The Quiet American (1958 film)

Plot

In Saigon in 1952, as Vietnamese insurgents are delivering major strikes against the French colonial rulers, an innocent and enigmatic young American economist (Audie Murphy), who is working for an international aid organization, gets caught between the Communists and the colonialists as he tries to win the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. By promising marriage, he steals away a young Vietnamese woman (Giorgia Moll) from an embittered and cynical English newspaperman (Michael Redgrave), who retaliates by spreading the word that the American is actually covertly selling arms to the anti-Communists.

Cast

Production

The Quiet American started filming in Saigon on January 28, 1957, then moved to Rome, where shooting finished in late April 1957., It was the first time a feature film was shot in Vietnam. The crew had some difficulty filming there — they had to avoid shooting at noon because of the harsh shadows, they had trouble receiving permission to shoot inside a Buddhist temple because of moon's phase, and they inadvertently helped a political protest take place that would otherwise have been shut down by the police, because the authorities assumed it had been staged for the film. Audie Murphy fell ill with appendicitis during a weekend shopping trip to Hong Kong and had to be operated on.

Humphrey Bogart was reported to have been considered to play the lead role, but it was first offered to Montgomery Clift, with Laurence Olivier to play "Fowler". When Clift withdrew for reasons of health, he was replaced by Audie Murphy and Olivier then left the project.

Graham Greene had been a war correspondent in Indochina, and was critical of the growing American involvement there. By making the character of "Pyle" an aid worker and private citizen and not a representative of the U.S. government, and by focusing on the love triangle aspects of the story instead of the geo-politics of the war, producer-director-writer Joseph L. Mankiewicz significantly diluted the impact of Greene's story, which led the author to disavow the film.

Phuong is a young Vietnamese woman, but actress Giorgia Moll is Italian.

Audie Murphy said he never would have done the movie if the tone of the story had not changed from anti-American to pro-American. He said "my part is one of the greatest I've ever had."

Critical response

The film's obscuring of Greene's political points was mentioned by some critics, but the acting was nevertheless noted for its high quality, especially of Michael Redgrave. Also praised were the locations. Writing in The New York Times, Bosley Crowther said: "Scenes shot in Saigon have a vivid documentary quality and, indeed, the whole film has an aroma of genuine friction in the seething Orient."