The Quiet One (film)

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.

This article is about the 1948 film. For other uses, see The Quiet Ones (disambiguation).
The Quiet One
Directed bySidney Meyers
Produced byJanice Loeb
Written byHelen Levitt
Janice Loeb
Sidney Meyers
James Agee (commentary)
StarringGary Merrill
Donald Thompson
Clarence Cooper
Sadie Stockton
Estelle Evans
Paul Baucum
Music byUlysses Kay
CinematographyRichard Bagley
Helen Levitt
Janice Loeb
Distributed byArthur Mayer & Joseph Burstyn
Release date
1948
Running time
65 minutes
CountryUnited States

The still photographer Helen Levitt was one of the film's cinematographers and writers, along with the painter Janice Loeb. 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's three writers - Meyers, Loeb, and Levitt - were nominated for the Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Academy Award during the 22nd Academy Awards. The award, however, went to Robert Pirosh for Battleground. The film itself was also nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Academy Award the year before during the 21st Academy Awards for 1948. Likewise, it did not win this award as it went to The Secret Land (produced by Orville O. Dull).

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

  1. 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.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.