The Quiet One (film)

Last updated
The Quiet One
The Quiet One VideoCover.jpeg
Directed by Sidney Meyers
Written by Helen Levitt
Janice Loeb
Sidney Meyers
James Agee (commentary)
Produced by Janice Loeb
Starring Gary Merrill
Donald Thompson
Clarence Cooper
Sadie Stockton
Estelle Evans
Paul Baucum
CinematographyRichard Bagley
Helen Levitt
Janice Loeb
Music by Ulysses Kay
Production
companies
Film Documents, Inc.
Distributed by Arthur Mayer & Joseph Burstyn
Release date
1948
Running time
65 minutes
CountryUnited States

The Quiet One is a 1948 American documentary film directed by Sidney Meyers. The documentary chronicles the rehabilitation of a young, emotionally disturbed African-American boy; it contains a commentary written by James Agee, and narrated by Gary Merrill. [1] In his 1949 review, Bosley Crowther characterized the film succinctly: [1]

Out of the tortured experiences of a 10-year-old Harlem Negro boy, cruelly rejected by his loved ones but rescued by the people of the Wiltwyck School, a new group of local film-makers has fashioned a genuine masterpiece in the way of a documentary drama.

The still photographer Helen Levitt was one of the film's cinematographers and writers, along with the painter Janice Loeb, who also produced. The neoclassical composer Ulysses Kay wrote the score for the film. The film's principal cinematographer, Richard Bagley, also photographed the critically acclaimed New York semidocumentary feature On the Bowery .

The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 21st Academy Awards, losing to The Secret Land , and was then nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the 22nd Academy Awards the next year, losing to Battleground . Along with Street Angel , it is one of two English-language films to receive Oscar nominations in separate years.

The National Board of Review named The Quiet One the second best film of 1949.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Wyler</span> Swiss-German-American director and producer (1902–1981)

William Wyler was a German-born American film director and producer. Known for his work in numerous genres over five decades, he received numerous awards and accolades, including three Academy Awards. He holds the record of twelve nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director. For his oeuvre of work, Wyler was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award, and the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Jones</span> American actress (1919–2009)

Jennifer Jones, also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental-health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned more than five decades, she was nominated for the Oscar five times, including one win for Best Actress, and a Golden Globe Award win for Best Actress in a Drama.

<i>The Living Desert</i> 1953 documentary film by James Algar

The Living Desert is a 1953 American nature documentary film that shows the everyday lives of the animals of the desert of the Southwestern United States. The film was written by James Algar, Winston Hibler, Jack Moffitt (uncredited) and Ted Sears. It was directed by Algar, with Hibler as the narrator and was filmed in Tucson, Arizona. The film won the 1953 Oscar for Best Documentary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregory Peck</span> American actor (1916–2003)

Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema.

<i>Watch on the Rhine</i> 1943 film by Hal Mohr, Herman Shumlin

Watch on the Rhine is a 1943 American drama film directed by Herman Shumlin and starring Bette Davis and Paul Lukas. The screenplay by Dashiell Hammett is based on the 1941 play Watch on the Rhine by Lillian Hellman. Watch on the Rhine was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and Paul Lukas won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Kurt Muller, a German-born anti-fascist in this film.

<i>Anchors Aweigh</i> (film) 1945 film by George Sidney

Anchors Aweigh is a 1945 American musical comedy film directed by George Sidney, starring Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, and Gene Kelly, with songs by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. The film also features José Iturbi, Pamela Britton, Dean Stockwell, and Sharon McManus.

<i>Viva Zapata!</i> 1952 film by Elia Kazan

Viva Zapata! is a 1952 American Western film directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando. The screenplay was written by John Steinbeck, using Edgcomb Pinchon's 1941 book Zapata the Unconquerable as a guide. The cast includes Jean Peters, and in an Academy Award-winning performance, Anthony Quinn.

<i>Forbidden Games</i> 1952 French film

Forbidden Games is a 1952 French war drama film directed by René Clément and based on François Boyer's novel Les Jeux Interdits.

