The Quare Fellow (1962) User Reviews

Doesn't pull any punches

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 17 July 2009]

"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.

Might the prison governor do something?

[ulicknormanowen · 7/10 · 5 February 2021]

"The quare fellow " is not only a depiction of an Irish prison before death penalty was abolished :it's a initiation of a young warden who does think that he is here to protect the society ; little by little, he discovers the other side of the picture: the doctor has to make sure that the future condemned man is healthy ,that he won't do away with himself before he mounts the scaffold ; the "undertakers" being given two stouts apiece if they finish their dirty work quickly .

It's ,like "yield to the night" ,which concerned a condemned woman (Diana Dors) ,an indictment against death penalty ; when the warden (McGoohan ) meets the sentenced to death man's wife (Syms), he learns it was actually a crime of passion ,not punishable by death ; the main setback of the screenplay is that this man ,who did not want his wife to be considered a w......, is not given a single scene in the screenplay (unless the gallows count).Well acted.

The Condemned

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 16 July 2009]

**SPOILERS** Powerful indictment against the death penalty with the condemned man, known only as the "Quare Fellow", in the movie undeniably guilty of a capital crime: Murder. What this "Quare Fellow" did was murder and later dismember his brother when he caught him in bed with his wife Kathleen and just lost control of himself. The fact that this was never brought out in his murder trial is the reason that the down on his luck "Quere Fellow" is now facing the hangman's noose!

New kid on the block or Mountjoy Prison guard Thomas Crimmin has his hands full on his first day on the job in being the one to help in the execution of two men at the prison. As things turn out one of the mens, called "Silvertop", trip to the gallows was to be rescinded to life imprisonment by the prison governor. But the poor guy, not knowing that at the time, ended up doing the executioners job by hanging himself in his cell. Now with only the "Quare Fellow" to dispatch Crimmin has seconds thoughts about his job that has to do with helping the hangman in dispatching him!

It's when Crimmin meets the "Quare Fellow's" distraught wife Kathleen that he soon realizes that the guy got a raw deal and tries with what little time, 8:00 AM the very next morning, he still has left to save his life. As it turned out Kathleen kept the secret of her husbands killing her lover in that she was, being a devote Catholic, greatly embarrassed in admitting that she was cheating on him! And worst then even that the person that she was cheating with was his very own, who was just as guilty as she was, brother!

As the minutes slowly ticked away for the "Quare Fellow's" upcoming execution Crimmin tried his best to get the local governor, as well as Prime Minster, to overturn his death sentence. This not only caused Crimmin to lose his enthusiasm for the death penalty not just in the case of the "Quare Fellow" but on everyone else, no matter what the circumstances are, on death row! His now unflinching determination to have the death penalty rescinded is something that Crimmin pledged to spend the rest of his life in doing even while being forced, in being a prison guard, to execute it!

Patrick McGoohan as prison guard Thomas Crimmin gives one of his finest performances as a man torn between his job and his conscience. Head of the guards Regan-played by Walter Macken-as Crimmin's boss is equally effective as a man who's seen so much death, he had witnessed 14 hangings in his 17 years as a prison guard, that he's become sickened of it and just can't wait to retire from his job as soon as he's eligible.

***SPOILERS*** In the end there's nothing that Crimmin could do to save the "Quare Fellow's" life but it was that unsettling experience that made him finally, after years of being in the dark, see the light in just how inhuman government sponsored executions really are. And with that new found knowledge and wisdom he'll now do everything in his power to have it legislated out of existence! And Crimmin is so steadfast to do that even if it ends up killing him in the process!

A fine film

[theinnerlight87 · 9 April 2008]

Filmed in Ireland in 1962, The Quare Fellow brings up the debate of the time, whether capital punishment is right or wrong. Is it right to fight murder with murder?

A young, idealistic and inexperienced young warder arrives at his first prison. His head filled with the laws and ways of the land, he is ready to serve as he's always wanted to serve. Though nervous and wide-eyed as he follows his new mentor along with his routines, we see the strength with which Thomas Crimmin defends his beliefs, as Regan, a much more experienced Warder, tells of his. Regan has seen too many hangings in his time he says, as Crimmin is introduced to the faceless man behind the narrative, the quare fellow, the condemned man.

Crimmin goes home to his rented room to find that he is sharing the house with the quare fellow's wife. The character of Kathleen is a modern woman, seen as slightly unethical at the time. She drinks, she commits adultery, and she is a rebel in a largely religious country. There, our main plot begins, Crimmin's supposed affair with Kathleen. Will this liaison change him? As we find there is a chance of reprieve, what is the destiny of the quare fellow?

The final build up of tension is released with the very poignant scene of the hanging of the quare fellow. Split between two locations, we see reactions of all characters. Kathleen's tears, Thomas's quiet strength, the silence of the locals. Standing at the gallows with the rope already around his neck, the man starts to collapse. Crimmin catches him and steadies him. The clock strikes, and the trap door is opened. All characters cross themselves in prayer and stunned silence. Crimmin subtly does the same, while looking down at the man.

The elder warder, finally coming to terms with his own set of morals, leaves the prison. We see that the young warders career, despite everything, is just beginning.

Drama combined with gritty realism and light humour, the quare fellow is a showcase for talents shown in McGoohan, Sym and Macken.

I think the same sort of plot has been done better....

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 23 December 2012]

"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.

Not much like the play

[Isildurs Bane · 6/10 · 5 December 2001]

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.

Condemned men, strange?

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 7 April 2015]

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

Irish Stew

[ferbs54 · 7/10 · 5 August 2013]

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"....

