This is from the NY TIMES
By BOSLEY CROWTHER
Published: February 6, 1958
IT is evident that Joseph L. Mankiewicz has a better opinion of the title character in Graham Greene's "The Quiet American" than the British novelist had.
Where Mr. Greene made the fellow a rather officious diplomatic type, meddling much more than was healthy in Vietnamese politics, Mr. Mankiewicz, in the movie he has written, produced and directed from the book, makes him a—well, we shouldn't tell you exactly what he does make him. But he's a much less unpleasant American than the one represented by Mr. Greene.
The reason we shouldn't tell you is because Mr. Mankiewicz' film, which opened last night at the Victoria, is essentially a murder mystery, which depends for its fascination upon uncertainty as to what's with this strange American.
At the beginning of the picture he is found dead at the edge of a stream that flows through the noisy, revels-crowded streets of bizarre Saigon. He is as cold as a mackerel, and the only person who seems to be able to give some possible clue as to why he was murdered is an English newspaper man.
Seems that this English fellow formerly had a Vietnamese girl whom he lost to the younger American shortly after the latter's arrival in Saigon. The French police inspector knows this. He also knows the two men were sort of friends. He wonders. So does the audience. Now the flashback begins.
Through the mind and the eyes of the English fellow, Mr. Mankiewicz reviews the curious romance and odd behavior of the American from the time he hit Saigon. Crisply, he shows the brash intruder moving in to take the Englishman's girl, the while giving out with big suggestions as to how to settle the political rivalries in Vietnam. Then, with that nice flare for tension that Mr. Mankiewicz famously commands, he shoots the film full of tingling suggestions that the American is up to no good—that he is secretly playing with a "third force" and treading on very dangerous ground.
Let us not go any further in disclosing the progress of this tale, other than to tell you that, at this point, it begins to depart from the book. And, in doing so, it rather clearly pulls the sting out of Mr. Greene's report, removing the anti-American venom from its ironic parable.
Indeed, Mr. Mankiewicz permits it to go vague as to what finally occurs off screen and concludes its potential melodrama with a lot of moralistic talk.
However, he gets from Audie Murphy a very interesting and mettlesome performance as the do-good American, and he gets Michael Redgrave to be quite passionate and eventually unstable as the newspaper man. Giorgia Moll, a lissome Italian, is most attractive as the Vietnamese girl; Claude Dauphin is intense as the French inspector and Fred Sadoff and Richard Loo are good in conspiratorial roles.
Scenes shot in the streets of Saigon have a vivid documentary quality and, indeed, the whole film has an aroma of genuine friction in the seething Orient. It is almost continuously intriguing. It just leaves you wondering at the end.
THE QUIET AMERICAN, written for the screen and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz; based on the novel by Graham Greene; produced by Mr. Mankiewicz' Figaro, Inc.; released by United Artists, Al the Victoria. Running time: 120 minutes.
The American . . . . . Audie Murphy
Fowler . . . . . Michael Redgrave
Inspector Vigot . . . . . Claude Dauphin
Phuong . . . . . Giorgia Moll
Miss Hel . . . . . Kerima
Bill Granger . . . . . Bruce Cabot
Dominguez . . . . . Fred Sadoff
Mister Heng . . . . . Richard Loo
Eliot Wilkins . . . . . Peter Trent
Joe Morton . . . . . Clinton Andersen
Hostess . . . . . Voko Tani
Yvette . . . . . Sonia Moser
Isabelle . . . . . Phuong Thi Nghiep
Cao-Dai Commandant . . . . . Vo Doan Chau
Cao-Dai Pope's Deputy . . . . . Le Van Le
Masked Man . . . . . Le Quynh
French Colonel . . . . . Georges Brehat
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