<i>Bells Are Ringing</i> (film) 1960 film directed by Vincente Minnelli

Bells Are Ringing is a 1960 American romantic comedy-musical film directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Judy Holliday and Dean Martin. Based on the successful 1956 Broadway production of the same name by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne, the film focuses on Ella Peterson, based on the life of Mary Printz, who works in the basement office of a telephone answering service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Deakins</span> British cinematographer

Sir Roger Alexander Deakins is an English cinematographer, best known for his collaborations with directors the Coen brothers, Sam Mendes, and Denis Villeneuve. He is the recipient of five BAFTA Awards for Best Cinematography, and two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography from sixteen nominations. His best-known works include The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Fargo (1996), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Skyfall (2012), Sicario (2015), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and 1917 (2019), the last two of which earned him Academy Awards.

<i>So Dear to My Heart</i> 1948 film by Walt Disney

So Dear to My Heart is a 1948 American live-action/animated comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Its world premiere was in Chicago, Illinois, on November 29, 1948. Like 1946's Song of the South, the film combines animation and live action. It is based on the 1943 Sterling North book Midnight and Jeremiah. The book was revised by North to parallel the film's storyline amendments and then re-issued under the same title as the film.

Champion is a 1949 American drama film noir sport film directed by Mark Robson with a screenplay written by Carl Foreman based on a short story by Ring Lardner, and starring Kirk Douglas, Marilyn Maxwell and Arthur Kennedy. The picture recounts the struggles of boxer "Midge" Kelly fighting his own demons while working to achieve success in the boxing ring. Cinematography by Franz Planer. The supporting cast features Paul Stewart, Ruth Roman and Lola Albright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sidney Meyers</span>

Sidney Meyers, also known by the pen name Robert Stebbins was an American film director and editor.

<i>The Eleanor Roosevelt Story</i> 1965 American film

The Eleanor Roosevelt Story is a 1965 American biographical documentary film directed by Richard Kaplan.

<i>Sons and Lovers</i> (film) 1960 British film

Sons and Lovers is a 1960 British period drama film directed by Jack Cardiff and adapted by Gavin Lambert and T. E. B. Clarke from the semi-autobiographical 1913 novel of the same name by D. H. Lawrence. It stars Trevor Howard, Dean Stockwell, Wendy Hiller, Mary Ure, and Heather Sears.

<i>The Oscar</i> (film) 1966 telefilm by Russell Rouse

The Oscar is a 1966 American drama film directed by Russell Rouse and starring Stephen Boyd, Elke Sommer, Milton Berle, Eleanor Parker, Joseph Cotten, Jill St. John, Tony Bennett, Edie Adams and Ernest Borgnine.

Design for Death is a 1947 American documentary film that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It was based on a shorter U.S. Army training film, Our Job in Japan, that had been produced in 1945–1946 for the soldiers occupying Japan after World War II. Both films dealt with Japanese culture and the origins of the war.

<i>On the Bowery</i> 1956 American docufiction film

On the Bowery is a 1956 American docufiction film directed by Lionel Rogosin. The film, Rogosin's first feature was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.

<i>The Finest Hours</i> (1964 film) 1964 British film

The Finest Hours is a 1964 British documentary film about Winston Churchill, directed by Peter Baylis. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

<i>The Divided Heart</i> 1954 film

The Divided Heart is a 1954 British black-and-white drama film directed by Charles Crichton and starring Cornell Borchers, Yvonne Mitchell and Armin Dahlen. The film is based on a true story of a child, whose father was a member of Slovenian Partisans executed by Nazis and whose mother was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, while little Ivan was, like other 300 babies and young children from Slovenia, whose parents were declared Banditen by Nazis, sent to Germany in a Nazi program known as Lebensborn.

References

  1. 1 2 Crowther, Bosley (1949). "'The Quiet One,' Documentary of a Rejected Boy, Arrives at the Little Carnegie," The New York Times February 14, 1949. Online version retrieved Jan. 12, 2008.