Fans of Patrick McGoohan who are used to seeing him as the supercool John Drake on "Secret Agent," the uberconfident and morally certain Number 6 on "The Prisoner" and the enigmatic superspy known only as David Jones in the big-screen adaptation of "Ice Station Zebra" might be a bit taken aback by the role he plays in the 1962 film "The Quare Fellow." Here, in his dozenth or so picture, McGoohan portrays an Irish warder at a Dublin jail; new to the job, he is hardly cool, confident or enigmatic, and as the film proceeds, his character becomes more and more morally conflicted. The film was based on Irish playwright (and professional drinker) Brendan Behan's 1954 stage production, his first, which was itself based on experiences that Behan had gone through as a prisoner inmate as a result of his IRA activities. Both the play and the film are set in Dublin's Mountjoy Prison, where Behan had served time from 1942-'46. I have not seen the play in question and hear that the film is a rather loose adaptation, but what is available for us to see today is quite impressive enough.
In the film, McGoohan plays the part of Thomas Crimmin, a young man from the Aran Islands--try as I might, I can't tell if Crimmin says that he's from Inishmaan, Inisheer or Inishmore--who happens to start his new warder job at the prison during a very problematic time. Two inmates, known as the "quare fellows" (queer not in today's sense of being gay, but rather in the old connotation, of being set apart), are about to be hung; a rare occurrence at the prison. One of the quare fellows is given a reprieve, however, and Crimmin, who stoutly avers his support of capital punishment in the case of "moiderers," learns that he will be the warder who will have the honor of being present at the hanging of the other. His moral certainties are frayed, however, when the wife of the quare fellow--a man who, by the way, the viewer never gets to see throughout the entire film--Kathleen (played by Sylvia Syms), turns out to be the niece of his lodging-house owner. Kathleen is, understandably, initially antagonistic to the man who will officiate at her husband's hanging, calling him "a bloody screw," but surprisingly, the two enter into an affair together, and Crimmin becomes even more morally conflicted than before. But can he put aside his official duties to help this distraught woman and save the life of the quare fellow?
Sexually frank, intelligent, adult and realistic, "The Quare Fellow" really is a surprisingly fine little film. Events unspool with great fidelity to real life, especially as regards the ultimate fate of Kathleen's husband, and the manner in which the affair between Kathleen and Crimmin plays out at the story's end. The acting by one and all, down to the smallest bit parts, is absolutely impeccable--Walter Macken, as Crimmin's superior, Regan, is especially fine--and McGoohan delivers up a highly convincing Irish brogue here. But perhaps this should not be marveled at. Both of McGoohan's parents were Irish, and despite having been born in Astoria, Queens, McGoohan DID grow up back on the "old sod." Syms is a marvel here, too, and surely both sexier and sluttier than viewers may be accustomed to seeing her. (I may as well mention here that the English Syms and second-generation Irishman McGoohan are pretty much the only members in the cast whose accents were NOT a challenge for me to understand at first. Indeed, even during a repeat viewing of this great-looking Kino International DVD, I still found myself struggling to decipher many lines, especially as spoken by some of the older prison inmates. Such a shame that this DVD was not supplied with English subtitles for the "hard of hearing"!) The film has been sensitively directed by Arthur Dreifuss, who also wrote the literate screenplay, and features stunning B&W cinematography by Peter Hennessy, whose lensing of the Dublin streets and surrounding waterways is particularly impressive. The film, despite its serious subject matter and anti-capital punishment message, yet sports some pleasing incidental humor. For example, how funny it is when the hangman and his assistant, on the eve of the quare fellow's execution, lose their equipment after a bout of pub-crawling, and sheepishly admit to the number of pubs they had visited: 18!!!The film also nicely details the community spirit that seemed to pervade Dublin at the time; even foes don't stay mad at each other for very long. Hence, a woman who had engaged Kathleen in a nasty catfight holds her tenderly as the time of execution draws near, and a man who had been slapped by Kathleen at one point, for preventing her from speaking to the Mountjoy governor, kindly gives her a cup of tea later on. Even Crimmin, the new screw in town, is treated decently by his inmates, after a while. And if I haven't made the point clear, McGoohan is simply wonderful as the befuddled warder, who surely has his eyes opened after his first week at Mountjoy Prison. McGoohan was already an exceptionally fine and expressive actor at this point in his career. He would only make two more films, both for Disney--"Dr. Syn" and "The Three Lives of Thomasina," the latter of which is quite excellent, by the way--before entering in on the two TV programs for which he is perhaps best known today. "The Quare Fellow" allows us to see McGoohan playing a decent man in an early role, unlike his nasty Redman character in the exciting British film "Hell Drivers" (1957), or the scheming bastard Johnny Cousin in the 1961 film "All Night Long." He has a wonderful chemistry with Syms, and their shared scenes are quite memorable. So do the two find happiness together, at the end of this compelling film? To quote a line from "The Prisoner"'s Number 2: "But that would be telling"....
