The Quiet American (1958)
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46% of users liked it
(1,039 ratings)
The Quiet American was the first major American-financed film to touch upon the powder-keg situation in Vietnam (still referred to as Indochina in 1958). Audie Murphy plays an enigmatic American who comes to Saigon, ostensibly on an economic mission. He meets an embittered journalist (Michael… More The Quiet American was the first major American-financed film to touch upon the powder-keg situation in Vietnam (still referred to as Indochina in 1958). Audie Murphy plays an enigmatic American who comes to Saigon, ostensibly on an economic mission. He meets an embittered journalist (Michael Redgrave) who is living with an Indochinese girl (Giorgia Moll). The American falls for the girl and promises to marry her. In retaliation, the reporter tells the communists that the American GI's economist stance is a cover, and that he is actually selling munitions to non-communist troops. Graham Greene had intended his novel The Quiet American to be an attack against American influence in Southeast Asia. Producer/director/adapter Joseph L. Mankiewicz would have none of that, so he changed the ending into a pro-Yankee tract -- thereby killing any impact the film might have had. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- Genres
- Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Classics
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Feb 8, 1958 Wide
- On DVD
- Apr 19, 2005
Critic Reviews
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Robin Clifford, Reeling Reviews
Mankiewicz (who also wrote the adapted screenplay) does a fine job balancing romance, intrigue and war.
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Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
One of Mankiewicz's weaker films, a verbose, disappointingly sanitized version of Graham Greene's cynical novel about American involvement in Indo-China, with mediocre turns by Murphy and Redgrave.
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
The Quiet American is loosely adapted from Graham Greene's penetrating 1956 book about the Indo-China War.
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Cast
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Audie Murphy
as The American
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Michael Redgrave
as Thomas Fowler
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Claude Dauphin
as Inspector Vigot
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Giorgia Moll
as Phuong
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Kerima
as Phuong's Sister
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Bruce Cabot
as Bill Granger
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Fred Sadoff
as Dominguez
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Richard Loo
as Mr. Heng
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Peter Trent
as Eliot Wilkins
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Clinton Anderson
as Joe Morton
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Sonia Moser
as Yvette
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Georges Brehat
as French Colonel
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Vo Doan Chau
as Cao-Dai Commandant
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Phoung Thi Nghiep
as Isabelle
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Yoko Tani
as Hostess
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Le Van Le
as Cao-Dai Pope's Deputy
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Long Nguyen
as Boy with Mask
