How Green Was My Valley (film)

How Green Was My Valley

Theatrical release poster
Directed by John Ford
Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck
Screenplay by Philip Dunne
Based on How Green Was My Valley 
by Richard Llewellyn
Starring Walter Pidgeon
Maureen O'Hara
Anna Lee
Donald Crisp
Roddy McDowall
Sara Allgood
Narrated by Irving Pichel
Music by Alfred Newman
Cinematography Arthur Charles Miller
Edited by James B. Clark
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release dates
  • October 28, 1941 (1941-10-28)
Running time
 118 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Welsh
Budget $800,000[1]
Box office $2.8 million (US rentals)[2]

How Green Was My Valley is a 1941 drama film directed by John Ford. The film, based on the 1939 Richard Llewellyn novel, was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and scripted by Philip Dunne. The film features Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and Roddy McDowall. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards,[3] winning five, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography and Best Supporting Actor.

The film tells of the Morgans, a close, hard-working Welsh mining family living in the heart of the South Wales Valleys in the 19th century. The story chronicles life in the South Wales coalfields, the loss of that way of life and its effects on the family. The fictional village in the film is based on Gilfach Goch;[4] Llewellyn spent many summers there visiting his grandfather, and it served as the inspiration for the novel.[5] In 1990, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

The Welsh mining village of How Green Was My Valley

The film opens with a monologue by an older Huw Morgan (voice by Irving Pichel): "I am packing my belongings in the shawl my mother used to wear when she went to the market. And I'm going from my valley. And this time, I shall never return." The valley and its villages are now blackened by the coal mines that fill the area.

A young Huw (Roddy McDowall), the youngest child of Gwilym Morgan (Donald Crisp), walks home with his father to meet his mother, Beth (Sara Allgood). His older brothers, Ianto (John Loder), Ivor (Patric Knowles), Davy (Richard Fraser), Gwilym Jr., and Owen all work in the coal mines with their father, while sister Angharad (Maureen O'Hara) keeps house with their mother. Huw's childhood is idyllic, the town, not yet overrun with mining spoil, is beautiful, and the household is warm and loving. Huw is smitten on meeting Bronwyn (Anna Lee), a girl engaged to be married to his oldest brother, Ivor (Patric Knowles). At the boisterous wedding party Angharad meets the new preacher, Mr. Gruffydd (Walter Pidgeon), and there is an obvious mutual attraction.

Trouble comes when the mine owner lowers the wages, and the miners strike in protest. Gwilym's attempt to mediate by not supporting a strike estranges him from the other miners as well as his older sons, who leave the house. Beth interrupts a late night meeting of the strikers, threatening to kill anyone who harms her husband. While returning home, crossing the fields in a snowstorm in the dark, Beth falls into the river. Huw dives in to save her with the help of the townspeople, and temporarily loses the use of his legs. He recovers with the help of Mr. Gruffydd, which further endears him to Angharad.

The strike is eventually settled, and Gwilym and his sons reconcile, yet many miners have lost their jobs. Angharad is courted by the mine owner's son, Iestyn Evans (Marten Lamont), though her heart is set on Mr. Gruffydd. Mr Gruffydd loves her too, to the malicious delight of the gossipy townswomen, but cannot bear to subject her to an impoverished churchman's life. Angharad submits to a loveless marriage to Evans, and they move out of the country.

Huw begins school at a nearby village. Mercilessly picked on by the other boys, he is taught to fight by boxer Dai Bando (Rhys Williams) and his crony, Cyfartha (Barry Fitzgerald). After a beating by the cruel teacher Mr. Jonas (Morton Lowry), Dai Bando avenges Huw with an impromptu boxing display on Mr. Jonas to the delight of his pupils.

On the day that Bronwyn gives birth to their child, Ivor is killed in a mine accident. Later, the four Morgan sons are fired in favor of less experienced, cheaper laborers. With no job prospects, they leave to seek their fortunes abroad. Huw is awarded a scholarship to university, but to his father's dismay he declines it to work in the mines. He moves in with Bronwyn to help provide for her and her child.

