CHARACTER ACTORS PART 14: JOHN QUALEN

Here's some reasons why I love him:

Wife vs. Secretary (1936)

Nothing Sacred (1937)

His Girl Friday (1940)

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Casablanca (1942)

Hans Christian Andersen (1952)

I, the Jury (1953)

The Searchers (1956)

Thriller: "Mr. George" (1961)

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)

You know who John Qualen is (unless you're cinematically illiterate like Finky). You just don't know his name. He's the guy who tried to sell a watch to Paul Henreid and Ingrid Bergman in "Casablanca". He's the escaped murderer who hides in the roll top desk in "His Girl Friday". But most importantly, his best performance on the silver screen was as Muley in "The Grapes of Wrath" when he describes to Henry Fonda and John Carradine what happened to his farm.

Qualen's magnificent as the haunted, slightly "tetched" farmer who was forced off his land when the bank foreclosed during the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression. His flashback speech is absolutely gripping: "There ain't nobody gonna push me off my land! My grandpa took up this land 70 years ago, my pa was born here, we were all born on it. And some of of us was killed on it! ...and some of us died on it. That's what make it our'n, bein' born on it,...and workin' on it,...and and dying' on it! And not no piece of paper with writin' on it!" Qualen tells his heartbreaking story in the ruins of the old Joad shack. The darkness is all around the actor as his face is only illuminated by a single light from below as he tells them how the bank bulldozed his home into the dirt and now he haunts the deserted and blasted fields at night like a ghost. The eerie dust bowl wind howls outside in one of the most atmospheric scenes ever committed to nitrate stock. This first part of the film (before Tom Joad meets up with his family) is my favourite part of "The Grapes of Wrath" and John Qualen's performance has a lot to do with that!

Qualen usually played little mousy guys who life seemed always to roll over as if he was in the way. As falsely-convicted killer Earl Williams, Qualen has been sentenced to death when he escapes; Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell hide him in a roll top desk and, by the time all the screwball antics have reached a peak, Qualen is so frazzled and exhausted that he just wants to give himself up. John Qualen is one of those character actors who epitomizes the best in character actors; he had excellent acting chops and made you smile every time he walked on screen. And that's why I love the little fella.