The Quare Fellow

"The Quare Fellow" is a 1962 film starring Patrick McGoohan and Sylvia Syms. Based on the play by Brendan Beehan, it is not faithful to the source. If you know the play, you will probably be disappointed.

McGoohan plays Thomas Crimmon, a new guard at a prison - he's young, devoted to the law, and believes in his work. He soon finds his belief challenged. He meets a woman, Kathleen, (the beautiful Sylvia Syms) with whom he becomes smitten almost immediately. She is trying to get her husband a stay of execution and not having much luck. It turns out that she and Thomas live in the same rooming house, and the two are attracted to one another. She appeals to him to help her get a stay- will he? Thomas goes to a senior guard, Regan (Thomas Macken) to ask for his help and guidance.

This is a hard-hitting film about capital punishment. It shows men digging the grave, the hangman going in to see the prisoner as someone else so he can observe the size of his neck, etc. It's pretty gruesome stuff.

The entire atmosphere is depressing. The performances are wonderful. McGoohan, whom most of us know as an assured, smart man, here is young and naive. He is excellent. Syms is compelling as Kathleen. Thomas Macken as Regan is a real standout as a humanitarian guard who has seen too many hangings.

"The Quare Fellow" - and quare means a man about to be executed - is not a film to watch if you're feeling down. It's a strong indictment against capital punishment and very well done. But watching a movie that takes place in a dank prison, a bar, and cheap lodgings where people talk about death makes for a real downer. Still, it's a good movie.

The title 'translates' to "The Condemned Man," by the way. As a kid, I saw this movie soon after its U.S. release; so after almost 40 years, I remember little except that (1)it was visually unlike any movie I'd seen; (2)I enjoyed it very much, especially (3)Patrick MacGoohan's performance. I hope to hunt this one down, see it again, and return here to relate more specifics.

I made the mistake of expecting this film to be pretty faithful to Brendan Behan's play. Instead the moviemakers added so much as to lose very much the play's essence. I gave the movie a 6, because what they did do was decent otherwise. But please, go watch the play live or else read it.

"The Quare Fellow" is a film about prisons--particularly focusing on capital punishment. It's all told from the viewpoint of a new prison guard (Patrick McGoohan) who has learned that his new job will include assisting in the executions. At first, this doesn't seem to bother him, as he sees his job as a public service and the men being killed had earned their fate. However, after meeting the wife of the man he's about to execute, doubts enter his mind--especially since her actions led to her husband committing murder.

The film is clearly anti-death penalty and shows the prison guards pretty uniformly despising it. Whether this is true in reality, I have no idea but the idea is interesting. The story is also told in a nice straight-forward manner--without a lot of melodrama and told almost documentary style. However, the film has a big weakness--you never really connect with the condemned nor is there much of a sense that you should feel sorry for the guy. Yes, no one likes capital punishment but this particularly case just doesn't seem all that compelling. As a result, it's a film that fails to connect on an emotional level and loses some of its impact as a result. A decent film but no more....and there are certainly better anti death penalty films.

By the way, the title apparently is a reference to the condemned man--called 'quare fellows' in the Irish prison system.

The Quare Fellow is directed by Arthur Dreifuss who along with Jacqueline Sundstrom co-adapts the screenplay from the Brendan Behan play. It stars Patrick McGoohan, Sylvia Syms, Walter Macken and Dermot Kelly. Music is by Alexander Faris and cinematography by Peter Hennessy.

Thomas Crimmin (McGoohan) begins new employment at a Dublin jail firmly believing in the benefits of the death penalty. Not everyone of his colleagues feels the same, though, and as Crimmin works through his time and gets close to the wife of a condemned man, his beliefs are splintered.

The play by all accounts was awash with humour, something which this filmic version considerably lacks. Dreifuss prefers to make the film bleak, both in surroundings and via the characterisations. The prison is perpetually cold and grey, smiles are hard to find within these walls, cynicism and fatalism drip from the wrought iron doors, and of course moral compasses are all over the place. This doesn't make it a bad film, not a bit of it, it's a tough drama acted superbly, with some brains and brawn injected into the script. Yet it ultimately plays its hand as a straight forward anti-capital punishment peace, missing opportunities to expand upon hinted at themes, particularly where Syms' fraught wife character is concerned. Still, it's a must for McGoohan and Syms fans and for those who like gritty pics set in prisons. 6.5/10