Review of The Quiet American

I had two reasons for buying this DVD; my admiration for respectively Michael Redgrave and Joe Mankiewicz. Whilst my Redgrave collection has many gaps I own all but three of the films directed by Mank, The Late George Apley, Escape, and There Was A Crooked Man, which I wouldn't particularly want. As it happened The Quiet American offered a bonus in the shape of Claude Dauphin, which increased its rating for me. Mank himself has referred to it as a bad film but any film with Michael Redgrave can't be totally bad and had Mank been able, as he wanted, to sign Monty Clift for the role of Pyle it would have been several degrees better than it is, Redgrave versus Audie Murphy is not unlike Federer versus John Lloyd. Graham Greene produced his best fiction in the thirties and early forties so that The Quiet American dates from th years he was phoning it in so the fact that he was dissatisfied with the film is neither here nor there. What I take away from the film is yet another brilliant performance from Redgrave plus some tasty cat-and-mousing between him and Dauphin, not bad for a few quid.