When Angharad returns without her husband, vicious gossip spreads through the town of an impending divorce and where her true affections lie. Mr. Gruffydd is denounced by the church deacons, and after delivering a stinging condemnation of the town's small-mindedness, he decides to leave.

Just then, the alarm whistle sounds, signaling another mine disaster. Several men are injured, and Gwilym and others are trapped in a cave-in. Young Huw, Mr. Gruffydd, and Dai Bando descend with others in a rescue attempt. Gwilym and his son are briefly re-united before he succumbs to his injuries. Huw rides the lift to the surface cradling his father's body, his coal-blackened face devoid of youthful innocence.

Narration by an older Huw recalls, "Men like my father cannot die. They are with me still, real in memory as they were in flesh, loving and beloved forever. How green was my valley then." The film ends with a montage of touching family vignettes showing Huw with his father and mother, his brothers and sister.

Cast

Background

William Wyler, the original director, saw the screen test of McDowall and chose him for the part. Wyler was replaced by John Ford. Fox wanted to shoot the movie in Wales in Technicolor, but events in Europe during World War II made this impossible. Instead, Ford built a replica of the mining town on the grounds of the Crags Country Club in the nearby Santa Monica Mountains. [6]

The cast had one Welsh actor, Rhys Williams, in a minor role.

Reception

How Green Was My Valley maintains a 90% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes; the site's consensus write-up is, "Though it perhaps strays into overly maudlin territory, this working-class drama is saved by a solid cast and director John Ford's unmistakeable style."[7] Tim Dirks of Filmsite.org lauded the film as "one of John Ford's masterpieces of sentimental human drama."[8]

How Green Was My Valley continues to be well-received in its own right and in 1990 it was added to the American National Film Registry.

Awards

Academy Awards

Winners[9]
Nominations

Other awards

American Film Institute Lists

Adaptations

How Green Was My Valley was adapted as a radio play on the March 22, 1942 broadcast of the Ford Theatre, with Sara Allgood, Donald Crisp, Roddy McDowell, Maureen O'Hara and Walter Pidgeon.

It was also adapted on three broadcasts of Lux Radio Theater: on September 21, 1942, with Allgood, Crisp, O'Hara, McDowell and Pidgeon; on March 31, 1947, with Crisp and David Niven; and on September 28, 1954, with Crisp and Donna Reed.

A Broadway musical adaptation, entitled A Time for Singing, produced by Alexander H. Cohen, opened at the Broadway Theatre on May 21, 1966.[15] The music was by John Morris; book and lyrics by Morris and Gerald Freedman, who also served as the director. Cast included Laurence Naismith as Gwillym, Tessie O'Shea as Beth Morgan, Shani Wallis as Angharad and Frank Griso as Huw.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Solomon, Aubrey (1989). Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, p. 241, ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1.
  2. ↑ "101 Pix Gross in Millions" Variety 6 Jan 1943 p 58
  3. ↑ "NY Times: How Green Was My Valley". NY Times. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  4. ↑ "How Green Was My Valley" - BBC Radio Wales, www.bbc.co.uk, published February 07, 2009. Retrieved February 06, 2015.
  5. ↑ "How Green Was My Valley" - BBC Radio Wales, www.bbc.co.uk, published February 07, 2009. Retrieved February 06, 2015.
  6. ↑ http://www.venturacountytrails.org/News/0168-MalibuCreekStParkHistory/NewsPage.htm
  7. ↑ "How Green Was My Valley (1941) on RT". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
  8. ↑ Dirks, Tim. "How Green Was My Valley (1941)". AMC. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
  9. ↑ "The 14th Academy Awards (1942) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
  10. ↑ "Historia de la Asociación de Cronistas Cinematográficos de la República Argentina" (in Spanish). Puestaenescena.com.ar. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  11. ↑ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies Nominees
  12. ↑ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes Nominees
  13. ↑ AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores Nominees
  14. ↑ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) Ballot
  15. ↑ A Time for Singing at IDBD accessed 8-19-2015

External links

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