Quiet Man.”
“The Informer” is a dark, gritty drama of betrayal and redemption. Set in 1922 during the Irish War of Independence, “The Informer” revolves around Gypo Nolan (Victor McLaglen), a hulking lug of a man who had been kicked out of the IRA because he didn’t killed the Black and Tan fighter who had murdered an IRA man. Angry and dejected, Gypo becomes an anonymous informer on his fellow IRA member Frankie, who has a price on his head. But instead of relishing his revenge on the IRA, he become racked with guilt and paranoia when his betrayal becomes known. The burly, rough-hewn McLaglen, who was a former prize fighter, began working with Ford during the silent era, scoring a big hit with his 1926 Irish-themed drama, “Hangman’s House.” He won his only Oscar for his powerful performance as Gypo. Besides Ford and McLaglen, “The Informer” won Oscars for Max Steiner’s pulsating score and Dudley Nichols for adapted screenplay.
Ford was at Fox at the time when German expressionist master F.W. Murnau was at the studio making his transcendent 1927 romantic drama “Sunrise.” The German filmmaker was a huge influence on Ford’s silent films such as “Hangman’s House,” as well as such sound films as “The Informer.” The Irish Film Institute wrote in 2011 that ‘“The Informer’ used to be celebrated as Ford’s finest work for its status as a Hollywood art film, creating an all-studio Dublin at RKO studios through expressionistic visuals, symbolic touches…. Few critics or audiences would not rate it so highly today, but it deserves respect as a brave work of experimentation. “
Politics also played a big part the night of the Oscar ceremony in 1936. Numerous nominees boycotted the ceremony to show their support for the actors, directors and writers guilds attempt to form unions independent of the studios and the academy. Though Ford accepted his Oscar he didn’t attend the banquet and the staunch pro-union Nichols was a no-show. Nor did he accept the Oscar. Until two years later when the Screen Writers Guild was certified by the National Labor Relations Board as the bargaining rep for screenwriters.
While “The Informer” was a heavy-heavy-hangs-the-heart drama, 1952’s “The Quiet Man” was funny, romantic and endearing. Three decades later, a clip from the film played an important part in Steven Spielberg’s classic “E.T.”
“The Quiet Man,” though, begins with a tragedy. Sean Thornton (John Wayne), an Irish-born prize fighter from Pittsburgh, has given up his career as a boxer after he accidentally killed a young pugilist in the ring. He travels to his rural hometown to buy the family farm where he in short order he falls in love with a feisty beautiful redhead (Maureen O’Hara) who just happens to be the sister of the town’s bully (Victor McLaglen, who earned a supporting Oscar nomination). The rest of the supporting cast was a who’s who of Irish actors including Barry Fitzgerald, Arthur Shields, Sean McClory and Jack MacGowran. And instead of creating Ireland on a soundstage, the production was shot in breathtaking Technicolor in Ireland.
O’Hara confessed in a 2000 L.A. Times interview that it was a real struggle to make “The Quiet Man.”
“We made ‘Rio Grande’ to raise money to make ‘The Quiet Man.’ We had a handshake agreement with John Ford in in 1944 to make it and it took from ’44 to ’51 to get the money. The studios thought it was such a silly little Irish story and it would never make a penny. And Duke said ‘Let’s please send it to old man Yates [Herbert Yates] at Republic Pictures.’ That studio was a step down for Ford. Yates said this is a silly little Irish story and it will never make a penny, but if the same outfit — the same producer, actors, and director — make a western for me to recoup the money I am going to lose on ‘The Quiet Man’ then I’ll finance it. That is how ‘The Quiet Man’ was made.”
And it was Yates’ best idea. The film made almost $4 million and earned six Oscar nominations including Best Picture (a first for Republic) and adapted screenplay for Frank Nugent. Besides Ford’s fourth Best Director win (he didn’t show up to pick up the award) the film also won for Winton C. Hoch and Archie Stout’s glorious Technicolor cinematography. “The Quiet Man” was O’Hara’s favorite film. During her last hours (she died at 95 in 2015) O’Hara listened to Victor Young’s score.
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