Idealistic youth discovers life's complications

[Moor-Larkin · 9/10 · 14 October 2005]

Untrammelled by knowledge of the Play I enjoyed this film immensely. Every performer does well in what is a carefully directed movie. There are a host of set-pieces where warders are framed in the bars of a prison cell. They are as much prisoners of the system as the inmates. The shebang of 'old lags' create amusement that leavens the otherwise serious nature of the film.

McGoohan plays a young recruit, starry-eyed in his belief in the law and justice. McGoohan must have been 34 years old at the time but he makes the most of his theatrical skills to create the innocence of youth. He uses his eyes very well to suggest puzzlement and obstinacy in turn as his assumptions of justice are challenged by the penal coda.

Sylvia Syms puts in a superb showing as the contrary colleen who carries her own guilty secret. Syms and McGoohan are thrown together in a coincidence of lodgings. She is not shy of a good-looking man and McG soon falls for her charms. This creates a terrible clash for the virgin recruit and his attempts to help the Quare Fellow avoid the hangman's noose are coloured by his treacherous behaviour with the man's wife! A terrible tangle indeed. MONSTERS BALL has recently explored this aspect of the tale in a different way.

The routines of Sixties prison life are exactingly recorded by the director and the regular scenes of patrolling guards mirror the routine of prison life. Despite McGoohan and Sym's attempts to bring mitigating factors to the attention of the authorities the knot of justice cannot be loosened and it's inevitable tightening disposes of the wretched Quare Fellow.

As well as it's obvious anti-capital-punishment flavour the movie also carries a sub-text of warders treating their inmates with humanity. Macken, as Regan, is, in some ways the star of the film. He recognises the inherent decency in the new recruit from the western isles. During the course of the final days of the Quare Fellow he is able to cultivate the new warder. Macken is forcibly retired by the bureaucrats who run the penal code in their mechanistic way. However he leaves happy that he has subverted that system by leaving behind him the humanitarian influence of McGoohan's Thomas Crimmin.

Gritty, demanding movie--watch MacGoohan act!

[mzav · 9/10 · 4 February 2001]

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.

Misses the mark

[Handlinghandel · 5/10 · 15 July 2009]

This is certainly a compelling movie. The acting is fine to very good. Sylvia Syms is especially good. I think she may be a little miscast: Her elegant manner comes through even in a cat fight.

I guess it was an admirable undertaking. And the basic theme is still there: Hanging is a pretty brutal thing for civilized men to do, even in the name of justice.

But the wit of the original play is mostly lost. The story is opened up for the movie. That happened a lot, especially in those times. But in making it more cinematic, its original punch was lost.

A major character is either left out or greatly toned-down. What's left is a 1930s Warner Brother prison movie transposed to the UK. Those movies were almost always at least entertaining and were often powerful. This is entertaining and a little powerful. But I'm not sure it's Brendan Behan.

"We wish. We dream. Then we are ourselves again"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 8/10 · 7 October 2018]

A young warder starts a new job at a Dublin prison and finds his ideals clashing with harsh reality, particularly when he has to take part in the hanging of a convicted murderer, the 'quare fellow' of the title. Despite efforts to get the man reprieved the execution goes ahead. It's an excellent film, solemn and serious with sparks of humour and a bleak and disturbing ending. It never shows the quare fellow, it shows instead the debilitating effect the execution has on his wife, the prison staff and inmates and the general public. The film isn't subtle in it's message but delivers it with heartfelt emotion.

It is helped a great deal by the excellent acting by all the players. Even the ones in small parts are perfect in their roles. These are real human beings. It is well filmed. each shot being just right and the music score by Alexander Faris is ideally unobtrusive. Not having seen the Brendan Behan play the film is based I don't know how different or similar it is to the earlier work but as a film it is the best one I've seen about capital punishment. Watch it and weep.

Interesting feature

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8/10 · 14 September 2022]

Maybe many of viewers and audiences in general will find this movie bland, flat, maybe of the so British or Welsh accent, sometimes hard to understand, even for American folks.... But the story is unusual, showing prison from a warden, guardian pint of view, instead of the inmates one. It is talkative but rewarding. This scheme, topic made me a little think of THE APPRENTICE, made in 2016, a movie from Singapour; a very close story, though not exactly the same either. Adapted from a play, Patrick mc Goohan is good for my taste, but I would have also imagined Stanley Baker in this role. A bit depressing too, and I like that.

Yep. He Was A "Quare" Fellow

[StrictlyConfidential · 4/10 · 29 October 2020]

1962's "The Quare Fellow" was one of those vintage motion pictures that (IMO) had both it fair share of good moments, as well as its not-so-good moments, too.

I certainly found that this film presented its outlook (from the perspective of a young prison guard) in a very bleak and hopeless manner.

Perhaps you will be more entertained by "The Quare Fellow" than I was.

"This is no Sunday school" - anatomy and agony of a legal execution

[clanciai · 10/10 · 3 November 2022]

This is a grim realistic drama of life and death at a prison in Ireland, where we meet the prisoners and their warders and a wife of one of the prisoners, with also priceless scenes from a nearby pub, which actually offers the best scenes of the film - the prison, like all prisons, isn't quite cheerful. But you get into the minds of the prison warders, and that is psychologically very interesting, as none of them is sadistic or cruel at all. On the contrary, executions are the worst thing they know, and the action of the film is from the times before executions were cancelled in England. Sylvia Syms and Patrick McGoohan both make very sensitive parts, and especially Sylvia Syms' performance is outstanding. It's a drama growing more exciting the longer it lasts, and the outcome isn't very funny, but there is actually nothing else to do.