In the film, McGoohan plays the part of Thomas Crimmin, a young man from the Aran Islands--try as I might, I can't tell if Crimmin says that he's from Inishmaan, Inisheer or Inishmore--who happens to start his new warder job at the prison during a very problematic time. Two inmates, known as the "quare fellows" (queer not in today's sense of being gay, but rather in the old connotation, of being set apart), are about to be hung; a rare occurrence at the prison. One of the quare fellows is given a reprieve, however, and Crimmin, who stoutly avers his support of capital punishment in the case of "moiderers," learns that he will be the warder who will have the honor of being present at the hanging of the other. His moral certainties are frayed, however, when the wife of the quare fellow--a man who, by the way, the viewer never gets to see throughout the entire film--Kathleen (played by Sylvia Syms), turns out to be the niece of his lodging-house owner. Kathleen is, understandably, initially antagonistic to the man who will officiate at her husband's hanging, calling him "a bloody screw," but surprisingly, the two enter into an affair together, and Crimmin becomes even more morally conflicted than before. But can he put aside his official duties to help this distraught woman and save the life of the quare fellow?
Sexually frank, intelligent, adult and realistic, "The Quare Fellow" really is a surprisingly fine little film. Events unspool with great fidelity to real life, especially as regards the ultimate fate of Kathleen's husband, and the manner in which the affair between Kathleen and Crimmin plays out at the story's end. The acting by one and all, down to the smallest bit parts, is absolutely impeccable--Walter Macken, as Crimmin's superior, Regan, is especially fine--and McGoohan delivers up a highly convincing Irish brogue here. But perhaps this should not be marveled at. Both of McGoohan's parents were Irish, and despite having been born in Astoria, Queens, McGoohan DID grow up back on the "old sod." Syms is a marvel here, too, and surely both sexier and sluttier than viewers may be accustomed to seeing her. (I may as well mention here that the English Syms and second-generation Irishman McGoohan are pretty much the only members in the cast whose accents were NOT a challenge for me to understand at first. Indeed, even during a repeat viewing of this great-looking Kino International DVD, I still found myself struggling to decipher many lines, especially as spoken by some of the older prison inmates. Such a shame that this DVD was not supplied with English subtitles for the "hard of hearing"!) The film has been sensitively directed by Arthur Dreifuss, who also wrote the literate screenplay, and features stunning B&W cinematography by Peter Hennessy, whose lensing of the Dublin streets and surrounding waterways is particularly impressive. The film, despite its serious subject matter and anti-capital punishment message, yet sports some pleasing incidental humor. For example, how funny it is when the hangman and his assistant, on the eve of the quare fellow's execution, lose their equipment after a bout of pub-crawling, and sheepishly admit to the number of pubs they had visited: 18!!!The film also nicely details the community spirit that seemed to pervade Dublin at the time; even foes don't stay mad at each other for very long. Hence, a woman who had engaged Kathleen in a nasty catfight holds her tenderly as the time of execution draws near, and a man who had been slapped by Kathleen at one point, for preventing her from speaking to the Mountjoy governor, kindly gives her a cup of tea later on. Even Crimmin, the new screw in town, is treated decently by his inmates, after a while. And if I haven't made the point clear, McGoohan is simply wonderful as the befuddled warder, who surely has his eyes opened after his first week at Mountjoy Prison. McGoohan was already an exceptionally fine and expressive actor at this point in his career. He would only make two more films, both for Disney--"Dr. Syn" and "The Three Lives of Thomasina," the latter of which is quite excellent, by the way--before entering in on the two TV programs for which he is perhaps best known today. "The Quare Fellow" allows us to see McGoohan playing a decent man in an early role, unlike his nasty Redman character in the exciting British film "Hell Drivers" (1957), or the scheming bastard Johnny Cousin in the 1961 film "All Night Long." He has a wonderful chemistry with Syms, and their shared scenes are quite memorable. So do the two find happiness together, at the end of this compelling film? To quote a line from "The Prisoner"'s Number 2: "But that would be telling"....